- 9 hours ago
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
05:00I'll be sure, Executive Chairman, Health Equity and Transplantation Coalition, the Reverend Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network, and Rachel Nordlinger, Partner at Actum Global Public Strategies. Stand by in minutes.
07:01Good morning, everyone.
07:06Good morning, good afternoon, good afternoon, good afternoon.
07:36Norlinger, who if you don't know, you should know. She is a strategist and a communicator
07:42extraordinaire. So we're going to be joined by I'll be sure in a few minutes. But before we go
07:47there, I want to give the Reverend an opportunity to talk to you all about where we are, what just
07:53happened in Washington just yesterday, to give him that opportunity. And then we're going to
08:00talk about health care. We're going to talk about transplants. We're going to talk about the
08:05importance of breaking down barriers. But before we do that, I think it's important for us to put
08:09all of this into context. What happened yesterday, how it affects people of color, how it affects black
08:15people, how it affects our health. Rev? Well, thank you. Thank you. Let me say this. It is important
08:24that we understand that today on the 4th of July, this president is signing a bill that will literally
08:34cost lives of our people and others in this country. It is going to close hospitals. It's going to cut
08:43Medicaid. It's going to take SNAP away. I grew up on welfare. They call it SNAP now. It used to be
08:51welfare. It's the same thing. And we as a people need not become depressed. We need to be determined
09:00that we're going to turn this around. That's why we need to vote and we need to punish those that
09:06punish us. We fought people worse than Trump. We fought people that were harder than Trump. And all
09:14we have to do is put a new Congress in and we can take this bill and turn it around next year. That's
09:21why I give a lot of credit to this team with the Black Economic Forum with Alfonso David. And I give a lot
09:29give him a hand. I give a lot of credit to Rich Lou Dennis because they said we don't care what
09:39advertisers are afraid of DEI. They are not going to let us D I E. We are not going to die. We're
09:47going to fight back. And it is our mission. That's why we're here every year for 31 years. We've come here as a
09:57family to celebrate ourselves. If nobody celebrates us, we celebrate black excellence. The top artists,
10:06the top performers. We are still the baddest and the most beautiful in the planet. And we
10:12are not going to stop coming. They can't cut us out the budget. They cannot cut us out unless we cut
10:19them out from our budget. So you ain't got money for us. We won't have money for you. Because this is the
10:26reason it is essence is we are essential to the American business community. And don't you forget
10:34it.
10:34Now, Rev just outlined what this bill means for people of color, for black people. I want Rachel
10:43to also talk about the misinformation because Rachel is a communicator. She's a strategist. And what you may
10:51read about this bill may not necessarily be true. It is important that we understand information and
10:58misinformation. And that's exactly what Rachel does. Rachel, I just want you to talk a little
11:03bit about what people should be looking for as they are dissecting their news so that they understand
11:10what's important and what's real.
11:13Thank you. Thank you, Alfonso. And of course, Reverend Sharpton. Honored to be here and honored always to, of
11:21course, be working with Reverend Sharpton and Nan, with whom I've worked with for almost 26 years.
11:26So yes, we are in a dire moment where everything that we have in so many realms is at stake. And
11:34misinformation and disinformation are rampant. And some people don't even know what the difference
11:41is between misinformation and disinformation. Let's start with that. Misinformation is something
11:48that is misinforming, but not intentionally misinforming. It's a lot of what y'all do, we do on the Internet
11:56every day. You see so much misinformation on the Internet. Disinformation is intentionally done to mislead
12:08somebody. And disinformation has been the absolute staple of this current administration as it relates to
12:16everything that they do every day in regards to this this moment and this bill and how it's impacting us and how
12:24the disinformation can be pushed back upon. I think the first thing is people need to get involved locally. You have to
12:33understand what your local contingencies of elected officials, your local advocates and people in the community that are
12:43actually on the ground like the national action networks that know what is real and what is not real.
12:50And a lot of this is also folks have to stop believing everything that they see on Instagram,
12:56TikTok and X, et cetera, because it's a very, very dangerous place to be.
13:03You have to really use discernment in this moment to ask the right questions
13:09and really, really come at this with an analytical eye and an activist eye. Everybody needs to hit the
13:17streets. As Reverend Sharpton said, it is time for us to continue to turn demonstration into legislation
13:25as we deal with misinformation and disinformation.
13:30Now that's about the bill that we've been talking about. I want to shift just for a moment to talk about
13:37health care. And the Reverend and Rachel and I'll be sure have been focused on this issue.
13:45When we think about health care for people of color and for black people, when you watch on the TV,
13:52when they talk about health care, they're usually talking about the challenges that we face,
13:57the obstacles that we face, the disparities that we confront.
14:01And here you have two people on stage. And I'll be sure is going to be joining us shortly.
14:10But you have two people on stage that have been working to remove some of those obstacles.
14:16And I want Rachel to spend a few minutes talking about what that is. And the Rev, of course, to talk about what that is.
14:22Because it's important for all of us to understand that you may be healthy now or you may think you're healthy now until something happens.
14:31And then once it happens and you confront those obstacles, what do you do about it? Rachel?
14:36So I actually am going to pass the mic to Rev because he is an embodiment of health and wellness in real form.
14:44If you look at him, you can see the transformation he has made in in a very, very, very quick amount of time because of his serious commitment to want to live for his family, for his grandson and for the movement that he built.
15:01He was in the gym at 445 this morning. So I think Rev, if you would just speak a little bit to about your health and wellness path.
15:09Rev, well, let's look at the general population. In the most serious diseases in this country, heart conditions, cancer, diabetes, we are number one in all of the health defects.
15:27A lot of that is our environment. A lot of that is access to health care. And a lot of that is that we attribute our own lifestyles to something that is not healthy.
15:41You must remember when we were enslaved, we had to eat what was given to us. We took what was the scraps and made it a cuisine.
15:53But that is not the diet that we need today. If you were working in the fields all day, sweating from sunup to sundown, picking cotton, you could eat hog guts and you're going to sweat it out.
16:07But if you working behind a cubicle on a computer and eating hog guts, you're going to get obese and going to get diabetes and you're going to die.
16:17You're not slaves anymore. We must eat like free people. We must get checkups like free people.
16:26That's why the Affordable Care Act that Obama put through was so important because it gave us access to checking on our health.
16:35First thing Trump tried to do was overthrow the Affordable Care Act.
16:38We put pressure on Congress and they stopped him the first time. Now he comes back with this bill he signed in the day that's going to close hospitals.
16:47People cannot go to hospitals if they're not there. So we need to use our muscle to deal with our health.
16:54Health is a human and civil rights issue. We should have the same access to health care as everybody else does.
17:03And one of the things that I did was change my diet and change working out.
17:09There was one time I was 307 pounds. I weighed this one. I was 127.
17:16I did not I did not use what a Zimbik or whatever that is. I changed my diet.
17:24I didn't take no pills. I stopped eating wrong.
17:27I started exercising because I am determined to live as long as I can and do as much as I can while I'm alive.
17:38So you must say I'm a free man. I'm a free woman. I'm going to eat like that.
17:42I'm going to function like that. I'm going to check on myself. Why?
17:46Because you have enough self-esteem to say that I'm worth checking on.
17:51What kind of sense does it mean make for you to have a car and you check your fuel, but you don't check you?
17:59I know guys that got cars that check their cars more than they check their own health.
18:05There's something wrong when you care more about your oil change and don't check on your blood change and on your blood count.
18:14And if I go around most places that I speak and ask people what is their blood count, what is their weight, they don't know.
18:22But if I ask them how their cars do and they can give me a description, we've got to get out of what putting what is not important ahead of what is important.
18:32All of us are important. We're worth taking care of and we're worth.
18:38And let me tell you, your bodily health, your physical health affects your mental health.
18:44Reason why you sluggish is because you're not taking care of yourself.
18:49You should wake up every morning ready to go, not wake up in the morning and somebody got to drag you out to bed and pray that you do something and you get to huffing and puffing.
19:00You should wake up every day as a new opportunity because you're fired up, you're engine up.
19:06Our health is our wealth and that's what we need to protect.
19:10Amen. Amen. Amen.
19:13You know, as Rev was thinking, I was just thinking to myself that a lot of people confuse self-care with self-love.
19:21Self-care, we get our hair done, we get our nails done, we go to the barbershop, you know, we go to the spa, we get massages.
19:30But that is not self-love.
19:32Self-love are all the things that Reverend Sharpton just indicated in terms of taking care of your mind, your body, and your soul.
19:41And the mental health component is one of the most important things that we really, really are not as diligent about in this moment.
19:50Because of the state of affairs of this country, mental health is, we're hurting right now.
19:56And all of that manifests in our physical well-being as well.
20:00And so the greatest thing we could continue to do for each other and for ourselves is exercise self-love when it comes to your health and wellness.
20:09Because it really doesn't matter if you got a good wardrobe on a bad body.
20:19It really doesn't matter if you got a nice hairdo on a bad head.
20:24It's like putting on perfume or cologne without washing.
20:28You just think worse.
20:29We have got to start dealing from internal to the external and not just be externally looking fly and internally eroding every day.
20:41So I want to ask this question of the audience.
20:46I'm not going to ask it about yourself.
20:48I'm going to ask you this question about anyone that you know or is in your family.
20:53How many people, or raise your hands, if your family members and your friends only go to the doctor when they're sick?
21:01This is what the Rev is talking about, right?
21:09How do we actually change the paradigm and how do we reestablish our relationship with our health?
21:16We have a relationship with our bodies and we have to make sure that we're nurturing that relationship, not when we're sick, but actually thinking about how do we nurture that relationship.
21:27And if we don't do that, we will continue to be the ones that are defining the disparities in this country.
21:35We're talking about colon cancer.
21:37We're talking about breast cancer.
21:39We're talking about fibroids.
21:41We're talking about all of the other conditions where black people are unfortunately at some of the highest levels.
21:49We have to reestablish our relationship with our health, and that's incredibly important.
21:53Rev, what do you say to someone who, if the person says, look, I work out, I work out twice a week, or I work out three times a week, isn't that enough?
22:06No, you got to work out until you see the effects.
22:10That's why you need to be tested.
22:12That's why you need to have checkups.
22:15Some people need to work out every day.
22:18Some people can do it three times a week.
22:20It's according to where you start and measure yourself.
22:24Think of yourself as worthy, prime property.
22:29And if not, you are going to eat yourself to death.
22:33A lot of you know what I do.
22:35I preach James Brown's funeral.
22:37I preach Michael Jackson's funeral.
22:39I spoke at Aretha's funeral.
22:41I'd be glad to do your funeral.
22:43Keep eating like you're eating.
22:45I'll pass my card around.
22:47Now, you do not need to eat yourself to death.
22:52You do not need to not exercise.
22:54People talk about, well, exercise wears me out.
22:57That's the point.
22:59If you work out your fork more than you work out your body, you are killing yourself.
23:05And you and I are worth more than that.
23:08Don't let people, again, give you a slave diet.
23:11So, folks, I want us now to transition and talk about this from a deeply personal perspective.
23:23Yesterday, we had the opportunity to extend an award.
23:28The Global Black Economic Forum held a health dinner.
23:31And we gave an award to Al B. Shore and to Rachel Norlinger.
23:39And we are so pleased to have Al B. Shore join us.
23:49I don't mind being the opening act for Al B. Shore.
23:54Never that.
23:57Reverend, Dr. Al Sharpton, my big brother and mentor.
24:00It's so good to see you.
24:01My apologies for the delay.
24:03I was sitting in a parking lot waiting for a shuttle.
24:06But we are here and blessed.
24:09So, we're going to flip the script just for a second.
24:13Because this is, the work that we have done around health equity in the last couple years
24:21has derived from urgency.
24:25Urgency in terms of what is happening around the country and urgency in our own family.
24:32And about three years ago next month, Al B. Shore was literally almost pronounced dead.
24:39He had multi-system organ failure.
24:42So many blood transfusions.
24:46He had a tracheostomy.
24:48He had every imaginable ailment inside of his body.
24:52So much that they were trying to send him to hospice.
24:57Reverend Sharpton and I spoke to his doctor.
24:59And by the grace of God, the Most High, when he awakens from a coma after more than two months,
25:11he committed his life to advocacy, to fulfilling the gap where there is a lack of equity and coverage
25:20for people that look like us.
25:22And so, together, we formed the Health Equity and Transplantation Coalition that Alfonso alluded to.
25:29We were awarded, honored last night.
25:32And so, Mr. Al B. Shore, if you would just share with the people some about what it's been like
25:39almost three years after death.
25:41It almost sounds like a notorious B.I.G. album, right?
25:49Wow.
25:50Well, first of all, thank you, co-founder, BFF, the queen, global strategist, Ms. Rachel Nordlinger.
26:00I'm honored to be here at Essence this year.
26:04Forces almost didn't make that possible.
26:08But since we are here, I was so grateful to get a call one day from Rachel
26:16and the prayers at the highest level from Reverend Dr. Sharpton,
26:26who kept up on my medical condition while I was down
26:30and made sure that folks were taking care of business.
26:35So, I'm truly appreciative of Dr. Sharpton.
26:38Yes, please.
26:41If you appreciate me, can I have a watch?
26:47We have to get you on for the birthday.
26:49We're going to hook you up.
26:51That's a nice thank you.
26:54So, July 12th of 2022, I was rushed to the ER.
27:02I just happened to be in Houston visiting a friend by the name of DJ Eddie F from Heavy D and the Boys.
27:10We grew up together in a place called Mount Vernon.
27:14And thank goodness I was actually in Houston due to the top medical care that Houston provides in the world.
27:23And this is where we're going with this.
27:28I entered the hospital at that point and I knew that, let's say, July, August, September, October, November.
27:40I awakened from a coma.
27:48Didn't realize all that transpired.
27:51I knew what was going on prior to it.
27:53But by the grace of God, I woke up from the coma.
27:58I think the most important part about this is that the inspiration that Dr. Sharpton has always provided the nation and the world.
28:13People have scrutinized my brother on many occasions stating, why are you doing this?
28:30You're doing it for the spotlight.
28:32Why are you worried about young black men being killed by law enforcement?
28:36Why are you worried about these things?
28:37It's not your business.
28:40And they say, yeah, you're just looking for the spotlight.
28:42And Dr. Sharpton says, absolutely.
28:47I need to shed the brightest light on what's going on in the street as possible.
28:54So I've been inspired by my big brother to stand firm in the gap for equal access to quality health care.
29:07Rachel decided that we were going to get up and work.
29:10Right out of the hospital and removing multiple tubes from my tracheostomy.
29:17Rachel has this funny idea and says, hey, your brother has a new special coming out, a documentary on his life.
29:26Would you like to do some voiceovers?
29:27Mind you, and I'm not making light of this, but I know you've seen that commercial with a lady that can't speak because she has a hole in her throat from maybe smoking or something.
29:40Well, that's how I literally look.
29:42There was a massive gap.
29:43So it took a while to heal.
29:44But for some reason, Rachel believed that I could actually go back and do voiceovers because I had been doing syndicated radio for many years.
29:53So part of this recovery and triumph is having people around you who believe in you.
30:04And I can imagine Reverend Sharpton saying, oh, I don't think my little brother's going to like that if he wakes up and you send him to die.
30:25So, again, within the medical crisis, we decided to step up in Dr. Sharpton fashion.
30:38We marched on Washington.
30:42We found out that Medicare was no longer covering the number one thing for me to survive and to continue to survive and thrive, which was the cost of blood testing for organ rejection.
31:02Organ rejection is something very unique.
31:04Like, you can see me now and say, hey, Al, you don't look like what you've been through.
31:10Hey, keep it going.
31:11You look great.
31:13And then tomorrow I may be gone.
31:15With organ rejection, it comes like that.
31:21So Medicare at one point was covering this blood testing to check for changes in enzymes and things of that nature.
31:32But they were no longer doing it.
31:33But this was also affecting the community.
31:36It's killing 50 to 75,000 of us per year.
31:42We can't take off of work.
31:45We can't get a biopsy.
31:47It's just way too much.
31:50It's just like Miss Johnson in the neighborhood.
31:53She's either got to pay her rent, buy her medicine, or die.
32:00And it sounds harsh, but it's the truth.
32:05I've learned to speak power to truth from Dr. Sharpton on many occasions when they challenged him.
32:13So I don't want to be much longer, but I just want to say thank you for the prayers.
32:17We will continue standing in the gap.
32:23We're thankful to the Economic Black, the Global Black Economic Forum for the recognition.
32:31We're not going to get it solved ourselves.
32:35But while we are here, I damn sure are going to continue fighting for us in the community.
32:45Amen, amen.
32:48I wanted to just point out that the work that we've been doing in this health equity coalition
32:56has many, many senior advisors and people that have been working with us.
33:01And in the front row is one of the legendary entertainers and hip-hop artists from Philadelphia
33:10who himself had a kidney transplant and almost lost his life.
33:15So Freeway, we welcome you.
33:17We thank you for your continued advocacy.
33:19Freeway in the building, y'all.
33:21Give him a hand.
33:22So just starting to close out, I think that the moment, as Reverend Sharpton talked about
33:34earlier, that we are in with the cuts, with the closures, there were several hospitals that
33:41actually closed yesterday.
33:43And so when we leave NOLA after we've been parting for four days with a purpose, what do we do?
33:52What are the next steps?
33:53How do we continue to fight the misinformation and the disinformation?
33:57So Rev, just one more time, if you could talk the political piece.
34:01We need to organize locally, be involved in your local community, start in your house,
34:08talking about health care, talking about voting.
34:11It's not going to be something that's going to change itself.
34:16We must be the change we seek.
34:18The 4th of July celebrates the independence of the country.
34:22Don't forget, in 1776, we had already been slaves for over 150 years.
34:28We got here in 1619.
34:30They didn't get independent from King George until 1776.
34:35So we were brought here to serve and to slave and to not get paid.
34:41Now we're going to pay ourselves.
34:42We're going to take care of ourselves.
34:44We're going to stand up for ourselves.
34:46We are not going back.
34:49Many of you are getting the flyers that we're marching on Wall Street on August 28th.
34:54Why are you going to Wall Street, Red Mail?
34:56The reason to go and rob banks.
34:58That's where the money is.
35:00We got to go and tell the people with the money we will not go back.
35:05And there's no greater champion in that than the global black economic foreigner.
35:10And that young brother, Alfonso David, give him a big hand.
35:17Mr. Al-Bishore, what next?
35:19Where do we go from here?
35:21Where do you continue to go to inspire others?
35:25Well, we have a multitude of projects to take on moving forward with this new bill that was passed.
35:40As Reverend Sharpton being our leader in this space, I'm one of his prominent soldiers who will hit the ground and take direction and figure out what the next steps are.
35:54As it relates to not necessarily having to fight the inevitable, but find a way to conquer it.
36:08We get tired fighting a lot.
36:11We have to do more thinking.
36:13Instead of playing checkers, we must play chess.
36:17Let the church say amen.
36:18Amen.
36:19So, we're excited.
36:22We're excited by many things.
36:24I can mention, I guess, I have a new book that's forthcoming on Simon & Schuster.
36:32It's called, Do You Believe Me Now?
36:37So, when you get a chance, it's available everywhere.
36:41It's already a bestseller on Amazon, and it hasn't come out yet.
36:45So, it's available for pre-sale.
36:47But I'm not here to talk about the book, per se.
36:49This is such an important issue because if I didn't have the blessing of having a Reverend Sharpton and a Rachel who have significant influence around the globe, calling my medical professionals to guide them to, you know, make the right decision and not just leave me on the table in the hallway.
37:10Not everybody has that privilege.
37:11So, I want to make sure that every one of us in the community is allowed the same privilege of having equal access to quality health care at all times, no matter what your tax bracket may be, your area code.
37:26Let the church say amen.
37:27Come on.
37:28It's important to do so.
37:30We are all equal here.
37:31So, we have to make sure that our government is recognizing that as well.
37:37Alfonso, we thank you for the forum.
37:41I'm going to try to get a picture with Freeway.
37:44Freeway, we would like for you to come up so we can take a picture.
37:51Come on.
37:52Give it up for Freeway.
37:54Yeah.
37:55Thank you all for joining us.
Comments