Leftist-think: Disney Exec Blames Massive Box-Office Bombs on Bigoted Fans
This one pisses me off. Disney’s choice to play identity politics with an increasing number of its brands isn’t the problem — the fact that Disney’s audience won’t accept those politics is the problem.
There are many factors one could reasonably surmise contributed to Disney’s recent box office failures.
For one, the “not-so-secret-gay-agenda” being pushed by the once-family-friendly company. Pushing quantity over quality would be another contributor that even Disney’s CEO admitted is a problem. Betting it all on bloated-budget blockbusters that have to bring in $1 billion to be a success is another likely contributor.
One Disney executive reportedly thinks that the real issue is none of the above.
In that executive’s alleged opinion, Disney’s failures are the fault of racist and sexist fans.
Yes, you read that right. The report comes from Hollywood journalist Matthew Belloni, whose newsletter boasts an incredibly 15,000 paid and 35,000 unpaid subscribers.
Per Vulture, that newsletter, Puck, is praised across the news and Hollywood industries, so when Belloni mentions an anonymous source, it’s a relatively safe bet his sourcing is solid.
In response to the Feb. 15 installment of Puck, which elaborated on how the politicization of Disney’s brand has been bad for business, Belloni claims a Disney executive reached out to comment.
The Bullwark culture editor Sonny Bunch shared the executive’s comments on X on Feb. 19.
In that anonymous executive’s opinion, Disney’s choice to play identity politics with an increasing number of its brands isn’t the problem — the fact that Disney’s audience won’t accept those politics is.
“Everyone says ‘It’s the movies, stupid,’ which is an easy thing for people to say. More appealing movies are a great way to jump the political issues. But more and more, our audience (or the segment of the audience that has been politicized) equates the perceived messaging in a film as a quality issue,” the executive reportedly said.
“They won’t say they find female empowerment distasteful in The Marvels or Star Wars, but they will say they don’t like those movies because they are ‘bad.’”
“So ‘make better movies’ becomes code for ‘make movies that conform to regressive gender stereotypes or put men front and center in the narrative.’ Which is what you’re seeing now, and what Bob [Iger]’s pivot is about right now.”
Disaffected fans of franchises that have seen their popularity tank since Disney overtook them (e.g., Marvel and Star Wars) responded in droves on social media to the reported statement.
“Typical victim mentality. Its not us its you,” one X user posted.
“The failure is due to the wrong person hired to do the job. Which is to make a quality movie. The script for sure has been going down hill,” another wrote.
“Disney’s head is so far in the sand that they call their consumers *bigoted* for not buying their woke products. A major shake up at the top is needed to restore the excellence that Walt Disney himself created,” another user wrote.
In the interest of transparency, I liked the last couple of Marvel “flops.” My main gripe has been they were trying too hard to set up upcoming movies. Sure, Secret Invasion was far from the source material and opened some gaping plot holes. The Eternals had too many character introductions all at once; then they killed off two of the biggest ones. There were aspects of others that I didn’t care for either. OTOH, I quit watching the STAR WARS trilogy after they killed off Han Solo so casually and again ignored Chewie. I just didn’t like the way the stories were going. That’s just my personal preference. However, I can agree that the MCU has fallen on its quality face several times.
Echo could have been better; limiting it to only eight episodes made it far less effective than it should have been. If you’re going to show some Native American heritage, then for god’s sake, give it enough room to breathe — rather than having it seem like a confusing set of footnotes.
SheHulk was always supposed to be a comedy. In the comics, SheHulk always broke the fourth wall and even talked back to the writer directly, so those complaints seem whiny to me.
Mom does what any loving mom would do. Goes after school that kicks daughter out for wearing Trump shirt. School claims it was over a flag.
Principal Dan Serrano, in an email to parents on Saturday, said the situation was about safety, not stifling political viewpoints. Serrano explains that the students were asked to leave campus “because they had this flag we didn’t want.”
CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews has been accused of using her clout to promote minorities while unfairly sidelining white journalists.
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Who is Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews? A Black Progressive Supremacist? Fires and Demotes White Journalists. Even Liberal ones. Below is a New York Post article giving you her complete picture.
The new president of CBS News has been accused of using her clout to promote minorities while unfairly sidelining white journalists — a “woke” and “divisive” practice that sparked multiple employee complaints and a major internal probe in 2021, The Post has learned.
Now, some insiders are chafing over the promotion of Ciprian-Matthews, a Dominican-born exec, who is now the top-ranked woman of color at CBS News.
Current and former employees reveal that two and a half years ago, she was the target of a six-month human-resources investigation by CBS parent Paramount Global into accusations of discriminatory hiring and management practices.
CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews has been accused of using her clout to promote minorities while unfairly sidelining white journalists.Getty Images
Among the explosive claims were that Ciprian-Matthewssupported the promotion of an African-American correspondent after she personally witnessed him verbally abusing a female colleague.
Elsewhere, she was accused of cooking up phony excuses to replace a white reporter with an African-American for a plum assignment covering the aftermath of the Capitol riots.
In yet another instance, a white job candidate claimed Ciprian-Matthews told her it would be easier to hire her if she were a “different color” as she passed her over.
Ciprian-Matthews declined to comment on the allegations through a spokeswoman.
HR probe ‘cut short’
The HR probe conducted by Jennifer Gordon, an executive vice president of employee relations at Paramount Global, was allegedly cut short, according to sources.
The investigator failed to interview key witnesses before she concluded merely that Ciprian-Matthews was a “bad manager” with limited resources, a source close to the situation told The Post.
The scandal-plagued network ousted Charlie Rose (left) and then-CBS News CEO Les Moonves amid sexual misconduct allegations.WireImage
Ciprian-Matthews’ elevation to president has left some employees scratching their heads and speculating that it’s a case of corporate overlords — among them Paramount Global boss Bob Bakish and CBS CEO George Cheeks — who are reluctant to clamp down on a female executive of color. The result, according to critics, has been a “toxic” newsroom whose management has turned a blind eye to misconduct.
“At the very highest level of Paramount Global, there’s pressure to bring in diverse talent,” a source close to CBS said. “I think Ingrid wants to be able to say she’s diversified the network, but at the end of the day, you’re enabling people who abuse others while simultaneously advancing those abusive people.”
Another source with knowledge of the 2021 HR probe griped that “nobody wants to contend with this issue” and put it more bluntly: “It’s bad business to drive out young talent who are making next to nothing. That’s why CBS is a third-rate network.”
Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish did not respond for comment regarding Ciprian-Matthews HR probe and complaints over the years.Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
Bakish and Cheeks declined to comment through a spokesperson.
“Ingrid’s record and decades of experience as a highly respected and admired news executive are well known and speak for themselves,” Ciprian-Matthews’ boss Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News, Stations and CBS Media Ventures, said in a statement to The Post.
“Any claims of discriminatory behavior are simply false,” McMahon added. “Like so many others at CBS News, I not only enjoy working with Ingrid but I am inspired by her care for her colleagues and the culture of CBS News.”
‘I was aghast’
The Post spoke to nearly a dozen current and former CBS journalists — many of whom say they left CBS News in the last five years for bigger jobs at major news outlets after they felt Ciprian-Matthews’ alleged discrimination denied them opportunities.
Pamela Browne— an award-winning investigative producer with stints at Fox News, ABC News and NBC News— said she was interviewed by Ciprian-Matthews for a job in July 2019 in the exec’s swanky West 57th Street office, which was adorned with a Zen-inspired sandbox and rake.
Pamela Browne alleged that Ciprian-Matthews said she would have an easier time getting hired.Pamela Browne/Linkedin
After going over Browne’s qualifications, Ciprian-Matthews told her: “It would be so much easier to get you hired if you were a different color,” Browne recalled.
“I was aghast,” Browne told The Post, adding that after being turned down for the position she later gave her testimony to Gordon at Paramount Global.
Several others said they did not immediately complain to HR out of fear of retaliation. Even after leaving the network, they declined to speak out publicly because they inked settlements with nondisclosure agreements — a trend that gained momentum following the “60 Minutes” shakeup, multiple sources said.
Ciprian-Matthews was promoted to vice president of news under Neeraj Khemlani, who exited this summer amid bullying claims.Getty Images
“Why do people have NDAs? It’s because the company doesn’t want them to talk,” said one outraged insider. “So what do you do? You promote them to the No. 2 of the division, then you promote her to the presidency.”
’20-minute rant’
In spring 2021, Gordon launched her probe into Ciprian-Matthews, including allegations that she roadblocked the advancement of young, promising reporters – mostly white women – in favor of elevating minority staffers.
Sources said the probe began after CBS correspondent Jeff Pegues dressed down a white female reporter in front of Ciprian-Matthews and other higher-ups. One source said Pegues, who is African-American, went on a 20-minute rant in which he claimed his colleague was a “nobody” and that she “didn’t know anything” despite her seasoned background.
Insiders claim that CBS CEO George Cheeks and other higher-ups are reluctant to clamp down on a diverse female executive.Getty Images
Ciprian-Matthews did not initially report the incident and attempted to “blame” the female correspondent when it was finally reported to HR, multiple sources said. That’s despite prior allegations that Pegues had been “lashing out” and “bullying” younger female reporters who “outworked” him, according to a former CBS manager.
“Ingrid has a number of HR issues regarding favoritism and protecting certain correspondents, allowing talent to verbally abuse other talent,” the source claimed.
An investigation into Pegues’ behavior concluded that his conduct was unprofessional, but to the shock of some of his colleagues, Ciprian-Matthews then supported his promotion to Chief National Affairs and Justice Correspondent later that year, sources said.
An HR investigation was launched after correspondent Jeff Pegues allegedly verbally abused a female reporter in a meeting.Eyewitness News ABC7NY/YouTube
In August, sources said Pegues got into an altercation at a CBS Sports party during the National Association of Black Journalists in Birmingham, Ala. The correspondent followed a woman into the party and appeared to be “bothering her,” sources said.
An ESPN journalist who was at the party tried to defuse the situation and security was called, sources said. Afterwards, Pegues emailed Chairman of CBS Sports Sean McManus to explain his bad behavior, a source said.
It is unclear if HR ever looked into the incident. Pegues has remained on air.
Sources claimed that Paramount Global’s probe of CBS News exec Ciprian-Matthews was “cut short.”Getty Images
Pegues didn’t respond to requests for comment. McManus and CBS declined to comment specifically on Pegues.
‘Exiled to Denver’
According to an insider, the HR probe of Pegues “opened a Pandora’s box” that revealed allegations of cronyism that led to the probe of Ciprian-Matthews.
In another case, Emmy Award-winning CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave was allegedly pushed out of a plum congressional beat by Ciprian-Matthews.
During the weeks after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, sources said Ciprian-Matthews, who was Washington bureau chief at the time, pressed for correspondent Nikole Killion to appear on CBS shows and special reports to provide analysis.
Paramount Global’s probe looked into allegations that reporter Kris Van Cleave was exiled to Denver by Ciprian-Matthews.Getty Images for Global Citizen
That’s despite the fact that Killion wasn’t at the Capitol during the attack — and that Van Cleave “was part of ‘CBS Mornings” Emmy win for Best Live Newscast” last year for his breaking Jan. 6 coverage, according to his CBS bio.
At the time, sources claim Ciprian-Matthews falsely told producers that Van Cleave, who is white, was on vacation or was out sick. That, in turn, sparked chatter that Killion — a veteran DC journalist who covered every presidential election since 2008 for CBS News and Hearst Television — was getting the assignments because she was African-American rather than because of her qualifications.
Insiders say Van Cleave caught wind of the alleged deception and complained to colleagues — and that soon after, he was told he would be moved to Denver as a general assignment reporter.
“He was being exiled to Denver without a real beat or any producers,” said an insider with knowledge, adding that he was being moved mid-contract.
The insider said Van Cleave approached Gordon to give his testimony, but backed out over fear of retaliation. Instead, a job opened up in Dallas as a national correspondent and Van Cleave took it.
Former CBS News President Susan Zirinsky kept Ciprian-Matthews “at arm’s length,” sources said.Getty Images for Paramount+
“Ingrid is tipping the scales,” said the source. “There was no reason to put Van Cleave in that situation. All he wanted to do is the reporting.”
Van Cleave didn’t respond to requests for comment. CBS declined to comment specifically on Van Cleave.
‘At arm’s length’
Ciprian-Matthews’ own career hit a bump under Susan Zirinsky, the legendary newshound who inspired Holly Hunter’s character in “Broadcast News.” After Zirinsky was named CBS News president in 2019 following the chaotic exit of Rhodes, she moved Ciprian-Matthews from executive vice president of news to head of strategic and professional development.
At the network’s New York City offices, Zirinsky kept Ciprian-Matthews — who wasn’t happy about her new role — “at arm’s length,” according to one source, moving her office far from hers to a spot near the elevator bank. In 2020, Zirinsky named Ciprian-Matthews as CBS News’ interim bureau chief in Washington DC — a role that Ciprian-Matthews also did not want, according to a source.
Ciprian-Matthews’ boss Wendy McMahon is taking a close look at how the network runs.Golden Globes 2024 via Getty Images
“She was forced to take the job,” the source said, noting that Ciprian-Matthews “never moved to DC” even after serving a brief stint as permanent Washington bureau chief, but instead stayed in a corporate apartment as she traveled back and forth from New York.
A source close to Zirinsky insisted Ciprian-Matthews was a “top advisor” who was consulted on “every decision” she made and that she helped “right the ship” at a troubled time for the network. The source said Zirinsky didn’t want Ciprian-Matthews to be “bogged down” with day-to-day newsroom duties like sending reporters to “Maine or Afghanistan.”
Zirinsky stepped down in April 2021 and Khemlani was named co-president of CBS News. The probe of Ciprian-Matthews appeared to be over in the fall, sources said. In November, she was named No. 2 to Khemlani.
“She must know where the bodies are buried,” a former colleague speculated, claiming Ciprian-Matthews has been a “loyal foot soldier” for a trove of scandal-ridden executives over the years.
Ciprian-Matthews was cleared of claims of discriminatory hiring and management practices.CBS News
Now, Ciprian-Matthews’ boss Wendy McMahon, who came from top-ranked ABC News, is examining how to revive CBS News. McMahon is creating a new role of executive producer of daily news. The new hire will give McMahon a window into how the news gathering process runs, sources said.
“Wendy is looking at why CBS News is in last place,” an insider said. “The one common denominator is Ingrid. She has been a constant in a leadership role over the last two decades and has had a hand in everything.”
But insiders weren’t buying into the idea that the seasoned exec would be easily sidelined, given her status as one of the few diverse leaders in the upper echelons of the company — and one of its most strong-willed and savvy.
“Ingrid won’t take this sitting down. She thinks she’s running the news division, and she won’t bend to Wendy,” the insider added. “Her ego is too big.”
Paramount Global’s probe looked into allegations that reporter Kris Van Cleave was exiled to Denver by Ciprian-Matthews.Getty Images for Global Citizen
That’s despite the fact that Killion wasn’t at the Capitol during the attack — and that Van Cleave “was part of ‘CBS Mornings” Emmy win for Best Live Newscast” last year for his breaking Jan. 6 coverage, according to his CBS bio.
At the time, sources claim Ciprian-Matthews falsely told producers that Van Cleave, who is white, was on vacation or was out sick. That, in turn, sparked chatter that Killion — a veteran DC journalist who covered every presidential election since 2008 for CBS News and Hearst Television — was getting the assignments because she was African-American rather than because of her qualifications.
Insiders say Van Cleave caught wind of the alleged deception and complained to colleagues — and that soon after, he was told he would be moved to Denver as a general assignment reporter.
“He was being exiled to Denver without a real beat or any producers,” said an insider with knowledge, adding that he was being moved mid-contract.
The insider said Van Cleave approached Gordon to give his testimony, but backed out over fear of retaliation. Instead, a job opened up in Dallas as a national correspondent and Van Cleave took it.
Former CBS News President Susan Zirinsky kept Ciprian-Matthews “at arm’s length,” sources said.Getty Images for Paramount+
“Ingrid is tipping the scales,” said the source. “There was no reason to put Van Cleave in that situation. All he wanted to do is the reporting.”
Van Cleave didn’t respond to requests for comment. CBS declined to comment specifically on Van Cleave.
‘At arm’s length’
Ciprian-Matthews’ own career hit a bump under Susan Zirinsky, the legendary newshound who inspired Holly Hunter’s character in “Broadcast News.” After Zirinsky was named CBS News president in 2019 following the chaotic exit of Rhodes, she moved Ciprian-Matthews from executive vice president of news to head of strategic and professional development.
At the network’s New York City offices, Zirinsky kept Ciprian-Matthews — who wasn’t happy about her new role — “at arm’s length,” according to one source, moving her office far from hers to a spot near the elevator bank. In 2020, Zirinsky named Ciprian-Matthews as CBS News’ interim bureau chief in Washington DC — a role that Ciprian-Matthews also did not want, according to a source.
Ciprian-Matthews’ boss Wendy McMahon is taking a close look at how the network runs.Golden Globes 2024 via Getty Images
“She was forced to take the job,” the source said, noting that Ciprian-Matthews “never moved to DC” even after serving a brief stint as permanent Washington bureau chief, but instead stayed in a corporate apartment as she traveled back and forth from New York.
A source close to Zirinsky insisted Ciprian-Matthews was a “top advisor” who was consulted on “every decision” she made and that she helped “right the ship” at a troubled time for the network. The source said Zirinsky didn’t want Ciprian-Matthews to be “bogged down” with day-to-day newsroom duties like sending reporters to “Maine or Afghanistan.”
Zirinsky stepped down in April 2021 and Khemlani was named co-president of CBS News. The probe of Ciprian-Matthews appeared to be over in the fall, sources said. In November, she was named No. 2 to Khemlani.
“She must know where the bodies are buried,” a former colleague speculated, claiming Ciprian-Matthews has been a “loyal foot soldier” for a trove of scandal-ridden executives over the years.
Ciprian-Matthews was cleared of claims of discriminatory hiring and management practices.CBS News
Now, Ciprian-Matthews’ boss Wendy McMahon, who came from top-ranked ABC News, is examining how to revive CBS News. McMahon is creating a new role of executive producer of daily news. The new hire will give McMahon a window into how the news gathering process runs, sources said.
“Wendy is looking at why CBS News is in last place,” an insider said. “The one common denominator is Ingrid. She has been a constant in a leadership role over the last two decades and has had a hand in everything.”
But insiders weren’t buying into the idea that the seasoned exec would be easily sidelined, given her status as one of the few diverse leaders in the upper echelons of the company — and one of its most strong-willed and savvy.
“Ingrid won’t take this sitting down. She thinks she’s running the news division, and she won’t bend to Wendy,” the insider added. “Her ego is too big.”
Google is locked in an A.I. race with competitors like Microsoft and OpenAI.Credit...Sophie Park for The New York Times
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Google messes up big time. Forget it if you tried to use Google’s AI Wednesday. You would not be able to find white folk.
Google apologized for its artificial intelligence chatbot generating images that portrayed historical figures as inaccurately racially and ethnically diverse.
Jack Krawczyk, the head of product for Google’s AI division, released a statement on Wednesday acknowledging that the company’s chatbot, Gemini, created images in which it presented several white historical figures as black, Native American, or Asian, including the Founding Fathers and the pope. Several conservative users noticed the inaccuracies and blasted the search engine, alleging that it was evidence of how “woke” the AI model was.
Kansas City Chiefs fans do the “tomahawk chop” as they gather to watch their team play the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. (Reed Hoffmann/Getty Images)
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Actress who didn’t get a part in Yellowstone goes after the program, KC Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. Some no n ame oscar nominated actress who couldn’t get a part on the hit show Yellowstone went after the show and the KC fans for their Indian inspired Tomahawk chop.
She also went after the San Francisco 49’ers for using the name 49ers. Claimed Indians were mistreated. Why go after Yellowstone? “Delusional! Deplorable!” she responded when asked about the way Yellowstone portrays the west. “No offense to the Native talent in that. I auditioned several times. That’s what we had.”
And then the Chiefs. There are many ways that you could interpret the name “chief.” It’s not just the name that bothers me. It’s hearing that damn Tomahawk chop. Every time, it’s a stark reminder of what Hollywood has done to us, because the Tomahawk chop directly ties to the sounds of old Westerns where we were not playing ourselves, or if we were, we were merely backdrop actors. It’s this ‘claiming’ of that sound and saying it’s in ‘honor’ and the commodification of who we are as people. It’s great to love the game and your players, but it still hurts.
The brainwashing of our youth – by social media corporations is out of control. Unfortunately, for all of us – it isn’t going to stop.
“We know best. We are going to remake the world. We are going to reshape kids around the world”
The government has a remedy for this type of unlawful business practice. The 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act has bee utilized many times to break up monopolies. The Sherman Act outlaws:
“every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade,” and any “monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize.”
Google is out of control. They have not only monopolized the internet, they have monopolized the control of advertising. Both business strategies are being challenged by the DOJ in two separate lawsuits. Meta is also being sued for unfair business practices, as it has gobbled up its competitors in a series of buy-outs.
Or you might be watching MSM exclusively and using Google as your search engine.
Taylor Swift, star of the LVIII Super Bowl, this year’s Grammys and a crackpot Fox News conspiracy theory that she’s a government PSYOP, is also the winner of my award for “Least Embarrassing Way To Attach Yourself to a Black Person When Accepting an Award.”
For the uncouth among my readers, modern etiquette dictates that:
1) Black people win all awards; and
2) When that is absolutely impossible, the white winner must somehow latch onto a black person, stressing how fond he is of black people.
In Taylor’s case, she recently made history by becoming the first musician to win four Album of the Year awards. This was despite her being, as The New York Times put it, “white and thin and blond in a world that continues to privilege whiteness and thinness and blondness.”
Thus, according to protocol, Taylor had to attach herself to a black person. This she did by becoming part of the show when Tracy Chapman reprised her 1988 hit “Fast Car” at the Grammys. Taylor rose from the audience, like a mushroom popping up amid the moss, and sang along for the entire song.
Boffo publicity! Twitter instantly exploded in gratitude and admiration for the Grammys champion. The media hailed Taylor’s performative tribute to Chapman as if she’d orchestrated the Peace of Westphalia. (The Times: “Taylor Swift singing along to Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs performing “Fast Car” is some kind of apotheosis of 2023 in music.”)
Embarrassing, but nothing like Adele’s speech at the 2017 Grammys after she’d won Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Album of the Year for her work, “25.” She was up against Beyonce’s “Lemonade,” also a smash hit. (Stats: “Lemonade” sold 485,000 copies in its first week; “25” sold more than 3.38 million. “Lemonade” debuted at No. 1 in the U.S.; “25” debuted at No. 1 in 32 countries. “25” went on to become the fourth best-selling album of the 21st century.)
After some brief throat-clearing, Adele quickly got to the point of her acceptance speech:
“I can’t possibly accept this award. I’m very humbled and very grateful and gracious, but honestly, my life is Beyonce.
“The ‘Lemonade’album, Beyonce, was so monumental, so monumental, and so well thought out, and so beautiful and soul-bearing. And we all got to see another side of you that you don’t always let us see, and we appreciate that. And all us artists here, we f-ing adore you. You are our light.
“And the way that you make me and my friends feel, the way you make my black friends feel, is empowering, and you make them stand up for themselves. And I love you. I always have. And I always will.”
(Sorry for such a long quote; I figured you wouldn’t believe me otherwise.)
But Adele’s performance was still not the most mortifying example of a white person using a personal triumph to affix himself to a black person.
That honor goes to Novak Djokovic, who, upon winning his fourth U.S. Open title, incomprehensibly turned it into a tribute to Kobe Bryant, a professional athlete in a different sport, from a different country, who’d died three years earlier.
In anticipation of his shining moment in the sun, Djokovic had even made a T-shirt, with his and Bryant’s faces surrounded by the words, “MAMBA FOREVER.” It would have been weird if he’d done this with his coach’s face, his father’s face, his wife’s face (all who also had something to do with his success). Bryant was an American basketball player with the Los Angeles Lakers, having nothing to do with professional tennis.
That wasn’t the end of the sartorial tribute. Djokovic also donned jacket with a “24” patch, which — as he explained to the audience — was Bryant’s number with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Naturally, the bulk of Djokovic’s victory speech was about his black friend — a “close friend,” with whom he “chatted a lot.” Congratulations, Novak! You had a black friend. And now that he’s gone, there’s only the memory of having once had a black friend.
The whole production was so absurd, it seemed like a Borat sketch of a vulgar foreigner who’d never met a black person.
Probably kicking himself for not having thought of mocking up T-shirts of himself and a black friend, actor Tom Hiddleston instead used his acceptance speech at the 2017 Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television to drone on about … Sudan.
In case you were wondering, the TV series for which he’d won, “The Night Manager,” was not about Sudan. It was a spy caper based on a John le Carre novel. But Hiddleston thought it was important for everyone to know that he’d recently visited Sudan with the United Nations Children’s Fund.
He told the audience that in Sudan, there was a “terrible situation happening for children.” But on the bright side, the people there loved “The Night Manager”! This he found deeply gratifying: “The idea that we could provide some entertainment and relief to people … who are fixing the world. I dedicate this to those out there who are doing their best.”
The dedication didn’t involve actually giving anyone anything, mind you. It was more in the way of a verbal acknowledgment because he’s such a great guy.
At the 2022 Critics Choice Awards, Best Director winner Jane Campion — translucently white — spent much of her speech praising random black people in the audience, such as Will Smith, Venus Williams and Serena Williams. They weren’t even “close friend[s]” who “chatted a lot,” like Djokovic and his black friend.
Thinking she was really connecting with black people, Campion said, “Venus and Serena, you’re such marvels,” adding, “however, you don’t play against the guys, like I have to.”
In one of the earliest “I love black people” exhibitions, Adrien Brody skipped subtlety at the 2003 Academy Awards. After winning Best Actor for his performance in “The Pianist,” he grabbed the black presenter, Halle Berry, and passionately kissed her in a smooch that went on so long that by the time he was finished, the “get off the stage” lights were blinking.
Berry later said the only thing going through her mind during the cringe-inducing kiss was, “What the f**k is happening right now?”
What was happening was this: A white actor was making damn sure everyone knew how much he liked black people.
Why are we surprised? It’s California. Test scores fall. I was always taught that you went to school to learn how to read and write. But one school in the San Francisco school system is teaching hate, racism, and bigotry. So, what about the basics?
Just 3.8% of students were proficient in math and 11.6% at grade-level in English for the 2022-23 school year — a decline of about 4.5 percentage points in each category from the previous year, according to data from the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. In plain English, they got worse. One reason why.
Student achievement at a San Francsico-area elementary school fell dramatically following the establishment of a woke teaching policy through a $250,000 federal grant.
Two years into a three-year contract with Woke Kindergarten, a for-profit company that trains teachers to confront white supremacy, disrupt racism and oppression, and remove those barriers to learning, test scores in English and math at Glassbrook Elementary in Hayward, California, reached new lows, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.
Tiger Craven-Neeley, a teacher at Glassbrook, told the Chronicle he supports discussing racism in the classroom but found the Woke Kindergarten training confusing and rigid. He said he was told a primary objective was to “disrupt whiteness” in the school — and that the sessions were “not a place to express white guilt.”
Craven-Neeley, who is white and a self-described “gay moderate,” said he questioned a trainer who used the phrasing “so-called United States,” as well as lessons available on the organization’s website offering “Lil’ Comrade Convos,” or positing a world without police, money, or landlords. He said he wasn’t trying to be difficult when he asked for clarification about disrupting whiteness.
Are you kidding me? At a local high school in the San Diego school district, an eighth grader was suspended because he was accused of being racist. This from the father.
The principal called J.A. into the office, and the next morning my wife and I showed up and he said, ‘He did blackface,’ and he was suspended for two days and was gonna be banned from sports.”
Ameduri said he then showed the Muirlands Middle School principal a photo from that night, which he thought would end the controversy and “vindicate” his son.
“He was like, ‘No, that’s blackface,'” Ameduri said.
“Anyone that has ever been to a sports game knows that this is very normal and these are kids that were playing hide and seek a few days prior at my house… half of the group are minorities, some of them African American, it’s just ridiculous that this would be a racial incident,” he said.
I’ll be starting a new series on how Government is using its powers (Sometimes unconstitutionally and possibly illegally). Some of the articles will be in my own words (with sources) and some will be the reposting of articles from others.
I’ll be looking at local, state, and federal. Also, I’ll be looking at the educational system. Hopefully you will be shocked that this is going on. So, let’s see where this takes us.
If you have some ideas or have stories of weaponization, please feel free to comment or send me a link.
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