Karneshia Shantel Patton
Birmingham, AL
“I want to say that COVID and the Black Lives Matter protests happening right now are very synonymous because they’re both essentially health crises. It seems like it’s affecting the same communities. Especially how the media says certain populations are affected more.”
Ryan Roach: What has your experience been like during the pandemic?
Karneshia Shantel Patton: My experience during the pandemic has been up and down. I’ve gone through different emotions dealing with this pandemic. At first, it felt like the world was crumbling down and there was a certain level of uncertainty of where we lied within the disabled community when dealing with this. And then it got scary for me when I was dealing with a personal illness that was unrelated to COVID and having to stay in the hospital. And during that nobody could go to the hospital with me. So I was there by myself the entire time. And it just gives you this isolated feeling. Then you’ve got the healthcare professionals kind of keeping their distance and caring for you at the same time. Growing up in healthcare it just was different and it felt weird. It was eerie.
And I didn’t receive a stimulus for whatever reason. I’m still not sure why I never got that. So it’s just kind of been some up and down financial struggles. And now I’m back working but I’m also scared.
RR: How has the pandemic affected your work in the beauty industry?
KSP: In my line of work as a nail tech it hasn’t affected it as much as people would think because we practice safe practices already. And there are certain things that we have to do and did prior to COVID in order to not spread certain infections or diseases that can transfer from person to person. So when they were slowly shutting everything down, which I understand, the beauty profession was the first thing to go. That shows me that people don’t really know what goes into having a license. It’s like, if you really studied this, you would know that we already practice these things. Now we just make sure that the client is masked as well and that they’re cleaning themselves upon entering. But business has actually picked up. And I don’t know what that correlation is, but
it’s like people are more focused on taking care of themselves. And we’re not even going nowhere and people still want their nails done.
RR: In addition to the pandemic, the United States has experienced uprisings across the country in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police. Uprisings in physical spaces are not always accessible to all folx. Have you been involved at all with the uprisings over the past few months? And, if so, what has that looked like for you?
KSP: I feel that I’m doing my part by spreading my knowledge on my platform like a lot of people are doing. But it’s correct there isn’t a lot of accessibility in protesting and it poses a certain danger for us if things were to go left. And I’m not scared to do it but I haven’t done it yet. It just didn’t seem like, particularly where I’m located, the right time for me to be there. And I’m a person that typically likes to go by myself, and that’s not the time to be by yourself. So I think the only thing we can do is use our voices – specifically the people with disabilities – use our voices, educate ourselves and know what we’re talking about when we decide to speak on it. I think it does pose a bigger conversation for how do we make the protests accessible? How do we include people with disabilities and make sure they’re safe? But unfortunately when these things happen it’s kind of random and, again, there’s never a plan in place.
Also, I want to say that COVID and the Black Lives Matter protests happening right now are very synonymous because they’re both essentially health crises. It seems like it’s affecting the same communities. Especially how the media says certain populations are affected more. And then we have this and we know that we are affected more. So I guess I need people to understand that it’s a necessary thing that has to happen. Whether we’re out in the streets during this time or not, we don’t need to be condemned for it.