Civic Cipher 110621 The Remaining Black Vaccination Holdouts (Part A)

American community in this country. Prior to that, we had doctor Camilla Westenberg up on the show where we discussed critical race theory and what it really is and some some talking points that are being used to discredit it as an idea. And then prior to that, I think we had Queen Ya Najaha up who we stood in solidarity with our Native brothers and sisters and shared the platform, shared the stage, and she was able to let us know about some goings on with respect to our Indigenous

brothers and sisters. And now you and I are back in the sabbath, so we've been productive, and I know you've been productive on your own. But man, it's a very different show without you, on a much better show with you. So welcome back to I don't want to do that too many more times, but stick around. We do have a lot more coming in that same vein. We're going to talk about COVID boosters and the way

they're being received by the African American community. We're also going to talk about black church, which is not a subject that we get into too heavily on this show, but today it felt kind of important to reach out and or reach over into that subject matter. But before we get there, we are going to discuss some ebony excellence all win, no matter what. And I don't know if you've heard about this que but there's going to

be some new quarters coming out. And you know, the way that we have developed our relationship with our currency in this country and with most countries is you know, we look at our currency and we see our presidents, and overwhelmingly our presidents have been white, and of our presidents have been you know, male, and on our currency. So Obama hasn't made it to a bill just yet or a coin just yet. But we've heard about the Harriet Tubman twenty dollars bill that they're still you know,

working on getting into circulation. Well are there, Yeah, I heard that they reactivated that process now that Trump's out of the White House. But these coins, one such woman who will be on the coin. These are all women, but one such woman as Maya Angelo, the civil rights activist, poet, and author. And there are some other women that I

feel like they deserve a mention as well. Astronaut Sally Ride, who's the first American woman in space, Wilma Mankiller who is the Cherokee Nation's first principal woman Chief, Adelina or Nina Otero Warren who's a leader in New Mexico suffrage movement. And Annamee Wong, who's the first Hollywood film star of Chinese American descent. So we have all those coins to look forward to, and not just Maya Angelo, although you know, we could do a whole you know, ebony excellence on her.

We could do probably ten or fifteen on her alone. But it felt really special to be able to share this stage with all these women who have made their way to our coins. Obviously there have been other women on coins before, but this feels a little bit more special. Because it's the quarter, and we'll be spending that starting in twenty twenty two, and they'll release all the way up until twenty twenty five. Now onto our first order

of business. Q. You've been vaccinated correct fully? Okay? And when you say fully, you mean what exactly?

of the Pfizer vaccine. It took me out for maybe a day and a half, right, I got those symptoms, you know, and it felt like a little covid ish. But again, my body is fighting what it thinks is the COVID virus, and so all of those responses to defending myself against COVID nineteen, my body just assumes it's the real thing. And then I get all the symptoms. And then the same thing happened when I got my booster about a day and a half of you know, I got to take it easy, and then I was

right back to normal. It came and it went just as quickly. But I want to say that because I want to own that part of the experience before we get into the meat and potatoes of this part of the conversation. You and I both know lots of people and love lots of people who are still afraid of the vaccine or otherwise have adopted one or more conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccination. Now, not everyone that we know that is we'll call them anti vaxxers. Not everyone that

is like that is black. But in this case, in the case of black people, we do understand because there's been a very well documented history between vaccines and black people and the government and black people, and you know, looking through the lens of history, you understand how there

could be some apprehension, some aversion to you know, getting vaccinated. Now, some of these concerns relate to how quickly the vaccines were developed, and this research comes from the Washington Post right here, how quickly the vaccines were developed, what their

long term health effects might be. And then of course there's like some different information disinformation that we discussed earlier that just exists on the internet, like they have tracking devices, or they change your DNA and that sort of stuff. And then again with black folks. The one thing that we can and should I think point two is the Tuskegee experiments. It's okay to be a little bit apprehensive,

It's okay to be a little bit concern right. The thing is, there's a couple of things with respect to the Tuskegee experiments that we have to consider. Did the government own it, did the government attempt to make it right? Did the government learn from, you know, its mistake? Did the government apologize you know, these sorts of things, because I think they matter. You know, it's hard to go

back and then do the same thing again. If you've acknowledged, hey, you know what I did that that was wrong, or my father's did that that was wrong. We recognize that that's wrong. We're going to try to make it better. With that said, I do and always will understand any apprehension there. But you know, we can't ignore the fact that this is a life and death scenario. And I was talking to someone related to my child about my child, and I asked the question, you know, should we are

you going to get him vaccinated? Or should I take him to get vaccinated because I know a place that will have the vaccines available before his school gets the vaccines. And this person who is related to my child, I have to use these words very carefully, said no, absolutely not. It's a government cash grab and a bunch of other stuff. What'd you say it's free. Well, I'm saying this to establish that this is something that is not I'm not

talking about this in just general numbers. This is something that is happening and even happening to me with the people that I love the most, or with the person, you know, one of the two people that I love the most, the two people being my children. So this is something that is still very present and I thought it was worth us discussing again. So you know, we've discussed the Tuskegi experiments. We've discussed, you know, all the reasons that folks could have an issue with this vaccine.

Now there is some good news. The racial gap has narrowed. After months of like poor turnout and you know, some folks not having access, particularly in black and brown communities. You know, the racial gap is narrowed. And that's really a testament that to the decisions that many states have made to send people to knock on doors, to have you know, conversations to kind of, you know, tackle these myths that exist about how effective the vaccines are and

just kind of deal with those false equivalencies. You know, if everyone else has vaccinated, why do I need to get vaccinated? To that sort of stuff. But there is also a reality, oh real quick, there's roughly an equal share of black, white, and Hispanic adult populations. And to be specific, it's seventy percent of black adults, seventy one percent of white adults, and seventy three percent of Hispanic adults. So those guys are doing better than everyone, so good

for them. And they've and all of these folks have received at least one vaccine dose. So that's seventy percent is that is where black people are, seventy one, White folks, seventy three Hispanic folks. But that still leaves a huge chunk of the population who are very much at this point having because it's been free for such a long time. It's really it. It suggested they firmly believe that there's something going on that they don't you know, want to trust.

And yet, as we know, black folks and brown folks tend to be more susceptible to the ailments. And and you know, death is more likely of an outcome, you know, the darker you are. That's just kind of way it is. And with respect to most every medical condition. And what I what I wanted to tackle today again is the fact that there's a lot of people who are, in my estimation, these folks want to stir up trouble. I can't see any other reason why they would want to

do that. They want to They're looking for things to confirm their bias, right. And I know these folks, I follow them on social media. These have been friends of mine for a very long time, and they've they've found their hill. You know, they're hey, you know that you're not putting that vaccine in my body. And then they're just saying all of this nonsense. You know, you know, once they've established you know, their stance, then they you know,

spee all this nonsense to their followers. And you know, as we all understand, everyone has their own platform and is able to share things with their friends. Facebook is a huge stage for a lot of folks. But you know, Instagram and and you know, Snapchat and places like that aren't they're not exactly free of those types of conspiracy theories. So I wanted to say a name, but now that I'm here, I don't want to say this guy's name. But we'll call him West Coast Rapper. Okay, this guy's

a rapper. He's had a couple of big hits, you know, back in the nineties during the gangster rap era. Good friend of mine and I get a kick kind of this dude. He's he's a very uh he has a very afrocentric approach to lots of things, and you know, sometimes he goes a little bit further than I'm comfortable following. You know, I really do believe that it's okay to be pro black. I don't think that it's okay to

be anti any other color. And sometimes he kind of walks that line a little bit too recklessly for me for my tastes. But you know, some of the things that he shares in some of his viewpoints, you know, they're they're worth you know, taking, they fit you know, how I the world that I think that we need to create as brothers and sisters, and you know the

other things I just kind of leave there. But and I haven't unfollowed him because obviously he's a high profile individual and you know, someone that really works for the type of career that I have. And then ever since this vaccination stuff has kind of taken center stage, this

guy has just been firing left and right. You know, the government did this and these uncovering all kinds of weird stuff and these you know, this this person interviewed doctor Fauci, and or doctor Fauci was caught at this

place doing this thing. You know, just kind of strange, bizarre things that don't have any relevance to what we're talking about here is And what it does is it either scares folks that haven't gotten around to get in the vaccine yet, or it further entrenches folks who've made their decision to not get the vaccine and we need

to actively be working to save lives. One of the things that initially I thought I would be okay with is Republicans, you know, because it's one of the things that is really big in their world too, anti VAXX, anti mask, you know, really anti mask and anti vacs as a you know, as a tandem. You know, those two those two things are there, that's their left and

right punch on. For black folks, it's more anti you know, I don't want the vaccine, you know, which, again, there's some context there, we kind of understand that a little bit better. For Republican folks, I feel like a lot of them feel like it's a matter of their liberties getting violated. So it's a different reason to say no, a different reason to be upset. This is my this

is my estimation. I certainly want to hear your thoughts, But initially I thought, you know, well, you know, if these people really want to be that ignorant and they're going to end up, you know, dying or otherwise being affected long term by this virus, then that only helps

thin the herd, you know. And once I got the sobering numbers of how many Republican votes have actually died because of this, and once I really started to look past, you know, my own ideas of what the world should be and all this sort of stuff and really start seeing that these are people who are susceptible to indoctrination and propaganda, the same as any people, same as any color, you know, then I started seeing those numbers for what they were, human beings who are no longer here, no

longer have beating hearts, And then my heart started to go out to them as well. And I know that this is not that show, so we can't have that conversation, but I recognize that these people who are opposed to this vaccine are killing themselves. And you know the way that you and I fight, you we don't fight with fists because we're not boxers. We don't fight with I don't even know the many ways that people fight, but

we're broadcasters, so we fight with microphones. So we talk about it, right, and you know, with the booster numbers coming out, you know it's sort of reintroduced. Okay, where are we exactly with respect to COVID nineteen and what are we going to do to get across that finish line? So those are my thoughts. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

at the House, the Morehouse School of Medicine. So yeah, you're absolutely right.