Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Rams's Jah.
Speaker 2: They called me q Ward mostly because that's my name.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, And it's been a long time since.
Speaker 2: Uh, we shouldn't have left you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, but I wanted to go I wanted to
Speaker 1: go there. I wanted to go there. But it's been
Speaker 1: a long time since you and I have sat down
Speaker 1: and done an episode together. Last week we had Liza's
Speaker 1: son and we had an interesting discussion on, you know,
Speaker 1: the relationship between the Asian American community and the African
Speaker 1: American community in this country. Prior to that, we had
Speaker 1: doctor Camilla Westenberg up on the show where we discussed
Speaker 1: critical race theory and what it really is and some
Speaker 1: some talking points that are being used to discredit it
Speaker 1: as an idea. And then prior to that, I think
Speaker 1: we had Queen Ya Najaha up who we stood in
Speaker 1: solidarity with our Native brothers and sisters and shared the platform,
Speaker 1: shared the stage, and she was able to let us
Speaker 1: know about some goings on with respect to our Indigenous
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters. And now you and I are back
Speaker 1: in the sabbath, so we've been productive, and I know
Speaker 1: you've been productive on your own. But man, it's a
Speaker 1: very different show without you, on a much better show
Speaker 1: with you. So welcome back to I don't want to
Speaker 1: do that too many more times, but stick around. We
Speaker 1: do have a lot more coming in that same vein.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about COVID boosters and the way
Speaker 1: they're being received by the African American community. We're also
Speaker 1: going to talk about black church, which is not a
Speaker 1: subject that we get into too heavily on this show,
Speaker 1: but today it felt kind of important to reach out
Speaker 1: and or reach over into that subject matter. But before
Speaker 1: we get there, we are going to discuss some ebony
Speaker 1: excellence all win, no matter what. And I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've heard about this que but there's going to
Speaker 1: be some new quarters coming out. And you know, the
Speaker 1: way that we have developed our relationship with our currency
Speaker 1: in this country and with most countries is you know,
Speaker 1: we look at our currency and we see our presidents,
Speaker 1: and overwhelmingly our presidents have been white, and of our
Speaker 1: presidents have been you know, male, and on our currency.
Speaker 1: So Obama hasn't made it to a bill just yet
Speaker 1: or a coin just yet. But we've heard about the
Speaker 1: Harriet Tubman twenty dollars bill that they're still you know,
Speaker 1: working on getting into circulation. Well are there, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: heard that they reactivated that process now that Trump's out
Speaker 1: of the White House. But these coins, one such woman
Speaker 1: who will be on the coin. These are all women,
Speaker 1: but one such woman as Maya Angelo, the civil rights activist, poet,
Speaker 1: and author. And there are some other women that I
Speaker 1: feel like they deserve a mention as well. Astronaut Sally Ride,
Speaker 1: who's the first American woman in space, Wilma Mankiller who
Speaker 1: is the Cherokee Nation's first principal woman Chief, Adelina or
Speaker 1: Nina Otero Warren who's a leader in New Mexico suffrage movement.
Speaker 1: And Annamee Wong, who's the first Hollywood film star of
Speaker 1: Chinese American descent. So we have all those coins to
Speaker 1: look forward to, and not just Maya Angelo, although you know,
Speaker 1: we could do a whole you know, ebony excellence on her.
Speaker 1: We could do probably ten or fifteen on her alone.
Speaker 1: But it felt really special to be able to share
Speaker 1: this stage with all these women who have made their
Speaker 1: way to our coins. Obviously there have been other women
Speaker 1: on coins before, but this feels a little bit more special.
Speaker 1: Because it's the quarter, and we'll be spending that starting
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, and they'll release all the way
Speaker 1: up until twenty twenty five. Now onto our first order
Speaker 1: of business. Q. You've been vaccinated correct fully? Okay? And
Speaker 1: when you say fully, you mean what exactly?
Speaker 3: Single dose Johnson and Johnson shot to day Chapelle.
Speaker 2: And then the Maderna booster to follow that up.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, So for me, I have all three Pfizers.
Speaker 1: I had the Pfizer for my first and second dose
Speaker 1: back in January, and then I recently got my Pfiser
Speaker 1: booster shot. And I want to get something out of
Speaker 1: the way right off the bat. Did you have have
Speaker 1: any side effects when you got your vaccine?
