- Just ahead on Black Issues Forum from January 6th to passage of the state budget, join me and a robust panel for a wrap-up of 2021 top headlines.

Stay with us.

[frenetic music] Welcome to Black Issues Forum.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

And today we are ringing in the new year with a wrap-up of 2021.

Looking back on some of the year's unforgettable news moments, and we've invited a few of our repeat guests to the party.

We're all dressed up for the occasion.

So I want to welcome Senator Natalie Murdock of district 20 in Durham.

La'Meisha Whittington of Advance Carolina, Greg Hedgepeth of Substantial Media.

Harold Eustache of the Forsyth County GOP and Dr. DeLon Canterbury of Geriatrics, Inc.

Welcome to the party, everybody.

I'm so glad you decided to join us.

Let's kick it off with what happened at the very beginning of this year.

Senator Murdock with the January 6th insurrection that has been come known as that Capitol insurrection.

What are your thoughts, your reflections?

What did you take away from that?

- Quite frankly, still in disbelief.

I mean, all of us watch this on television thinking that it was a scene out of a movie.

We did not think that it was reality.

It is a day that will go down in, in infamy.

It was a day of infamy.

And to be clear, this was a terrorist attack, a domestic terrorist attack on American soil.

Our Capitol was attacked and we are still sorting through the details of this.

Currently US Congress is holding hearings.

One of our own congressional members, Deborah Ross is a part of that judiciary committee, but cannot stress enough.

We cannot engage in revisionist history.

We already see that some folks want to act as if this didn't happen, as if they were very fine people and patriots.

They were not, they were domestic terrorists.

So we have to make sure that America gets justice and that we don't simply allow this to be swept under the rug.

These not only are politicians, they are people, they are fathers, they are daughters.

They are cowering under their desk in fear because a group of people wanted to say that we cannot certify elections that were fair and free, and that should not be glorified.

- It's very real when you think about, what comes to mind for me, when I think about that January 6th event is the Civil War and what happened after the Civil War and the disobedience and disregard for the law.

You know, let me get your thoughts on that, Harold.

- One of the things we learned when I was in the military is part of the ranger creed and that's, you never embarrass your country.

And I think it's an unfortunate event because those, those people that were there, that trespassed on the Capitol, they embarrassed their country.

They embarrassed our country.

I'm never for that.

I do think that, you know, as a country, we've got to figure out a way to move past this and a way to move past the division.

I don't, you know, I, I don't, I think some of the, some of what's going on in Congress has become very political.

I think, you know, there is, as Senator referred to, there is a congressional investigation.

They leaked a lot of, parts of their investigation.

I think in any investigation, I say this as a former prosecutor, you don't, you don't leak stuff.

It seems political.

I hope we move past that as a country and we never see a repeat of that.

- And so do I, so do I, let's take a look at another topic.

Dr. Canterbury, this one's for you, the COVID vaccine.

We know that the first COVID vaccine shot was given at the end of 2020 in December to a black nurse.

But since then, what's your assessment of how we've done in terms of a success rate of getting people vaccinated and getting control of COVID.

- Thanks.

Yeah, it is an ongoing battle.

So yes, we are not out the woods yet.

However, 2021 has been a significant improvement since the advent of vaccines have come to the play.

And frankly, we still have a lot of issues outside of our country to have equal and equitable access, of course, between low-income and middle-income countries.

But on the front lines here, we have made strides.

Now we have gaps, don't get me wrong, but we're looking at about over 60% of our country, at least having one dose if not more in the U S. And so we do know that our most vulnerable populations are marginalized.

Our geriatric populations have some of the worst outcomes.

So there is still a need to target those populations.

- And what I'm seeing is what appears to be a resurgence.

Is there really a resurgence right now?

- There is a uptick.

It's not as if we were in the same height of what we saw last year of course, especially with the new advent of Omicron variant, which has been preliminarily seen to spread much more than Delta.

So in terms of the last two weeks, yes, we are seeing a rise and it is the holidays.

Respiratory viruses thrive in the cold because everyone's inside held together.

So we are seeing an increase.

However, we aren't necessarily seeing much more deaths.

We are seeing a little bit more in terms of what we saw last year.

It's no way near that.

So I'm very hopeful for the future, especially with new pills on the market for COVID treatments and other and biologics that are available as well as the vaccines that are still effective today.

So we've made huge strides in just a year's time.

- Greg, what's lingering in your mind about COVID vaccine and how we've progressed with COVID this past year.

- I still think the adaption of, of vaccination right, is, is something that will continue to linger in my mind, as we look at, you know, now having children to be vaccinated or the possibility of children to be vaccinated.

Just the sheer fact that this to some degree has become so political of a thing that it is, it is kind of like taking, if you will, a backseat to what has been a health crisis, right?

Like, and so I think we, when we talked about this earlier in the year, for me, it was always this like stark spectrum, like of you're either going to be vaccinated or you're not, right.

And it's that the fact that, that's still very much, even with all the evidence, all the science that's out there to this day, we are talking about this thing as if it's not real.

- A lot of people simply have not, I think, have not come to terms with this.

There's certainly the politics that are interfering with people going to get their vaccinations.

And then there's additional variants that are coming into play.

And then there's just the fact that I think that COVID is going to be here for awhile.

And I heard someone say the other day, look, everybody's going to have, have it after a while.

You know, and I, I don't know if that should be an excuse to not go get your vaccination, but, you know, so we, we had to take care of those things.

Another big moment this past year, we know that on April 21st, police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on all three charges of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.

And on that same day, sheriff's deputies in Elizabeth City shot and killed an unarmed Andrew Brown in his vehicle.

LA you know, how do we make sense of these two things?

And then most recently we had a sort of a disappointment in some, in some ways with, with the Rittenhouse trial, and then we came back and there was another, so what are your thoughts about racial justice this past year?

So in the, in the wake of what you've already named is really a rollercoaster of emotions and the fight that has been ongoing for civil rights for our people for generations.

And so this year, of course, we celebrated in April when the trial [indistinct] and Chauvin was actually found guilty, right.

But in North Carolina and across the nation, the killing, the murder of Andrew Brown hit our communities hard.

And it was just an, a feeling of aloneness, but what can we do to look ahead to support those families?

And so even recently, with the Chauvin case, months after the conviction, he was just recently, he pled guilty to federal charges.

And so you'll see 20, possibly 20 plus years, but what we didn't really know and what wasn't really public media is that Chauvin had actually done this action before to a 14-year-old child in 2017 and kneeling on his back.

And so these charges included that assault several years ago.

And so we see victory, we need to name that because it was victory to honor George Floyd, to actually bring honor to his family.

George Floyd's brother went and testified to the UN , United Nations last year in the wake of the murder of his brother.

But it's also a vindication for that teenager who was present when those federal charges, when it came through that he pled guilty and the families looked at each other and said, justice finally had arrived.

And so we have to live in that moment, but also know that just what last month, maybe last week, rather more recently, the family of Andrew Brown, it became public that the deputy had tampered with his weapon.

And so we know looking forward that the fight has just begun for that family, even though they lost their, their son, their brother, their father in April, it's still going to continue just as the Chauvin case continued for that 14 year old, how many years later and through the murder of George Floyd.

So we're hopeful, but we know the fight has just begun for our families.

- And I want to get your input on this to Senator Murdock, because, you know, at the same time, we're also looking at violence nationwide and also in Durham.

So what do you make sense of, you know, police racial violence and violence in general?

- Absolutely.

And still want to lift up the family of Andrew Brown.

Had the opportunity to actually march with the people of Elizabeth City and, and to be there and really turned the city on their heads, so just want the people of Elizabeth City to know we have not forgotten you.

When the legislative black caucus actually sent a request to the US Department of Justice.

We still want these investigations to move forward, but you're dead on.

And honestly, I'm going to utilize the words of our new phenomenal mayor Lane O'Neill.

There is another culture, a underground culture that a lot of folks are completely not aware of because of all the wealth and prosperity.

We're here in the RTP, but there are times that those worlds collide and that's exactly what happened when you saw the shootings at South Point Mall.

I think we now have the leadership in Durham where we will address it.

We will go directly to folks that say, I have no access to economic opportunity, hat the RTP is down the street from me.

I can see it, but I don't know how to access that.

I don't know how to access that economic opportunity.

We have to address the root causes of crime.

We have to address the fact that people need jobs.

People need a reason to live.

If you don't have a reason to live, then yes, you'll be reckless and utilize weapons because you don't even know if you'll make it to your 20th birthday.

So we have to truly be hands on, be out of the box, but go directly to these communities to let them know we are all in this together.

We are a part of this.

It's not separate and apart.

It's clearly not contained.

We have to be very hands-on with solutions to address violence nationally, but also here in Durham.

- Absolutely.

And you know, another huge news topic that kind of consumed people's attention for awhile was the promise of Nicole Hannah Jones of the 1619 fame coming to North Carolina only to find out that she was hired without tenure.

And then after weeks of headlines, the UNC board of trustees voted to offer her tenure.

And she said on July 6th, no, thank you.

I'm going to Howard.

What'd you think about that?

Let me, let me get your feedback on that LA.

- So first of all, it was very victorious for our communities to have the reclamation of power.

And I say that that Pulitzer award-winning journalist, right, Hannah Nicole Jones at her legacy, the attempted attack on what 1619 actually was, right.

It was as well-researched, well thought out body of work that was then unfortunately the media surrounded by critical race theory bill, House bill 324.

At the same time it's surrounded by House bill 805, which was a bill to punish protesters for lawfully protesting.

And so in the midst of that storm, we can celebrate at the end of this year, that again, award winning journalist Hannah Nicole Jones took her talents to Howard, right, to HBCU that the students, black students at UNC Chapel Hill are still supported by the program that she instituted there.

That legacy is still there.

And our governor vetoed House bill 324 and House bill 805 after advocates, activists, community members successfully said, no, we don't want these bills.

So there is a lot to celebrate and to reflect on this year.

- Greg, let me get your feedback on that because she makes, LA makes a really great point, you know, lots of challenges, but people's voices seem to have risen during the, during the, during all of this conflict.

- No, absolutely.

And again, well said LA.

I'll go ahead as a professor myself and say, one word, winning, right?

Like that is the word from Nicole Hannah Jones.

And that UNC tenure thing was but a small footnote in the larger story that is, right.

As she so elegantly said, the 1619 project has shined light on what we would consider a vital part of the American story and has then if you will, allowed others to begin to champion and, and raise concerns around the history, if you will, that's being untold in America.

And so again, I just shout out the fact that, you know, it took a Nicole Hannah Jones, right?

It took someone like her.

It took a UNC controversy if you will, to shine light on what was already a substantial and very important piece of work.

But again, I, I sum it up with that one word.

I think since that, she has certainly been winning and I have seen her in a number of different mediums and championing that, that not only her work, but the cause behind that work.

- That's right.

Dr. Canterbury, I want your feedback on kind of the, the, an issue that's risen from all of the, the controversy.

Talking about critical race theory and also George Floyd and Derek Chauvin, there's been in my, my view, kind of a rise and a movement toward increased DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

And in some ways it's, it's been visible, but I wonder about the effect, effectiveness of all of these moves.

What are your thoughts about DEI in 2021?

- I have questions as well.

I mean, you really want to start looking at the actual actions and motives of some of these institutes that are using words like DEI and inclusion, instead of just a placemaker for actually having caused a change in our communities.

So the question still arises.

I like to see that people are talking about this a bit more, but it's frustrating if we're just throwing these words around, just like have throw around social determinants of health to put on a, basically a nice, nice platitude for the actual underlying issue.

So are they actually putting in efforts to recruit people of minority backgrounds on their boards?

Are they looking to put people in place in power and actually consistently keep that communication and relationship going instead of just looking good for a grant or a study and then leaving them where they were after.

And that's what we see in academia.

So it will be seen health as we see in clinical trials.

So it's great to see more discussion, but again, I'm skeptical as a clinician and as a black man.

- I'm looking for the impact too.

Another momentous occasion in 2021 on June 19th, President Biden announced a national holiday.

I think it might've been the, the 18th of June and we enjoyed a three-day weekend.

So while the announcement came with celebration, some of my friends had mixed feelings about it.

Harold, I kind of understood where they were coming from, but what were your thoughts on, on Juneteenth?

And let me preface that by saying that I think some of the confused or mixed feelings about it stem from the fact that, you know, we're celebrating a group or an emancipation that, that really should have taken place a long time prior to that.

What were your thoughts on Juneteenth as a national holiday?

- I was extremely happy to see it be a national holiday.

Actually on, on that holiday, I went and spoke.

The GOP down east county GOP party had, had a Juneteenth celebration.

It was great to see that had speakers.

I was one of them and talked about the importance of that holiday and what it means because you know, the cause of freedom is really what this country is about and what better way to celebrate that than Juneteenth?

I point out that, you know, I I'm, I was happy to see President Biden do it.

I know it's something that president Trump wanted to do as well, and didn't get done, but wanted to do.

I thought, I think it's a great thing.

I am happy for it.

I'm glad we finally got it.

And I hope to see it become a bigger holiday in the future.

- Great.

LA, let me get your thoughts on why you think people might have mixed feelings about celebrating Juneteenth.

- Sure, sure.

You know, a personal note to echo Harold's sentiments.

You know, I was definitely excited about Juneteenth, just excited to be able to share with family and friends, a momentous occasion, right.

To sit and reflect on just the many trials and tribulations, but namely slavery that our people came through.

But some of the mixed feeling right is, is the fact that we were still, and still in the midst of many anti-voter laws, voter suppression.

There were hundreds that were introduced into legislatures across the US south, right?

The fact that we are still in states, including North Carolina that are fighting either versions of anti-lynching or versions of lynching laws that are still in existence, that should have been again struck or amended and removed from our laws many years ago, really when Juneteenth occurred.

And so, as we're looking at, what does it mean to be in this racial society?

And we hope post-racial.

We begin to still see incidents of state sanctioned violence.

Civil Rights that is still being impacted.

the use of the KU Klux Klan act, which is what's having to be used from 1800s to actually punish and sue hate groups like the Proud Boys.

We are still in the midst of essentially of course, a storm for racial prosperity and equity in the midst of still trying to celebrate Juneteenth where we're supposed to be emancipated.

And so there's a lot of conflict there because what are we celebrating if we're still fighting for freedom to live and to be seen as American citizens.

- But at the end of the day, it sounds like the consensus is that that's a celebration.

It's very much a celebration and it's welcomed by most folks.

And I think that our, our state celebrated too, when we finally passed a state budget.

And I think a lot of Americans celebrated when the bipartisan infrastructure plan passed.

Senator Murdock.

What are your thoughts on just the passage of these two major bills against the fact that we're still talking about, some people are talking about Biden's failures.

- Yes.

Yeah.

So here in North Carolina, I think has been 30 some odd years since we've had a signed budget.

So folks are very excited that we do finally have a signed budget.

I myself wasn't able to support the budget because I do think we could've gone farther.

We did better than the first proposal, had to be very clear with that.

Didn't do our best.

We still have a huge rainy day fund, a lot of surplus, a lot of federal dollars that I think we could have gotten out on the streets enough Carolinians, but I am glad that our governor moved forward being a leader to release those federal dollars that are included in that state budget.

But I think when you do look at the federal level, I have a background in transportation.

I know the value of infrastructure and how it will connect our community.

Something that folks forget about.

We don't want to become the next Flint, Michigan.

It includes water infrastructure monies as well to make sure we don't have lead in our water.

We know that we, that children long-term could have developmental issues if there is lead in their water.

So there's a lot of good pieces that are in that infrastructure bill, but we still have to continue to push forward to get the Build Back Better act passed as well.

We're now hearing that that will be delayed until the top of next year, but the infrastructure bill that was passed even here in North Carolina, millions of dollars right here in the triangle and the triad so that we can do better with transit.

We have a lot of deficient bridges here in North Carolina.

