Dr. Minaj, is that you? People on social media had a lot to say when rapper Nicki Minaj tweeted that a COVID vaccination gave her cousin’s friend swollen testicals, left him impotent and resulted in a canceled wedding. We look at the power of celebrity, how public health communications can intersect with misinformation campaigns, and how the U.S. government failed us, yet again, in protecting us from a global pandemic.
Dr. Minaj, is that you? People on social media had a lot to say when rapper Nicki Minaj tweeted that a COVID vaccination gave her cousin’s friend swollen testicles, left him impotent and resulted in a canceled wedding. We look at the power of celebrity, how public health communications can intersect with misinformation campaigns, and how the U.S. government failed us, yet again, in protecting us from a global pandemic.
Host: Eteng Ettah
Producer: Genevieve Montinar
Original Music Compositions by: Brandon Bagaason
Clip 1: Credit- Posted by WatztheWord on YouTube “Nicki Minaj’s Instagram Live Comments on the Vaccination”
Clip 2: Credit- Posted by TTT Live Online on YouTube “Ministry of Health's Virtual Media Conference - Wednesday 15th September 2021”
Clip 3: Credit- Posted by TTT Live Online on YouTube “Ministry of Health's Virtual Media Conference - Wednesday 15th September 2021”
Clip 4: Credit- Posted by Washington Post on YouTube “13 times Trump said the coronavirus would go away”
Clip 5: Credit- Posted by CNBC Television on YouTube “President Donald Trump downplays the need for the coronavirus vaccine”
View the transcript here: https://actually-hold-up.simplecast.com/episodes/hold-up-nicki-minaj-giving-medical-advice/transcript
You can check out Copaganda Clapback here: https://mediajustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Copaganda-Clapback_1.pdf
Make sure to follow MediaJustice on Twitter (X) @mediajustice and on Instagram @MediaJustice
Clip 1: 0:01
If I want to ask questions about the vaccine, what's wrong? What's wrong?
So now there's this gang up for me to say alright, you know what you guys Hey everyone, okay, I'm just take the vaccine and now I see why celebrities distanced themselves from y'all.
Clip 2: 0:23
Claims are being made. One of the reasons we could not respond yesterday, in real time to miss Minaj is that we had to check and make sure that what she was claiming was either true or false on unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim.
Eteng Ettah: Throwback to when Nicki Minaj tweeted that the COVID vaccine caused her cousin's friend's testicles to swell up leading his bride-to-be to cancel the wedding. What a time. these unverified and very public claims made by Minaj during the peak of the COVID pandemic, and vaccine rollout wasn't just a passive comment taking place on Twitter, but part of a larger conversation about the prevalence of misinformation surrounding this virus and its vaccine. But what's the media's role in helping you sort out fact from fiction during a global pandemic? Hi, I'm Eteng Ettah with MediaJustice, and welcome to "Actually... Hold Up" where we break down what you don't know about the stories you think you know, and why.
Eteng Ettah: 1:44
Misinformation is rampant and popular stories often come to us from the media in a manipulated way. Don't worry, though, that's where we come in. For this episode, we're breaking down how a tweet from Nicki Minaj led to numerous responses by government officials and how those same officials play a role in the way misinformation spreads to you in the media.
Celebrities know how to be relatable, and that might be why we feel like we have more in common with them than say the average politician. When celebs get the chance to tell their stories. They often frame themselves as people who get it, people like you and I so when you have a prominent person saying she's worried about the safety of the vaccine, because it ended her cousin's friend's marriage. Even though there's no evidence to show that this particular vaccine causes testicular swelling, it will no doubt give some people pause about its safety.
And given the extensive history of government policies and medical interventions rooted in anti blackness and systemic neglect. BIPOC communities have substantiated reasons to be skeptical of the US government, especially when you consider our negative experiences with vaccines in the US throughout history.
In this episode, we'll look at how government and health officials tried and failed to curb misinformation about the vaccine and COVID because BIPOC communities are the hardest hit communities when it comes to this pandemic. Examining the way people in power use different methods to address harmful misinformation is key to understanding what can be done to make sure our communities are safe.
You think you know you're the only line of defense when it comes to inaccurate information online. But what happens when the government attempts to protect people by using the media to stop the spread of misinformation?
Eteng Ettah: As COVID quickly became part of our everyday vocabulary in 2020 and 2021. In particular, the struggle to understand how it worked and protect ourselves from it also rose. What's the best type of mask to use? How many feet do we need to stand away from each other to not catch it? How many different types of events can we host on Zoom?
Now COVID is still very much alive and well today, but we want to zero in on this specific time in 2021. A little more than a year into the pandemic. A lot of conversation was still happening not only about who to trust when it came to getting info about this virus, but how long it would continue to disrupt life as we knew it. This was a really vulnerable time, especially when it came to misinformation. And this is where Nicki Minaj's tweet comes in.
In September of 2021. Rapper Nicki Minaj tweeted to her 22 point 6 million followers at the time: "Well, my cousin and Trinidad won't get the vaccine because his friend got it. It became important. his testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married. Now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it and make sure you're comfortable with your decision not bullied".
And yes, before you ask as of June 2020 23, when we recorded this episode, the tweet is still very much up. Well, no one is arguing that Nicki Minaj or musicians and celebrities in general are the go to experts on public health issues. There is a conversation to be had about how someone with such a massive following is able to spread information that has categorically been debunked, and determined to be false by various governments and actual public health officials.
It's also important to mention that this Minaj tweet didn't come completely unprompted, but was a result of her explaining why she wasn't attending the Met Gala, since there was a requirement to be vaccinated in order to attend.
Following these tweets, we saw an overwhelming amount of response from different organizations and governments, which was pretty notable given it was because of a celebrity comment posted online. What made Minaj's comment stand out was that there had already been a pattern of misinformation surrounding COVID. And so fears about the vaccines that were meant to address this virus.
Governments all around the world were tasked to figure out how to stop the spread of COVID and what measures could be taken to minimize exposure, but they faced fierce opposition COVID deniers and the anti-Vax movement, while the science of the virus spoke for itself, and there were millions of cases where individuals either contracted COVID Or even died, the existence of COVID was still debated. It's important to underscore that the US government didn't help the matter either.
They dragged their feet when it came to taking the virus seriously. When shutdowns were encouraged in order to prevent the spread of COVID. The focus was on the quickest timelines, businesses could open, and when people were falling, Ill needed time off to recover or when it was generally advised that people should not be showing up to jobs in person, an emphasis was placed on when people can come back to work.
So make no doubt about it. The US government played a major role in prolonging the COVID pandemic, which led to the death of over 1 million people. As of May 2023. Capitalism kills and the US government's dedication to keeping this economic system alive proves this the most. The Minaj tweets reflect a moment in time that government leaders and public health officials did the bare minimum to step in to address misinformation, and will be a point of focus for our conversation.
The media definitely had a field day with this story, everyone from CNN to BuzzFeed to the casual Twitter user, we're all talking about this Minaj tweet. It wasn't just a matter of making fun of a celebrity who alleged that her cousin's friend became important and had swollen testicles as a result of the COVID vaccine.
But because it contributed to a larger social conversation that the vaccine was unsafe and fueled concern on his mass stage, with millions of people being exposed to this unverified information during a global pandemic. It's not uncommon for government officials or politicians to weigh in on controversial statements, particularly ones that spread misinformation about issues that are important to them.
Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media Politics and Public Policies Technology and Social change program led by Dr. Joan Donovan has identified a recurring pattern of when members of the government or activists step in when this happens and take to the media as part of their concept called the media manipulation cycle.
Government officials who wanted their people to get vaccinated saw this information as harmful to their public health campaigns, but also as an opportunity to educate the very people they were trying to reach.
Let's take Trinidad for example. This island nation was the original focus of Minaj's tweet and they moved swiftly to address the misinformation during a press conference which happened a day after Minaj's tweet was posted, Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh directly address the tweet
Clip 3: 10:00
because we take all these claims seriously, whether it's on social media or mainstream media, as we stand now, there is absolutely no reported such side effect or adverse event of the stimulus valid in Trinidad or I don't think, dr. Heinz anywhere else, none that we know of anywhere else in the world.
Eteng Ettah: This response not only was seen in Trinidad, but widely seen across the globe, it was the Trinidad Ian's Government's way of debunking misinformation on a large scale publicly and loudly. This press conference clip was picked up by many in the media and stood in stark contrast to what Minaj had boldly alleged online.
This public intervention is one method use to curb the spread of misinformation. As we know government officials hold very large platforms, and their message can be spread even farther than just their respective countries. This puts them in a unique position to tackle misinformation in ways that folks with smaller platforms could not Trinidad's response to Minaj's claims were significant because it highlighted the gaps and how misinformation was able to spread.
So much room was created for people to believe when Nicki Minaj said because of the fact that there was so much distrust for the vaccine. Many high profile individuals in the US, for example, wanted to discount the severity of COVID, which also included former US President Donald Trump. Here's what he had to say in February 2020.
Clip 4: "A lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat as the heat comes in. Typically that will go away in April"
Eteng Ettah: three months later, in May 2020. As we see cases start to rise again, the media turns to the commander in chief to get his thoughts on whether vaccines against COVID can be developed quickly, and Trump says this,
Clip 5: "but again, you know, it's not solely vaccine based. Other things have never had a vaccine and they go away. So I don't want people to think that this is all dependent on vaccine"
Eteng Ettah: Having the leader of a country downplay the severity of a pandemic, no doubt has had an impact on those who may have not had much information on this virus and the harms that it could cause.
Trump's remarks underscore that though we looked to our government and public health officials for guidance and answers, they themselves also contributed to the misinformation around the virus and vaccine, with the government failing to lead on tackling COVID, Especially during the beginning of the pandemic, when they were essentially telling us not to worry, it makes sense that once they switched up and started sounding alarm bells, people would either be hesitant or resistant towards this 180 degree shift.
Eteng Ettah: 13:13
All right. I'm so excited to welcome our guests today. Rumsha Sajid.
[applause]
Rumsha is an organizer, writer and facilitator. She's a beloved comrade. She works as MediaJustice's National Field organizer on policing and surveillance. She's also the co author of a very exciting new curriculum called Copaganda Clapback. Thank you so much, Rumsha for joining me.
Rumsha Sajid: Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here.
Eteng Ettah: Absolutely. So I'm so excited that we're talking about this because we've initially bonded over our love of pop culture and petty conversations. So this feels very, very fitting for us to get into so if you can remember I know time moves weird. In general, the 2020s time has been moving weird and it's hard to track. But if you are able to remember where were you when you first saw this tweet about Nicki's cousins, friends, etc, or heard about the tweet, and what was your initial reaction?
Rumsha Sajid: Well, let me preface this by saying I am not on Twitter like that. So I wasn't you know, at the time, I was like a movement researcher for the stop LAPD spying coalition. And I did I was present in the way that I wanted to be tapped into what movements were saying, but I did see this. I knew it was a big day on Caribbean diasporic Twitter.
And I think my initial reaction was, I see it I see this whole situation as like a consequence of our media system that we don't own and that we don't create. It was such an intense time of medical distrust. I think especially for like black and brown communities, it was a time of medical distrust.
We know at the time, like black folks in particular, were disproportionately being affected by COVID. And still are. And I think what, what it really wanted, what I really felt in that moment was like, We need other people like community actors, government tech companies to do their part to ensure that like, we have timely public health messages that serve everyone and all communities.
Eteng Ettah: Yeah, no, I feel that it was definitely a day on Twitter. And I feel like, you know, just plus one to what you're naming that this is very much a consequence of our media system. Twitter is one of those things. And you know, we can have a whole conversation about Twitter and the spread of misinformation.
But it was one of those days where like, who's gonna be the main character today on Twitter. And so I feel like I saw the reaction tweets first and was like, something's gone down. I'm not sure what's happened. And it's a very frustrating, but also invigorating moment when you're trying to search for what what is the origin tweet that everyone is talking about? And so when I found it, I was like, Oh, wow, okay, this is extremely specific, kind of ridiculous. And it made me think about the millions of people Nicki Minaj, has has access to and so I was like, Dang, this is funny, I'm laughing. And I'm also like, so many people are going to get this message before they get the message from public health officials.
And I appreciate that you're already touching on this particular moment. But historically, for very, very valid reasons. There's been so many reasons why our communities are really skeptical of messages from the government. I want to zoom out a little bit from Nicki Minaj, just to speak more about the influence that celebrities have in general, celebrity is not new, we know that what's also not new is that many celebrities say all the time that they don't intend to be a role model, or what is different about being a celebrity today is that they have these massive online platforms, their fandoms can follow them can interact with them 24/7, which opens things up for misinformation, whether intentional or not.
And so before I get into my next question, I kind of want to take us through an exercise. And if you're listening to this, you can do the same but so let's let's close our eyes and consider our favorite celebrity. And maybe it's a celebrity favorite of all time, or someone who is just really having a moment. This feels important, because when it's a celebrity spreading misinformation that we don't like, it's very easy to be like, oh, yeah, they should have done XY and Z. But if it is that person, we have a little bit of a soft spot for I feel like things get a little tricky. So I'm curious, do you think we let our guards down when it comes to our favorite celebrities? And what ways does that open the door for us to accept misinfo?
Rumsha Sajid: Oh, totally. I think we've definitely let our guards down when it comes to our favorites in a lot of ways, like that message felt really out of left field, because she seems like someone you could listen to in different contexts. Maybe not medical advice, though.
Eteng Ettah: Fair, fair. And it's, it's like, yeah, maybe we don't go. We don't look to musicians and reality TV stars for that type of information. But you touched on a good point that Nicki is someone who very much a rags to riches story. So like, if you are from New York City, like it's very easy to see something in her that you know, feels a lot more tangible or like closer to you and I's experience versus a public health professional. Do you think there's a particular responsibility or role that celebrities have when it comes to misinfo?
Rumsha Sajid: I do. I mean, and I think it comes from a place of, you know, celebrities have so many resources, like they have full PR teams dedicated to saying the right thing. And so I don't put it necessarily on the celebrity as much as I put it on, like, you have a team that should be doing better. And you have the resources to have a team that should be doing better, as again, it's the state of our media system, where like celebrities are given this larger than life presence.
And they are given this like responsibility of being a role model in some ways for young people that I don't always think is fair, but I do think is there nonetheless, as consumers, there is a level of like, please talk to your doctors about medical advice and not a celebrity. There's like the platform's positioning in that too, is that social media platforms can't just like flag things as potential COVID disinformation they need to completely remove it right like it needs to be reported and removed and taken seriously by the platform itself as well.
So I do think that celebrities are responsible. But I think there's a lot of other levers within our media system that need to like take responsibility as well, because it's inevitable that celebrities will share disinformation.
Eteng Ettah: I really appreciate you bringing in the platforms here too, because like you've named Facebook, Twitter, all of these places, one are always trying to skirt accountability. It's it's very, very clear that the messages and the content that is on social media has an impact on our ability to move throughout the world is reinforcing systems and structures that our communities are fighting against. And so it's not enough to just have the little like community guideline that folks may not even scroll down far enough to be able to witness that, again, it's going back to the ways that our system is failing our folks.
And so I want to switch gears a little bit. Because we're talking about Nicki Minaj, his tweet as a example of the tons of misinformation disinformation around COVID, and in particular, the vaccine rollout. And so to ground us even more, I want to just read a quote from Dr. Fauci, who's the former chief medical adviser. And so Fauci made this comment when in response to misinformation. So he said, "The only way we know to counter myths and disinformation is to provide a lot of correct information"
considering the ways that the US government failed us and is neglectful when it came to and continues to come to COVID response. I'm curious, how does that statement land from you now that we're bringing in someone who is a public health official? And do you agree with that being one of the best ways to counter myths and disinfo?