Speaker 3: I had every side effect okay, when I got the
Speaker 3: vaccine and when I got the booster.
Speaker 1: Okay, would you still recommend to other folks who are
Speaker 1: not vaccinated to get vaccinated.
Speaker 3: I got the vaccine first and got every symptom and
Speaker 3: every side effect. I then got the booster knowing that,
Speaker 3: so absolutely okay.
Speaker 1: And you actually had COVID before, right, yes, okay, So
Speaker 1: you have the lived experience of having COVID and the
Speaker 1: lived experience of having the side effects from the vaccination,
Speaker 1: and you still recommend the vaccine. Correct, Okay, I wanted
Speaker 1: to get that out.
Speaker 2: Of the way, which a brainwashed sheet.
Speaker 1: No, No, not at all.
Speaker 2: Not here according to the internets, Well.
Speaker 1: Here we we have a more scientific approach to how
Speaker 1: things work, and we're not really given to conspiracy theories
Speaker 1: in the same way that most folks, or some folks are.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say most folks, because most people
Speaker 1: do have the vaccine. I have the statistics here. Same
Speaker 1: thing happened with me, except I never got COVID in
Speaker 1: the first place. I got the second my second dose
Speaker 1: of the Pfizer vaccine. It took me out for maybe
Speaker 1: a day and a half, right, I got those symptoms,
Speaker 1: you know, and it felt like a little covid ish.
Speaker 1: But again, my body is fighting what it thinks is
Speaker 1: the COVID virus, and so all of those responses to
Speaker 1: defending myself against COVID nineteen, my body just assumes it's
Speaker 1: the real thing. And then I get all the symptoms.
Speaker 1: And then the same thing happened when I got my
Speaker 1: booster about a day and a half of you know,
Speaker 1: I got to take it easy, and then I was
Speaker 1: right back to normal. It came and it went just
Speaker 1: as quickly. But I want to say that because I
Speaker 1: want to own that part of the experience before we
Speaker 1: get into the meat and potatoes of this part of
Speaker 1: the conversation. You and I both know lots of people
Speaker 1: and love lots of people who are still afraid of
Speaker 1: the vaccine or otherwise have adopted one or more conspiracy
Speaker 1: theories surrounding the vaccination. Now, not everyone that we know
Speaker 1: that is we'll call them anti vaxxers. Not everyone that
Speaker 1: is like that is black. But in this case, in
Speaker 1: the case of black people, we do understand because there's
Speaker 1: been a very well documented history between vaccines and black
Speaker 1: people and the government and black people, and you know,
Speaker 1: looking through the lens of history, you understand how there
Speaker 1: could be some apprehension, some aversion to you know, getting vaccinated. Now,
Speaker 1: some of these concerns relate to how quickly the vaccines
Speaker 1: were developed, and this research comes from the Washington Post
Speaker 1: right here, how quickly the vaccines were developed, what their
Speaker 1: long term health effects might be. And then of course
Speaker 1: there's like some different information disinformation that we discussed earlier
Speaker 1: that just exists on the internet, like they have tracking devices,
Speaker 1: or they change your DNA and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: And then again with black folks. The one thing that
Speaker 1: we can and should I think point two is the
Speaker 1: Tuskegee experiments. It's okay to be a little bit apprehensive,
Speaker 1: It's okay to be a little bit concern right. The
Speaker 1: thing is, there's a couple of things with respect to
Speaker 1: the Tuskegee experiments that we have to consider. Did the
Speaker 1: government own it, did the government attempt to make it right?
Speaker 1: Did the government learn from, you know, its mistake? Did
Speaker 1: the government apologize you know, these sorts of things, because
Speaker 1: I think they matter. You know, it's hard to go
Speaker 1: back and then do the same thing again. If you've acknowledged, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what I did that that was wrong, or
Speaker 1: my father's did that that was wrong. We recognize that
Speaker 1: that's wrong. We're going to try to make it better.
Speaker 1: With that said, I do and always will understand any
Speaker 1: apprehension there. But you know, we can't ignore the fact
Speaker 1: that this is a life and death scenario. And I
Speaker 1: was talking to someone related to my child about my child,
Speaker 1: and I asked the question, you know, should we are
Speaker 1: you going to get him vaccinated? Or should I take
Speaker 1: him to get vaccinated because I know a place that
Speaker 1: will have the vaccines available before his school gets the vaccines.
Speaker 1: And this person who is related to my child, I
Speaker 1: have to use these words very carefully, said no, absolutely not.
Speaker 1: It's a government cash grab and a bunch of other stuff.
Speaker 1: What'd you say it's free. Well, I'm saying this to
Speaker 1: establish that this is something that is not I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about this in just general numbers. This is something
Speaker 1: that is happening and even happening to me with the
Speaker 1: people that I love the most, or with the person,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the two people that I love
Speaker 1: the most, the two people being my children. So this
Speaker 1: is something that is still very present and I thought
Speaker 1: it was worth us discussing again. So you know, we've
Speaker 1: discussed the Tuskegi experiments. We've discussed, you know, all the
Speaker 1: reasons that folks could have an issue with this vaccine.
Speaker 1: Now there is some good news. The racial gap has narrowed.
Speaker 1: After months of like poor turnout and you know, some
Speaker 1: folks not having access, particularly in black and brown communities.
Speaker 1: You know, the racial gap is narrowed. And that's really
Speaker 1: a testament that to the decisions that many states have
Speaker 1: made to send people to knock on doors, to have
Speaker 1: you know, conversations to kind of, you know, tackle these
Speaker 1: myths that exist about how effective the vaccines are and
Speaker 1: just kind of deal with those false equivalencies. You know,
Speaker 1: if everyone else has vaccinated, why do I need to
Speaker 1: get vaccinated? To that sort of stuff. But there is
Speaker 1: also a reality, oh real quick, there's roughly an equal
Speaker 1: share of black, white, and Hispanic adult populations. And to
Speaker 1: be specific, it's seventy percent of black adults, seventy one
Speaker 1: percent of white adults, and seventy three percent of Hispanic adults.
Speaker 1: So those guys are doing better than everyone, so good
Speaker 1: for them. And they've and all of these folks have
Speaker 1: received at least one vaccine dose. So that's seventy percent
Speaker 1: is that is where black people are, seventy one, White folks,
Speaker 1: seventy three Hispanic folks. But that still leaves a huge
Speaker 1: chunk of the population who are very much at this
Speaker 1: point having because it's been free for such a long time.
Speaker 1: It's really it. It suggested they firmly believe that there's
Speaker 1: something going on that they don't you know, want to trust.
Speaker 1: And yet, as we know, black folks and brown folks
Speaker 1: tend to be more susceptible to the ailments. And and
Speaker 1: you know, death is more likely of an outcome, you know,
Speaker 1: the darker you are. That's just kind of way it is.
Speaker 1: And with respect to most every medical condition. And what
Speaker 1: I what I wanted to tackle today again is the
Speaker 1: fact that there's a lot of people who are, in
Speaker 1: my estimation, these folks want to stir up trouble. I
Speaker 1: can't see any other reason why they would want to
Speaker 1: do that. They want to They're looking for things to
Speaker 1: confirm their bias, right. And I know these folks, I
Speaker 1: follow them on social media. These have been friends of
Speaker 1: mine for a very long time, and they've they've found
Speaker 1: their hill. You know, they're hey, you know that you're
Speaker 1: not putting that vaccine in my body. And then they're
Speaker 1: just saying all of this nonsense. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: once they've established you know, their stance, then they you know,
Speaker 1: spee all this nonsense to their followers. And you know,
Speaker 1: as we all understand, everyone has their own platform and
Speaker 1: is able to share things with their friends. Facebook is
Speaker 1: a huge stage for a lot of folks. But you know,
Speaker 1: Instagram and and you know, Snapchat and places like that
Speaker 1: aren't they're not exactly free of those types of conspiracy theories.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to say a name, but now that
Speaker 1: I'm here, I don't want to say this guy's name.
Speaker 1: But we'll call him West Coast Rapper. Okay, this guy's
Speaker 1: a rapper. He's had a couple of big hits, you know,
Speaker 1: back in the nineties during the gangster rap era. Good
Speaker 1: friend of mine and I get a kick kind of
Speaker 1: this dude. He's he's a very uh he has a
Speaker 1: very afrocentric approach to lots of things, and you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes he goes a little bit further than I'm comfortable following.
