A co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Greater New York chapter warned of another “uprising,” similar to the George Floyd protests of last year, because of vaccine mandates, reported the Daily Wire.
“We’re putting this city on notice that your mandate will not be another racist, social distance practice. Black people are not going to stand by, or you will see another uprising,” said Chivona Newsome.
"We are putting the city on notice. Your mandates will not be another racist social distance"
— Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) September 24, 2021
Chivona Newsome spoke at BLM Carmines protest @newyorkvonni
"Black folk are not going to stand by, or you will see another uprising.
And that is not a threat, that is a promise" https://t.co/Me18Vgf34d pic.twitter.com/wzDObNlwfm
After Carmine’s Italian Restaurant in New York City denied entry to three black women who reportedly would not provide proof of vaccination on Sept. 16, Newsome organized a protest at the restaurant on Sept. 20. (The three women were arrested on Sept. 16 for assaulting the restaurant’s hostess.)
Carmine’s on the UWS says a hostess was assaulted after asking a group for proof of Covid vaccine to eat inside. “It’s a shocking and tragic situation when one of our valued employees is assaulted for doing their job - as required by city policies...” @NBCNewYork after football. pic.twitter.com/xrqZoNm74R
— Adam Harding (@HardingReports) September 17, 2021
“Seventy-two percent of black people in this city from ages 18 to 44 are unvaccinated," Newsome said during the protest. "So what is going to stop the Gestapo, I mean the NYPD, from rounding up black people, from snatching them off the train, off the bus?”
Newsome argued the citywide vaccine mandate is “targeting the black community and creating conditions akin to segregation,” wrote the Washington Examiner.
“I believe that this New York City vaccine passport will be used to keep black people out of spaces, and if we don’t stop it now then the police will use it as an excuse to harass and arrest our people,” a BLM Greater New York representative told Fox News.
Kimberly Bernard, the co-founder of the Black Women’s March, also claimed that vaccine mandates target minority communities.
#breakingnews Incident occurred between @newyorkvonni and a man who pushed her at carmines restaurants in NYC #BLM activists put a protest outside the restaurants after they explain a radial slur was made to a lady at the restaurant and they stated they had the v card as an ex pic.twitter.com/r5GMHEyfpH
— Leeroy Johnson (@LeeroyPress) September 20, 2021
“We are serving notice on the mayor, on the governor, on the restaurant industry that we will not allow for you to use this pandemic, vaccination cards, and masks as another reason to be racist, to put us in prison,” Bernard said at the rally.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only 10% of Americans who have received at least one dose of the vaccine are black.