Rumsha Sajid: Hmm, the only way to counter myths and disinformation is to provide a lot of correct information, yes and no, right, because I think that there is this oversaturation of information that we all experience that is overwhelming. I also think about how like, I think there's a statistic out there that like not enough people have an above fourth grade reading level in the US, I think there's a lot of layers to assuming that people will be able to sift through all of that information.
Sometimes it's not about throwing more information at people. And instead being on the defense from the beginning, I was introduced to this concept of pre-bunking information by our partners at first draft, which is when you share media messaging before any sort of counter narratives reach someone, and so you're supposed to sort of like inoculate someone with the correct information before disinformation reaches them. And to me, I think that's one of the most effective ways and there's been plenty of studies that talk about how we need to reach people before the disinformation reaches them in order to fully have people fight back against the disinfo and mis info they're receiving.
I don't think that what Fauci saying is the only way I think in some ways it's kind of harmful, because there are people are oversaturated with with info every day, and we need more grounded messaging from the beginning.
Eteng Ettah: You know, we're in a unique space where misinformation and disinformation is by no means like new, but what is new is this current information landscape, to your point of folks are being completely inundated to the point where it's like, okay, this is, you know, even if you're the most savvy or consider yourself really, really well versed and misinformation, and then also considering the ways that platforms are legit changing what feels like hourly.
So the ways we're getting information changes all the time. And so we're up against a lot. There's just a lot of decisions folks need to make when consuming information.
Rumsha Sajid: Exactly. It's, it's some ways it's kind of unreasonable to assume that if we just throw more information at people, they'll be able to figure it out on their own. What you're saying kind of reminds me of in New York City, when they had like different symbols for like to mask or not mask on public transportation.
Yeah, in some ways. It's like our public health officials are kind of unserious, and how they're trying to push this messaging and make it sound cool and interesting to us. When really, it's like y'all just need to be direct. And like, what's what's necessary to keep ourselves safe. And in this era of like, state abandonment, related to COVID, especially right now and 2020. Through we just we still need them to do better, and we need to demand better.
Eteng Ettah: I appreciate you naming that. There's ways that public health officials try to dress up the information versus at a time where like, you need to be able to make quick decisions about how to stay safe, ending up getting mixed messages. And so I'm curious, you know, something I'm also thinking about, to your point about state abandonment is that as I've seen so many ways communities have kind of stepped in.
And so we know that's not new, just the landscape we're in is different. But communities have always stepped up to kind of fill the gap or the needs, where governments should be. But we know that that's not an expectation we can have. So I'm curious, what ways have you seen our communities effectively approach combating the spread of misinformation by our media? And it could be, you know, were people doing things after the Nicki tweet to be like, okay, hey, let's have a conversation about this. Or it could be even broader than that. So yeah, what is how have communities been stepping up?
Rumsha Sajid: Yeah, I mean, I've seen a lot of different ways communities have stepped up. I think right now I look a lot to the peoples CDC for their constant statistics and guidance on like, how do we engage in person safely, the people CDC is like a project out of folks feeling abandoned by the CDC and CDC inflating statistics on COVID are hiding statistics on COVID cases and people turning to like wastewater data. Instead, I think in a lot of ways people find the data by talking to their communities and just having conversations with people.
And then also by like creating those collectives, like the people CDC, I also think about efforts from like civil society organizations and researchers, this conversation is bringing up for me, this amazing report written by Brandi Collins, Dexter called Canaries in the Coal Mine, and it talks about myths and disinformation targeting black communities. And in that research, she goes through different types of myths and disinformation that were put out in 2020, about black people and COVID and how it spread. And I thought that report was so so important for this conversation as well.
I want to make sure I didn't miss that as well. Please go read it, y'all. It's a very, very good synopsis of sort of like this era of 2020 that we're talking about. But yeah, in general, I think a lot of people have have been taking care of each other, taking care of one another in ways that are like informal and also teaching one another, like how to do care, once they get COVID. How to take care of other people how to prevent spread all of those pieces. I think our community driven at this point gets happening every day through like local mutual aid, even here in Chicago, of people sharing masks and things like that. As we're calling to task our government and media platforms.
