A Black Lives Matter of Greater New York organizer said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s citywide COVID-19 vaccine mandate shows he “does not care” for the black community.
New York City’s vaccine mandate took effect on Sept. 13, requiring proof of vaccination before entering certain public spaces, including gyms, restaurants, and bars, unless a person has an approved medical or religious exemption.
“Mayor de Blasio used black people to get elected, and that was the extent of his involvement in our community,” said Hawk Newsome, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, an organization outside the hierarchy of the Black Lives Matter Global Network.
BLACK LIVES MATTER OF GREATER NEW YORK LEADER BLASTS VACCINE MANDATES AS RACIST AND DISRESPECTFUL
“He’s never truly been a friend to us, and these mandates, the sheer statistic of the unvaccinated black people, shows that he does not care for our community,” he told the Washington Examiner. “If he really cared, then he would do more than the lackluster public relations campaign. … He’s not invested in making black people feel safe about the vaccine. He just wants to put together ‘cool’ commercials with relatable folks that say, ‘Hey, you need the vaccine,’ instead of truly educating our people.”
Some 85.6% of black people in the state of New York remain without one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to state data.
“In our opinion, the city should have invested more money in in-depth research to prove that these things are safe — if they are safe,” Newsome added. “If he was serious about a mandate, then he would have made sure that all city employees and politicians had the vaccine first before they even tried to mandate it on the public.”
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The mandates are being used to separate black people from the community and create more confrontations between the black community and the police, Newsome said.
“The mayor of New York said the police won’t enforce these vaccine mandates, but what restaurants are doing is calling the cops and issuing citations for trespassing,” he said. “Here we have another reason to exclude black people from public places. You also have another reason to use the police to engage black people.”
