There has been much said in the media about COVID-19 disproportionately affecting the Black community. While statistics are thrown around daily regarding marginalized communities being hit with an increase of cases, celebrities have stepped forward in an effort to use their platforms to encourage people to exercise precautions. Tyrese recently spoke with journalist April Ryan in an Instagram Live interview where he talked about how the Black community has dealt with health issues and mentioned certain noteworthy moments that changed their outlook.
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“On that level, we had Magic Johnson, the most infamous and famous legendary iconic basketball player and then we had Eazy-E, and then it all hit home for us that maybe we are all capable of catching HIV-AIDS,” Tyrese said. “This is not a homosexual community problem. This is not a gay problem. HIV-AIDS can be contracted by everybody. And Black people never came to that ‘come to Jesus’ moment until these two Black significant iconic Black men had announced [it].”
Tyrese added that the world witnessed how quickly Eazy-E passed away following him learning of his diagnosis. “With that being said, we are dying by the numbers,” he said. “We wasn’t going to do a regular doctor’s check-up before [coronavirus]. We never had insurance before [coronavirus]. We would go and do any and everything we could to put a band-aid on something that we know needs medical attention.” Watch the clips of Tyrese and April Ryan below and let us know if you agree with him on this.
