The COVID-19 crisis has led to extensive discussion on the consequences of contagion—the spread of disease through physical contact. A virus is what Slavoj Zizek describes as a “stupid, self-replicating mechanism.” In the case of COVID-19, its replication represents a troubling possibility that contraction may result in the suffering or death of the host. This phenomenon has proven to be vexing, not only from a biological perspective, but also from economic, social, political, and geographical perspectives. Humanity’s attempt to control the detrimental effects of this viral outbreak entail various strategies, including country-wide or regional lock downs, calls for social distancing, mask-wearing, and other public health measures. It is increasingly clear that different strategies entail different trade-offs.

Certainly, it seems as though all viable strategies imply some price that must be paid, whether in lives or livelihoods. The politically contentious concern of the spread of biological contagion is now accompanied by an anti-racist movement sparked by the abhorrent killing of George Floyd. These events are more than just temporally concurrent. Racism can be thought with contagion, insofar as it represents the workings of another form of contagion—contagion as analogy employed in racist thought and practice. Considering the trade-off of lives and livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside the killings and assaults of Black people at the hands of the American police, reveals the way in which race functions to fuel an exploitative economic system.