Eteng Ettah: I think what continues to give me hope is the ways that communities have have stepped up and helping get one another the material needs that we have as well as whether it's laughter, humor, or finding ways to start conversations like this. I know many conversations sparked from this tweet.
And so if there is an upside, maybe perhaps that might have been in that situation. I'm also thinking about I appreciate you naming Brandi Collins Dexter shoutout to her. She's incredible, which makes me think about the media manipulation cycles. So as a part of the Actually project and the season is that we're finding pop culture stories to pair with different stages within the media manipulation cycle as a way to get folks thinking about the deliberate ways that we get messages in a skewed way.
So um, this episode, we're focused on stage three, which is responses by activists, politicians and journalists, I'd love to hear what unique role do you think these members play? In particular when it comes to misinfo and disinfo? And its spread? And then what are some steps that people listening right now everyday people can take to make sure there's just more truth out there?
Rumsha Sajid: I do think that activists and politicians and journalists play very different roles in that media ecosystem. I think journalists have been fed this farce of objectivity that they can always be objective in their reporting. And I don't know if that's true. In a lot of ways, what journalists can do to support our movements and to support community is to talk to community and hear like what is the source of harm in these situations, activists in a lot of ways have to be those connectors between journalists and like community interests, and really speaking to the ways that myths and disinformation are harming our communities.
And then lastly, I think politicians are totally in some ways like the most accountable and a need to be the most accountable as people who hold a lot of power in these situations. Politicians need to constantly improve their messaging and improve what they say we should do. I think oftentimes, like the good oh two messages just go out there and vote from politicians and not a lot about like the critical pieces or critical thinking behind it in a lot of ways I think politicians can be really out of touch with with like media messaging and like what works best and in ways that make it sound most cohesive and also most clear to its to their audience.
And so I think that's a big piece. And some steps that we can take as viewers and listeners and people who are impacted to make sure truth is out there is it makes me think of this Yuri Kochiyama quote, where she says "the most powerful weapon for women of color is to go out there and tell the truth".
And I returned to that quote, a lot, especially in this work, where I think some of the best things that we can do is constantly tell our stories. And in the work that I've been doing at MJ, so much of it is about encouraging people to share, what are you firsthand on the ground witnessing and experiencing? And how are we translating that into a message for more people to hear and see, I think journalists in particular have that task of translating what's happening on the ground to other people and amplifying it. And I think politicians have to be responsive and receptive to that in order to be accountable to the communities they serve.
Eteng Ettah: I love that quote, it reinforces that there's, there's just so much wisdom in community. And so I love the ways that a lot of this is coming back to being clear and truthful about what we are witnessing and and I love just the the ripple effect and the potential of folks hearing those different stories of communities in their own in their own as well. And so you started to touch on media justice, which is a beautiful segue, because I'm so excited about the Copaganda Clapback curriculum, we've talked about celebrities, activists, journalists, and we can't talk about Misinfo without talking about police and the ways that our media spreads police narratives.
And so tell us a little bit more about this project. And what are some of the key takeaways from it?
Rumsha Sajid: Yeah, to start, I mean, the project came out of one on one listening sessions with our MediaJustice Network, we did nearly a dozen listening sessions asking people what types of disinformation are harmful for their work and prevent them from being able to do the work that they do. And police came up over and over again, in those conversations. And so we knew this project had to be focused on policing and disinformation, specifically how we call it propaganda. And that project I feel so honored to work on.
Because I think through the listening sessions, and through connecting with people, I heard how deeply personal the impacts of disinformation are for people in our network, specifically, people having severed friendships because of folks believing the pandemic is a hoax or intergenerational movement suffering, because often the media that our elders consume is very different from the media our youth consume, and how does that sort of create information gaps and disinformation between groups? In a lot of ways? I think it's been such an honor, because the impacts of this work are deeply personal. And I think us moving to do regional trainings with people across the country is because we know that disinformation and misinformation are very hyperlocal. And they need hyperlocal solutions.
And so that's why we're doing regional trainings with this curriculum across the country, really trying to get people to have these conversations about policing and disinformation and what they can do to fight back locally incredible work.
