Rachael Gunn. Credit: AP.
OLYMPIC BREAKDANCING; GIMME A BREAK
If you don’t know, 36-year-old Australian “breakdancer” Rachael Gunn (aka “Raygun”) has gone viral for her last-place performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics breakdancing competition. Gunn, a white college professor with a Ph.D in Cultural Studies, earned her doctorate by writing a 355-page thesis on Breakdancing. And that point is kinda important. As a #blackhomeeducators TikTok post points out, it makes perfect sense how “Raygun,” who is objectively horrendous at breakdancing, could be a participant in a global competition to determine the planet’s best breakdancer. Why? Because “Columbus-ing” (cultural appropriation) is a phenomenon well-known in all aspects of life, but especially at the college level. There, white academics have the “caucastic” nerve to think their study of Black culture gives them the authority to claim expertise over Black culture. The sister who posted the TikTok “Raygun” commentary said, “This [Columbus-ing] is so prevalent that it has made its way to the f*cking Olympics. White supremacy is a helluva drug.” FYI, this whitewashed breakdancing won’t be coming to the 2028 LA Olympics.
Tim Scott (right). Credit:AP/Charlie Neibergall.
BLACK REPUBLICANS, WHASSUP?
Back in the day, me and a Black GOP friend would have long, deep debates over politics and global issues. I took a progressive stance on local, national, and global happenings. He went the GOP’s fiscally conservative, small-government route. And after arguing, we would go out and “fight the power” together for Black people’s liberation. But today’s Black Republicans are on some different kinda stuff. Their favorite line is “Black people need to get off the Democrat plantation.” But yo, the Republican Party is nearly 95% white. So, who’s really on a plantation? Not only that, “back-in-the-day” Black Republicans were Black and fought for Black people and Black issues. Today, they literally vote against Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court, attack Pres. Obama with the racist birtherism lies, support the voter suppression of Black and Brown people, attacks policies and social programs that helped them personally (hello Uncle Thomas), celebrates and defends cops who abuse and kill unarmed Black people, denigrates Black history and Black studies, and support a full-on white supremacist POTUS candidate and his white nationalist, neo-nazi cabal. It’s inexplicable, yet very simple to understand. Unlike my back-in-the-day Black Republican homie (who long ago left that party), these modern-day “skinfolk-not-kinfolk” aren’t on the GOP “plantation” because of principles or belief in the GOP platform. It’s all about what media personality and author Clay Cane’s best-selling book speaks to – “The Grift” – how to get money and fame by willingly being more anti-Black than the Klan.
Kamala Harris. Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin.
IT’S NOT WHAT THEY CALL YOU THAT MATTERS
Serial-lying, 26-time accused and one-time convicted sex offender, six-time bankrupt, twice impeached and 34-time convicted felon Donald Trump has made a name for himself calling people “out-they-names.” He’s got a demeaning, sexist or racist or classist or just plain “ignant” nickname for anyone and everyone he’s afraid of. And true to form, he’s called the Democratic Party’s candidate for President of the United States, VP Kamala Harris, “out-her-name.” He’s called her “crazy,” “fake,” “incompetent,” “lying” and “low IQ.” Drumpf (Trump’s original family name) has recently taken to calling Harris “Kamabla,” though folk aren’t sure if that’s a nickname he gave her or just his cognitive lapses showing. Anyway, most recently, it’s been “revealed” that Trump has called Harris a “b*tch” on several occasions. I put “revealed” in air quotes because ain’t nobody surprised by that. But more importantly, like every Black elder who has ever “eldered” has said at some point in their “eldering,” “It’s not what they call you that matters; it’s what you answer to.” And though white privilege may allow Trump to avoid ever being called “inmate,” come this November, VP Harris will be answering to the name “Madame President.”
