Emancipate NC’s Dawn Blagrove was quoted in Harpers Bazaar magazine in an article about Violet Affleck’s advocacy on masking. After the Los Angeles mayor proposed a prohibition on masking at political demonstrations, Violet Affleck, daughter of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, urged Los Angeles lawmakers to protect the most vulnerable. She contracted a post-viral condition after COVID-19, and knows that masking continues to be a health requirement for many people.
“The [proponents of mask bans] are creating a narrative that they know will have a chilling effect on people exercising their constitutional rights to protest,” Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate North Carolina, said.
Dawn also commented to NBC news about the trend toward mask bans, calling the restrictions a “dog whistle” to “frighten the community” against protest.
Opponents see the bans as an impediment to free speech, which they say will have a disproportionate effect on Black and brown people. “It’s the textbook definition of a law that is steeped in systemic racism,” Blagrove said. The criminal justice advocate expressed doubts that the North Carolina law is truly about safety, especially considering the advances in facial recognition software and how often people can be tracked via street cameras and on social media. “It’s asinine,” she said, adding: “We live in a society where we are all being tracked all the time.”