Eteng Ettah: I can only imagine the the tremendous labor and love and time that was put in this and it's really, I really appreciate you naming the origin story to of how this curriculum came to be, which continues just reinforcing what we've been been talking about.
So I've got two more questions for you. So the second one is a sillier one. So my first one is just any final thoughts. So you've dropped a lot of brilliance. And so if there's one or two things, we want to make sure our listeners heard from you. What would it be? Yeah, I would say the first is go read Canaries in the Coal Mine by Brandi Collins, Dexter to learn more about COVID, misinformation and black communities.
And then the second would be if you're interested in fighting back a bit against disinformation look into pre-bunking and what that means to inoculate your communities with information or share a narrative with your communities before the disinformation reaches them.
Eteng Ettah: So bringing it back to celebrity and I love a pop culture. I am curious if you feel comfortable sharing what celebrity of yours came to mind?
Rumsha Sajid: Mine was Rihanna. Oh, yeah. There's something about Rihanna that is just so perfectly curated to me. Of course, like you know, she is a billionaire.
And we could never be on the side of billionaires. But yeah, when we eat the rich I think, I think we all know in particular, Rihanna in particular is just on another level of billionaire to me. But she's just so polished. So amazing in every way.
Eteng Ettah: Yeah. Love, love Rihanna. I mean, I am such a big fan of pop music. So her era I'd feel grateful that I like, was alive.
Rumsha Sajid: Yeah. And I'm curious who your celebrity was.
Eteng Ettah: Yeah. So I love Abbott Elementary, as you know, so Tyler, James Williams came to mind. So if you're not watching Abbott elementary all I wouldn't be mad if you paused this went to watch Abbott Elementary, and then came back over.
We love the show. So he plays Gregory and folks might be most familiar with him from Everybody Hates Chris, what he I love his fashion in general, I love that we're just seeing a lot more of him in general.
And every time he's interviewed, it's really incredible. But there's one interview in particular, where I was like, Okay, I don't want to stand but like, whatever is the next thing to that. Like, I think this guy is really great. But so he was a child actor. And so in this interview, he's basically talking about how he'll go out of his way to make sure all the children actors are like, good. Have y'all eaten? And are you good. And the Abbott set from what I've read feels like it's a warm hug.
And everyone's like, great anyway, but he was like, I have been there. And so I want to make sure like, we have an environment where other child actors, whether like, they do this and they move on, or if they like want to keep acting, I want to make sure you have a really, really positive experience as a child and I was like, how could you not love him?
Rumsha Sajid: How could you not how could you not love Tyler James Williams, he's, he's really cool. I've also heard of that interview as well.
Eteng Ettah: Yeah, there's so much about him that is like really down to earth, even though he was a child actor and sort of like grew up in that environment, which I really appreciate. So I feel you Yeah, it's almost shocking that He's normal.
Like, okay, great. And I know his mom wrote a book about so clearly, I'm clearly a fan. Now. I'm like your interview by his fan. You're in it. But his mom wrote a book basically like, Okay, if you have a kid who's trying to be in Hollywood, like, here's what I did to like, have well adjusted children who are still in Hollywood.
So definitely prioritize reading the reports, eruption, and then maybe, you know, pick up Tyler's mom's book afterwards. So, but thank you so much for being in conversation with me. I really enjoyed this.And thank you so much.
Rumsha Sajid: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on.
Eteng Ettah: It's clear that when it comes to misinformation, there needs to be people and groups that step in to call it out and give people tools to get the correct information. During the height of the pandemic.
We really saw activists and people coming together to provide not only accurate information, but also material resources and develop mutual aid efforts to protect our people.
While some governments have been able to call out misinformation really well, like we saw in the Trinidadian government, and other governments allowed for misinformation to spread. As we saw in the US government. There's no doubt about the role that needs to be played in curbing the spread of misinformation, especially when it comes to our safety.
I'm Eteng and thanks for joining us on "Actually... Hold Up" where we break down what you don't know about the stories you think you know.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai