Media Silent on Anti-Hispanic Racism at Cali Basketball Tourney, Olympian Want to Win Gold/Burn the Flag Because...Trump?! COVID Increases Plastic Surgery (The Five for 06/25/21)
Hey welcome to The Five.
Well this is a weird one…my basement flooded last night and so I didn't get to finish.
So I'm just scheduling this for my phone to send at the regular time without proofing and with two of the five stories semi-incomplete.
Most of the feedback is that people love the five because it's there every Tuesday and Friday at noon no matter what.
Today I choose done over perfect.
[one]
Well I was going to write about this crazy Britney Spears situation but since I can't finish this I recommend this NPR article about how situations like this actually aren't uncommon in the music industry.
I didn't get to read/research on this topic like I wanted to…but this scared the heck out of me:
[two]
In a year where the word “racism” essentially drives the news cycle, it’s stunning when blatant racism is more or less ignored by the mainstream media. One of the more disgusting incidents of blatant racism broke out at a high school championship game in California, and the story has been largely absent from the media.
The San Diego Union Tribune reports:
Coronado school district leaders apologized Sunday to Orange Glen High — a predominantly Latino school in Escondido — after tortillas were hurled at the school’s boys basketball team during an altercation in the aftermath of a championship game Saturday night.
Coronado police said they would be investigating the incident.
It marks the third incident condemned as racist in San Diego County high school sports in recent years. For Coronado, the incident comes as its school district — which serves predominantly White students — examines how to root out racism in its schools.
Saturday’s tumult unfolded after Coronado won the game, 60-57, in overtime at home. Coaching staff on both sides were squabbling when, according to video shared on social media, at least two Coronado players chucked tortillas.
Observations:
A). Growing up in a biracial extended family with Laotian and Filipino cousins, I had a wonderfully diverse, accepting upbringing. It wasn’t until I became an adult that some of my white, liberal (and often costal) friends confessed to me that their “nice, white, liberal” parents took issue with them dating/marrying a person from another race. If you think Midwest/Southern, Rural & Republican=bigot and Costal & College Educated=accepting, I’ve got a lifetime of anecdotal evidence that says otherwise…and a new piece info fresh out of California just got added to the file.
B). High school sports can get really, really messed up, really quickly. Studies show that dysfunctional people tend to take over groups if they’re not checked by a very strong presence. Stand up to the bullies (but don’t get arrested).
C). In a week that produced a headline about how COVID+Traffic Accidents=Racism, how did tangible racism, carried out in the open, coming from a white school that has a recent history of racism at sporting events…get ignored? As someone who spent half his career in media, I believe that many working in the mainstream media care far more about website clicks and “personal brand” than telling the stories of actual, flesh and blood, victims.
D). Between this and the large number of cases of sexual and physical abuse (and death) are rampant in minors who continue to cross the U.S. southern border…there’s a valid case for asking whether or not the mainstream media has an anti-Hispanic bias.
E).
[three]
The controversial post from Chelsea Wolfe, the first trans BMX rider to represent the U.S. at the Olympics.
The first trans BMX rider on Team USA wants to “win gold” in order to burn the American flag on the podium.
Fox News interviewed controversial athlete Chelsea Wolfe:
"Anyone who thinks that I don't care about the United States is sorely mistaken," Wolfe told Fox News. "One of the reasons why I work so hard to represent the United States in international competition is to show the world that this country has morals and values, that it's not all of the bad things that we're known for. I take a stand against fascism because I care about this country and I'm not going to let it fall into the hands of fascists after so many people have fought and sacrificed to prevent fascism from taking hold abroad. As a citizen who wants to be proud of my home country, I'm sure as hell not going to let it take hold here."
Journalist Ian Miles Cheong first reported on Wolfe's post. Wolfe also reportedly joked about exploding former president Donald Trump's head.
"I would never say that someone should explode the head of the president. That would be illegal," Wolfe wrote in Facebook comments according to a screenshot posted by Cheong. "But I will say ‘with dynamite.’ Because that's just a sentence fragment and doesn't actually mean anything. It's not necessarily related to the sentence that came before it.
There’s certainly a tradition of protesting at the Olympics, but until now athletes were protesting current events rather than the past.
Given that Trump is not in the White House and Bill Bar is not the Attorney General, it’s unclear as to what legislative change Wolfe is demanding, or exactly what the where the aforementioned “fascism” in the U.S. is allegedly popping up—in the Trump or Biden administration.
[four]
Thanks to the basement flood I also didn't finish this one so here's the story I was going to write about…the covid lockdowns may have increased the demand for cosmetic surgery.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
Fast 9 is in theaters, which is as good a litmus test on audience confidence in returning to the multiplex post-pandemic. The reviews are average to poor, but if you’re going to see this one, you don’t care.
Black Widow hits theaters and Disney+ ($30, or wait for it to stream for free with a D+ subscription) on July 9th, the first Marvel movie in two years. The review embargo is still in place, but early social media reactions from critics hint that this will be the big hit of summer (sorry, aforementioned race car/spy/whatever you are movie).
Netflix released a barnburner of a trailer for The Harder They Fall, with an all African American cast in the leading roles, including Idris Elba (Luther, Thor: Ragnarok), the (still highly underrated) Lakeith Stanfield (Knives Out, Selma), Zazie Beets (Joker, Deadpool 2) and Regina King (Ray, If Beale Street Could Talk) lead the cast. Roughly 1/4 of cowboys in the 1800’s were black, with many former slaves seeking fortune, adventure and a better life in the American west. I’m a huge fan of westerns, and they don’t make too many of those any more.
MUSIC: new albums from Ellie Holcomb, Modest Mouse, Goo Goo Dolls, Jimmie Allen and Tyler the Creator. (Sorry that this section was short and doesn't contain links..blame the basement flood!)
[epilogue]
If you thought that cartography (the science and art of mapmaking) died when, well, humans discovered everything…you’d be (mostly) right.
However, a new discovery was made in 2007 via Google Maps (really) by hobbyist Josh Calder who discovered a third order island in Canda’s Northwest Territories: an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island.
The nearest human civilization is more than 90 miles away, so in all likelihood, the third order island has never been visited by people.
The unpopulated parts of Canada are so riddled with lakes and islands, it’s still quite possible that there are still undiscovered third order islands to be found, for anyone who wants to spend hundreds of hours scouring Google Maps.
Until the next one,
-sth