by Jack Phillips | The Epoch Times
One of the leaders of a Black Lives Matter group in New York City promised an “uprising” against the city’s COVID-19 vaccine passports, decrying the system as racist.
According to data provided by New York state, about 85 percent of black residents have not received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Data provided by New York City shows that 64 percent of black people between the ages of 18 and 44 are not fully vaccinated while 56 percent have received one shot.
Hawk Newsome, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, told the Washington Examiner that “I think, in a perfect world, [vaccine requirements] should be business by business. But it could be a slippery slope, so the mandate should be removed completely.”
He added: “It’s not gonna be white men in suits on Wall Street who are gonna get stopped. There’s such hypocrisy in this thing.”
Newsome said he believes that black Americans “have a natural distrust of the vaccine,” citing the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in the 20th century for a reason why.
“How dare they remove religious exemptions? It’s the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever seen,” Newsome said, adding that he believes that most vaccine mandates don’t allow religious exemption.
“Now the government has decided your God doesn’t matter? I love God.”
At Carmines restaurants in NYC Hawk Newsome @IamHawkNewsome states " YOU WILL NOT USE THESE VAX PASSPORTS TO COVER UP YOUR RACIST WAYS TO COVER UP FOR YOUR DISCRIMINATION "
— Leeroy Johnson (@LeeroyPress) September 20, 2021
Hawk states that carmines lied and used the vax card as an excuse #VaccinePassports #blm #NYC pic.twitter.com/CzJ9kcy3za
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, argued in a court filing this week that the state has no constitutional obligation to grant religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers. Religious exemptions to the vaccines most commonly center on objections on how aborted fetal cells were used in the manufacturing and testing process. Medical exemptions usually include a doctor’s recommendation that a person not get the vaccine due to an underlying medical condition.
The Epoch Times has contacted Black Lives Matter of Greater New York for additional comment.
Another member of the group promised an “uprising” in New York City over the vaccine mandate.
“We’re putting this city on notice that your mandate will not be another racist social distance practice,” Chivona Newsome, a leader of the group, told fellow protesters during a demonstration in Manhattan in front of Carmine’s restaurant on Monday.
“Black people are not going to stand by, or you will see another uprising. And that is not a threat. That is a promise.”
“The vaccination passport is not a free passport to racism,” she added.
Black Lives Matter activists had accused Carmine’s of racially profiling three black women from Texas, who were arrested last week after a hostess allegedly demanded vaccination proof.
A lawyer for Carmine’s denied their allegations.
“Any claim that they were racially profiled is a complete fabrication, disingenuous, and outright irresponsible,” Carolyn Richmond, the attorney for the restaurant, told the New York Daily News.