Speaker 1: You know, I really do believe that it's okay to
Speaker 1: be pro black. I don't think that it's okay to
Speaker 1: be anti any other color. And sometimes he kind of
Speaker 1: walks that line a little bit too recklessly for me
Speaker 1: for my tastes. But you know, some of the things
Speaker 1: that he shares in some of his viewpoints, you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're worth you know, taking, they fit you know,
Speaker 1: how I the world that I think that we need
Speaker 1: to create as brothers and sisters, and you know the
Speaker 1: other things I just kind of leave there. But and
Speaker 1: I haven't unfollowed him because obviously he's a high profile
Speaker 1: individual and you know, someone that really works for the
Speaker 1: type of career that I have. And then ever since
Speaker 1: this vaccination stuff has kind of taken center stage, this
Speaker 1: guy has just been firing left and right. You know,
Speaker 1: the government did this and these uncovering all kinds of
Speaker 1: weird stuff and these you know, this this person interviewed
Speaker 1: doctor Fauci, and or doctor Fauci was caught at this
Speaker 1: place doing this thing. You know, just kind of strange,
Speaker 1: bizarre things that don't have any relevance to what we're
Speaker 1: talking about here is And what it does is it
Speaker 1: either scares folks that haven't gotten around to get in
Speaker 1: the vaccine yet, or it further entrenches folks who've made
Speaker 1: their decision to not get the vaccine and we need
Speaker 1: to actively be working to save lives. One of the
Speaker 1: things that initially I thought I would be okay with
Speaker 1: is Republicans, you know, because it's one of the things
Speaker 1: that is really big in their world too, anti VAXX,
Speaker 1: anti mask, you know, really anti mask and anti vacs
Speaker 1: as a you know, as a tandem. You know, those
Speaker 1: two those two things are there, that's their left and
Speaker 1: right punch on. For black folks, it's more anti you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want the vaccine, you know, which, again, there's
Speaker 1: some context there, we kind of understand that a little
Speaker 1: bit better. For Republican folks, I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of them feel like it's a matter of their liberties
Speaker 1: getting violated. So it's a different reason to say no,
Speaker 1: a different reason to be upset. This is my this
Speaker 1: is my estimation. I certainly want to hear your thoughts,
Speaker 1: But initially I thought, you know, well, you know, if
Speaker 1: these people really want to be that ignorant and they're
Speaker 1: going to end up, you know, dying or otherwise being
Speaker 1: affected long term by this virus, then that only helps
Speaker 1: thin the herd, you know. And once I got the
Speaker 1: sobering numbers of how many Republican votes have actually died
Speaker 1: because of this, and once I really started to look past,
Speaker 1: you know, my own ideas of what the world should
Speaker 1: be and all this sort of stuff and really start
Speaker 1: seeing that these are people who are susceptible to indoctrination
Speaker 1: and propaganda, the same as any people, same as any color,
Speaker 1: you know, then I started seeing those numbers for what
Speaker 1: they were, human beings who are no longer here, no
Speaker 1: longer have beating hearts, And then my heart started to
Speaker 1: go out to them as well. And I know that
Speaker 1: this is not that show, so we can't have that conversation,
Speaker 1: but I recognize that these people who are opposed to
Speaker 1: this vaccine are killing themselves. And you know the way
Speaker 1: that you and I fight, you we don't fight with
Speaker 1: fists because we're not boxers. We don't fight with I
Speaker 1: don't even know the many ways that people fight, but
Speaker 1: we're broadcasters, so we fight with microphones. So we talk
Speaker 1: about it, right, and you know, with the booster numbers
Speaker 1: coming out, you know it's sort of reintroduced. Okay, where
Speaker 1: are we exactly with respect to COVID nineteen and what
Speaker 1: are we going to do to get across that finish line?
Speaker 1: So those are my thoughts. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Speaker 3: It's a really interesting path to start down, especially when
Speaker 3: you spoke about people having their fears, their their questions.
Speaker 3: You've heard thousands, if not millions, of people say, I
Speaker 3: just want to do my own research, which.
