Please let's cancel cancel culture
I find James Corden's late night show entertaining, especially his "Carpool Karaoke" segments.
I find this sad and yet another example of how everything's going to offend someone.
Corden's show had a bit called "Spill Your Guts" in which he'd ask guests personal questions and if they refused to answer they had to eat gross food conceptions. I don't watch his show enough to say I've ever seen it, but it sounds harmless, I suppose.
Well, harmless in this day and age is a relative term because the cancel culture is real - and stupid and embarrassing and everywhere. Corden's segment, of course, offended someone because they believed that Asian food was being used too often and mocked, therefore the entire segment has now been bagged.
But wait there's more. The folks who were offended because Corden called certain Asian foods gross - we can't even have a personal opinion about which foods we think are "gross" without it being offensive to various groups of people? - are not happy with just ending the segment.
They want a full apology and - wait for it - donations to Asian organizations.
Good God, where are we as a culture?
This from the woman who started an online protest that generated 45,000-plus signatures on a petition at Change.org: "In my petition, I specifically asked for [Corden] to publicly apologize on his show, and the reason why I was really specific about that was because I think that it is imperative for his hundreds of thousands of viewers to understand the harm that mocking these foods, rooted in Asian cultures, has on Asian people who still eat them. Besides that, I still think he should be donating to Asian organizations as well."
I really wish I was kidding about this one.
And now from the media stand
Of course, there's more on the Gwen Berry story. The backlash. Dan Crenshaw saying she should be kicked off the Olympic team. Fox News doing a story on Berry and Berry putting "[Bleep] Fox News" on social media but not actually using bleep. It also included the White House press secretary voicing support for Berry's decision to shun the American flag during the national anthem after her effort to represent America in the Olympics over the weekend.
Funny place to be when we have the process to select our Olympic team to represent America and we wonder if those representatives will take purposeful action to be disrespectful to America's flag and anthem on their sports' grandest stage.
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
So it goes.
As for Biden's mouthpiece, well, it's exactly what you would expect.
As for Berry, I truly hope the USOC follows the guidelines it put in place and disciplines her, otherwise the Olympics next month will be filled with "Look at me and my cause" moments of protest for whatever cause du jour in an ever-increasing tide of self-indulgence.
That's right, self-indulgence, because I'm sure Berry thinks all of America hates her and Black people and puppies and the "Save the Whales" campaign is a farce and actually an effort to harvest dolphin meat for tuna snacks for our white privileged kids.
But it's also fair to wonder if her actions are as much about Berry's want for attention as it is her cause or a call to action.
Because there is great value in that in terms of the marketplace.
What started with a bold protest - yes, bold, because you can hate Colin Kaepernick and his anthem antics or love him and his gestures, but there's no denying what he did was bold and cost him his football gig - has become an everyday occurrence that borders on mundane and routine. Heck, when the NBA was in the bubble, it was only news when someone actually stood for the anthem because of religious beliefs.
It's an easy target and will always become a story because it's a ready-made controversy.
So, yes, I believe there are a lot of folks who do this to be part of the cause and the bonuses that come with that more than the cause itself. Look at Berry, who is the third-best hammer-thrower in our country, but has her own personal endorsement deal and is easily the most famous hammer-thrower since Thor.
Why? Because of the protest. Same with Macy Whoseherpants and the "Change the Flag" flap before her latest album dropped.
So it goes.
Now for the good news
Sports is and always has been more than sports. For that reason, the shut-up-and-dribble argument has never made sense to me.
(That said, the over-the-top efforts of social justice at ESPN national is head-scratching. It's impossible not to see the concerted effort to insert race in almost every instance imaginable in Bristol, and their double-standard defies logic. Imagine if Steve Levy said that a Black player on the US hockey team was a "token" addition the way Jalen Rose did about Kevin Love being a token white guy on the U.S. hoops squad. Levy would be fired before the next commercial break.)
Anywell, I am truly impressed and proud of our long-standing belief that sports is the last meritocracy in how the Carl Nassib story has evolved.
Nassib came out as the first openly gay NFL player last week. It made news because the first of anything almost always makes news.
But from there, it's been relatively quiet, and that's the best possible path considering that acceptance is generally met with silence.
And now there are stories like this one, in which Bruce Smith said that the Bills had a gay player on their roster in the 1990s and no one cared.
Excellent.
This and that
> Here's today's A2 offering with some positive reviews of a couple of new laws going into effect Thursday in Tennessee.
> Here's ace TFP sports columnist Mark Wiedmer getting out and sharing some wonderful views from the Firecracker Invitational at Brainerd Golf Club.
> Thought this was interesting, as TFP all-around ace David Paschall shares the details of possible governmental aid that could behoove the Lookouts.
> This was shocking to me. No, not that "Star Wars" changed the name of Boba Fett's ship, which was called Slave I. That there's a media outlet out there called "Jedi News" that was seeking comment about the decision. Wonder what the motto for the Jedi News is? "Consume news, you will." Nevermind the fact that the Star Wars online reference site is called "Wookiepedia." Awesome sauce.
> Another day, another Shohei Ohtani homer. So it goes. Dude has 26 home runs this season. Exit velocity on Ohtani's first homer at Yankee Stadium was 117.2. Yeah, that'll do.
> More news from Red Stick, and it's not good. This one is starting left tackle Dare Rosenthal entering the transfer portal after he violated team rules.
Today's questions
As Ernie is probably wondering, true or false, it's Tuesday.
True or false, there will be protests by Americans at the Olympics next month. (And very rarely mentioned in this conversation is how ironic that the country that everyone envies at the games is the one with the protests of how awful America is. Think the North Korean athletes just shake their head and mumble, "Yeah, you got it tough Gwen; my family is being held at gunpoint and won't be released if I don't medal.")
True or false, Shohei Ohtani is the best player in baseball.
True or false, The Hawks are dead meat without a healthy Trae Young.
True or false, you have a true-or-false question to ask.
As for today, June 29, let's review.
On this day in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed.
Harmon Killebrew would have been 85 today.
The movie "A.I." was released on this day 20 years ago. Stinker.
Happy birthday to Rick Honeycutt, who is 67 today.
Rushmore of professional Chattanooga-born sports stars starts with Reggie White, but does Honeycutt make it? Go.