We don't want to wait until one of them quite literally falls in a body of water.

We have to take care of the basic status, how we move goods and people, it is through our roads and bridges.

So I am glad that that transformational act was, was passed and even things like the childcare tax credit, you know, that is going to lift children out of poverty for years to come.

So there's still a lot of good that is being done and coming out of Washington.

A lot more to do, to be clear, but a lot of good coming out of DC.

- And I think it says a lot, Harold, that this was a bipartisan bill, the infrastructure, the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was bipartisan.

So, you know, what does, does that give you hope kind of for what's going to happen in this next bill?

- I think it gives some temporary hope maybe about what's going to happen.

I don't, I don't think this next bill, as far as the Build Back Better bill is going to be bipartisan on any level.

I think most Republicans, myself included, are vehemently against that, but would be for infrastructure.

That was something I think, you know, past administration talked about infrastructure and I think most, most Americans want to see that.

I would, I would say one of the, we took, we mentioned earlier about, you know, people talking about the president's failures.

And I think one of the, one of the reasons for that is because of Afghanistan and that's really one of the biggest things that happened this year.

If you look at his approval rating since August, since that happened, it's remained consistently low because of that.

So I still think that's ever-present on Americans' minds as well.

- That's a huge one.

I totally, so much happened in 2021.

That was huge.

For the president to remove troops from Afghanistan and the sight of those Afghan people and the people in Afghanistan at the plane, definitely very traumatic and memorable.

So thank you for bringing that up.

You know, so many memories, you know, are, are emotional of course from 2021.

And we've talked a lot about mental health and it reminds me of Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles and their proclamations.

And I think Kevin Love.

People in the sports arena coming out and standing up for their mental health.

Greg, how important do you think that was?

Do you think that sent a message and makes a change, a mindset change for all of us?

- Absolutely.

And, and I want to shout out the fact that they were brave and courageous to do so, right.

You know, when you think about professional athletes and I put that word professional in front of it, the pressures that they have, oftentimes we go, well, all they gotta do is play the game they love, right?

All they gotta do is, and, and unfortunately that all they gotta do is show up every day and be ready to win, right?

The, the strain, they put their bodies through, the stress mentally.

And so for them to go, hey, this is my livelihood.

And I want to take a pause, like how many of us, right?

On our day to day professional jobs have the ability right, to go, hey look, a sick day, right.

Or, you know, I'm gonna take vacation.

There is no vacation when it's the Wilmington Open, right.

There, there is no vacation when it's the NBA finals.

There is no.

And so just shout out to that young lady, to all of them, honestly, for stepping up and saying, Hey, look, no matter what it is that you think I should be in this moment, I'm going to protect myself.

Because you can't be of service if you're out of service.

And so I certainly do want to shout them out for championing that.

And so many others have stepped up since, right.

It's always brick by brick, right.

And it's always one and it's always that one.

And then others follow.

So.

- Wow.

Well, LA, we got about 30 seconds left.

What would you like to share about 2021 or mental health or anything?

I'm going to let you have the last word.

- Right?

So Greg, thank you for that quote.

We can't be in service if you're out of service.

I had a conversation yesterday, with a Coach William Demautry Messer.

And he said to me that we have to be vigilant with the mental health and financial security of our college athletes.

And so the national media landscape, the highlight of the bravery of what our national athletes did by saying, this is a serious weight on me.

Our kids are going through it on the collegiate level.

And there was a law that was recently passed.

It allows for college students to get paid, these athletes to get paid.

But here's the issue.

If they make too much and they don't get directly paid, they can make money off their likeness, their social media imagery.

So we have to be very clear how they make their money.

If they make too much, they lose their federal aid.

And so the issue with that is.

- Everybody wish me a happy birthday because December 31st is my birthday.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I want to thank everyone who joined us today.

We invite you to engage with us on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag black issues forum.

You can also find our full episodes on PBS, nc.org/black issues forum, or listen at any time on Apple iTunes, Spotify, or Google podcasts.

On behalf of all of us here at Black Issues Forum, I'm Deborah Holt Noel wishing you a happy new year.

And we will see you in 2022.

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