Rapper Waka Flocka Defends False Claim ‘Minorities Can’t Catch’ Coronavirus As Data Shows Otherwise

Source: Paras Griffin / Getty

Remember when rap music used to be known as the ghetto CNN for the way emcees kept the masses informed. Well, rapper Waka Flocka apparently wanted to make sure that everybody knew he was decidedly not from that era of hip-hop music. Instead, he was doubling down on his false claim that he made about “minorities” and the coronavirus pandemic. His newest claim came as data shows that Black people are disproportionately contracting and dying of the respiratory disease.

The rapper said just last month that he believed he was immune from contracting the COVID-19 respiratory illness that as of Tuesday has killed nearly 82,000 people and infected almost 1.5 million around the globe. That includes Black and brown people. The Grio covered it at the time and reported Waka Flocka’s money quote.

“It’s fake,” Waka Flocka said during a radio interview with his wife Tammy Rivera for Los Angeles’ REAL 92.3. “Minorities can’t catch it, we straight.”

Fast forward a few weeks later and Waka Flocka was, strangely enough, both backtracking and more resolute than ever about his claim. He tweeted a photo of cable news discussing his now-infamous quote that was accompanied by the caption: “When headlines and a five second clip means more then the actual story… at this point I feel like a lot of finger pointing going on but hey I said it right.”

His caption seemed to suggest his words were taken out of context but he seemed resigned to the fact that he would own those words, for better and for worse.

New data has shown an apparent surge of Black people not just contracting the respiratory disease but also dying of complications from it. From the Associated Press to the New York Times to multiple local news outlets like those in Milwaukee and Michigan and Chicago, there was no shortage of reports over the weekend about the unfortunate trend. The news came as the country braced for what may be the deadliest week yet during the coronavirus crisis.

Before the date came out over the weekend, there was an unproven widespread belief that Black people could not contract the coronavirus even as reports across the country showed examples proving otherwise. While those notions were debunked by health officials, it would appear that not everybody was listening.

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