White Suicide, Black Genocide: The Psychic Life of Labor and Freedom in Anti-Masking Movements

In protest of the COVID-19 lockdowns, crowds gathered in downtown Chicago to “Re-Open Illinois” during May 2020. One sign particular, held by a white woman an American flag mask, drew particular attention: “ARBEIT MACHT FREI, JB,” invoking German phrase hung above Nazi concentration camps taunt then governor Illinois, J.B. Pritzker. Reactions this anonymous were swift, but critics missed that JB” merely represented front sign. When flipped, read “Nice Haircut, Lori,” antiblack affront Mayor Lori Lightfoot. paper, we think semiotic elision contend with inextricability motives these protests and psychic life labor. Mobilizing as vehicle consider racialization work grammar suffering, ask what deployment “work makes you free” reveals about relationship between whiteness, labor antiblackness? To answer question, excavate libidinal investments undergirding protestor’s its reliance on category renders slave unthought. We it is cathexis subtends announcement some conservative commentators they would rather end their lives than live lockdown. conclude engaging anti-police brutality occurred concurrent querying how drives animating anti-masking may also scaffold popularity those movements.