Speaker 2: Is on its face ridiculous.
Speaker 3: You regular person that works at Target or Wingstop, or
Speaker 3: or that is a broadcaster, or that is a you know,
Speaker 3: you want to do your own research juxtapus what's the
Speaker 3: word I'm trying to say, juxta juxtaposition against doctors and
Speaker 3: scientists who have spent their entire academic lives and careers
Speaker 3: doing the research, right, Like, at some point it's ridiculous
Speaker 3: on its face. Then there's the idea that you are anti.
Speaker 4: Science and medicine, except when you get a headache, you
Speaker 4: take an advil Like it's just it's exhausting, because it's
Speaker 4: really an academic virtue flex it's not even real.
Speaker 3: I am taking up this contrarian position and flexing it
Speaker 3: at you.
Speaker 2: Like I'm an intellectual.
Speaker 3: I'm simply taking this position because it's the opposite of
Speaker 3: popular opinion.
Speaker 1: That's what I say.
Speaker 3: And I seem more woke and more open minded and
Speaker 3: more of a free thinker and not a follower and
Speaker 3: not brainwashed and all this nonsense.
Speaker 2: If I just take this position and hold to it.
Speaker 3: And the idea that people have to die so you
Speaker 3: can seem like a hipster intellectual on.
Speaker 2: The internet, angers me.
Speaker 3: It's ridiculous. Right, If you don't go to the doctor,
Speaker 3: and you don't eat processed foods, and you don't consum
Speaker 3: refined sugars and you don't eat meat, and you live
Speaker 3: off the grid and you don't use electricity and you
Speaker 3: don't watch TV and you're not on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Like, if that's your lifestyle, truly who you are, I
Speaker 2: have no.
Speaker 3: Issue with any of those decisions that you're making because
Speaker 3: that's who you are, that's how you live, that's how
Speaker 3: you think, that's how you behave.
Speaker 2: But we're talking about people.
Speaker 3: Who, if they contracted COVID nineteen and got sick, would
Speaker 3: go to the hospital. It's infuriating, and I think the
Speaker 3: reason why I get so upset about it is because
Speaker 3: the people that I personally know that I have taken
Speaker 3: that stance.
Speaker 2: I know that that's the reason why.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3: I think they're not doing their own research. These people
Speaker 3: haven't written dissertations. They wouldn't even know how to do
Speaker 3: proper actcademic research.
Speaker 2: Just googling something is not research.
Speaker 1: Thank you for saying that that's important to say. There's
Speaker 1: there's a quote I wanted to share. So quote. It's
Speaker 1: less about saying this racial ethnic group is more hesitant,
Speaker 1: more unwilling to get vaccinated, and more about saying, you
Speaker 1: know this group of people in this given area or
Speaker 1: community doesn't have the information or access they need to
Speaker 1: overcome their hesitancy. And this comes from Nelson Dunlap, who's
Speaker 1: the chief of staff for the Sature Health Leadership Institute
Speaker 1: at the House, the Morehouse School of Medicine. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right.
Speaker 5: What I think for RAMS is they do have the information,
Speaker 5: though right like, they're all of a sudden not trusting
Speaker 5: the source from which they've gotten this type of information
Speaker 5: for all of existence.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. So so watch this. What I think is
Speaker 1: we continue to have these conversations with these people and
Speaker 1: you know, prepare ourselves to address their conspiracy theories. I
Speaker 1: certainly have a battle on my hands and I'll be
Speaker 1: heading into it very soon, so pray for me. And then,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of the day, we just
Speaker 1: know that, you know, like I said, we all have
Speaker 1: to get there and hopefully we don't lose too many
Speaker 1: of our brothers and sisters along the way.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's just it's it's unfortunate, but that's the reality
Speaker 1: of the situation.
Speaker 3: But if you can, and before we move on, because
Speaker 3: of the vaccine, we're talking about.
Speaker 2: People dying from this way ay less.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the numbers have gone way less.
Speaker 2: But we're going to ignore that too though, because you know.
Speaker 1: The folks who are still dying are the largely the
Speaker 1: folks who haven't been vaccinated at all, and that is unfortunate.
Speaker 1: Stick around your radios. We're coming back with more Cify
Speaker 1: cipher right after this