I never thought there could be such a thing as too much social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but I’ve seen it happen – and it was alarming.
A while ago, my partner and I were standing in a lengthy line to get into a local retail outlet.
Virtually everyone was standing the proper six feet (or two metres if you prefer) from each other.
Except one older guy.
For about 40 minutes as he waited to get into the store, he stood not six feet, but as far as 12 feet from a group of about four Filipinos ahead of him.
He had a mask on so perhaps he was just being kind to them, having heard the advice from health professionals that one wears a mask to protect others from the virus, not one’s self.
But that’s not the impression that was generated.
The concern among some of us who were in line was that this man kept that unusual distance because of the colour of their skin.
The worry was that maybe he had heard about the COVID-19 outbreaks in the Cargill and JBS meat plants and, knowing that many of the people who had contracted the disease there were Filipinos, he assumed the group in front of him were possible carriers of the disease.
We’ll never know the reason(s) for this man’s unusual distancing because no one asked him.
We likely should have, but I think that because the shock was so great among those of us who discussed it, nothing was said. Or maybe it was typical Canadian reticence not to cause a fuss.
Like I said, it could be that this man was trying to do the right thing; but that’s not the perception he left.
The perception was that he was making an unfair assumption about one group of people based purely on their race.
That’s not the Canadian way – or it sure shouldn’t be. It’s certainly not the way I was brought up.
We are a tolerant society; or at least that’s the goal. And as such, we should treat each other with the same respect and compassion with which we expect to be treated –not just during a pandemic, but always.
Doug Collie is an editor with The Albertan.
