Multiple Black Lives Matter leaders publicly criticized New York’s vaccine passport program as racist following a violent altercation at a Manhattan restaurant Sept. 16.
The restaurant’s hostess allegedly used racial slurs against three black women and suggested that their vaccination cards were fake, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) charged the three patrons with assault and criminal mischief in relation to the ensuing brawl.
“Restaurants are using vaccine mandates to enforce their racist beliefs and excluding black patrons,” said Hawk Newsome, the co-founder and chairman of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, according to The New York Times.
President Joe Biden’s approval rating among unvaccinated black voters has fallen 17 percentage points since his vaccine mandate announcement Sept. 9.
NEW YORK: BLM activists confront the Carmines restaurant continuing to accuse them of being racist after an altercation over vaxx papers took place a few days ago
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) 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,” Kimberly Bernard, co-founder of the Black Women’s March, stated, according to National Review. “Because there’s enough of us in there.”
New York City requires proof of vaccination in order to enter indoor restaurants and various other venues. About 38 percent of black New Yorkers are not fully vaccinated, according to the New York City Department of Health. (RELATED: Customer Allegedly Kicked Out Of Restaurant For Not Being Vaccinated, Compares It To Segregation)
“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?” asked Chivona Newsome, another BLM leader, at a protest following the restaurant incident, National Review reported.
The NAACP did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller.