#teamYasmeen (it was a toss-up between her and #teamTatjana)

Tatjana!!! The only thing that would have made this video even better would been having Yasmeen Ghauri in it...

I actually worked in the fashion industry in Europe in the Eighties, and Tyra did get lots of catwalk work there then - which is the reason for Naomi’s feud with her. She segued into swimsuits and lingerie when she figured she could make more bank in the US than competing with Naomi.

The culmination of which is Donald Trump and the White Supremacists: not so smart. They were willing to play the Southern Strategy for so long that they didn’t realize they were creating a monster.

There’s shrewd...and there’s stupid. One can be shrewd in gaining power, and stupid in using that power once gained.

Black and Latino defendants are already getting harsher sentences than white defendants. Given that property crimes often get harsher sentences than rape, I don’t think going after judges like Persky on light sentences for rape has to be at the exclusion of looking at other injustices in the system.

I disagree vehemently about that the Obamas have been treated with kid gloves compared to Dubya’s family: Laura Bush might have received criticism for being boring and that little vehicular episode, but she did not face the BS that Michelle Obama has had to deal with.

In Rwanda, there were Hutus and Tutsis fighting each other. And many an American would probably look at them and say, “Why are they fighting? They’re all black.” Similarly, in Belgium there are francophones with Flemish las names and Flemish with French las names - and there is still bad blood between many Flemish and…

Halle Berry famously demurred when Aretha Franklin suggested her to play the Queen of Soul in a possible bio-pic. Berry, who’s had problems finding decent roles, was smart enough to know that it would have been ridiculous miscasting. And Berry had won an Oscar by then. Nope, Zoe, nope.

Bowie was actually an excellent vocalist technically, as well:

I disagree with you on country: technically great pipes are required for female country vocalists (Dolly, Patsy, Loretta, even Shania),..and the men, who can get by somewhat on attitude (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson) still have very distinctive (and often technically good) voices.

“rape by deception is illegal all over the world.”

Marital rape became illegal in all 50 states in 1993: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marital_r…

You miss the context in which Ali rose to fame: the civil rights movement, black power and other cultural shifts. It wasn’t a matter of him “transcending race” because his greatness alone was so wondrous. Nope, people outside just let down their preconceptions to acknowledge the greatness. Bessie Smith was a greater…

Wait a minute: there were other black heavyweight champions before Ali - so white people were aware that black boxers could win championships.

No. It’s a very important point. Saying that someone “transcends” something make it seems as though they have made the effort to cross over (like Whitney Houston doing ballads as chosen by Clive Davis targeted for white, suburban, soccer moms). With Ali, it was white people who crossed over and broadened their own…

It’s actually white people who transcended race here. They crossed over to get to him. He remained resolutely who he was.

But it’s not the black person transcending race; it’s the white person letting down his or her barriers to appreciate the black person. Ali made no special efforts to be more palatable to white people; white people just finally caught up with him. They valued him, in spite of the legacy of racism.

This reminds me of what Chris Rock said about Obama becoming president:

Then his father should have the smarts not to further inflame public sentiment against his son. No remorse whatsoever does not engender any sympathy for Junior...