Category: Viral

In a passionate argument that cuts to the bone of whether future generations will live in a world where words matter or not, Ander Christensen has petitioned the city of Lincoln, Nebraska to lead the charge in renaming “boneless chicken wings.” Citing the inaccurate phrasing of the popular appetizer, Christensen pleaded with the City Council to think about the message being sent to impressionable youth.

“Nothing about boneless chicken wings actually come from the wing of a chicken,” Christensen argued to a mostly empty audience, save for one woman who laughed the entire time. “Boneless chicken wings are just chicken tenders, which are already boneless.” Christensen believes that this is a mixed message that fails to teach children an important lesson that meat grows on bones. But the time for change is not too late. Via KRVN:

“Lincoln has the opportunity to be a social leader in this county,” said Christensen. “We have been casually ignoring a problem that has gotten so out of control that our children are casually throwing around names and words without even understanding their true meaning.”

The man proposed that Lincoln remove the term boneless chicken wings “from our menus and from our hearts.”

Ever helpful, Christensen provided the following alternative names for boneless chicken wings: wet tenders, saucy nugs, and trash. He then concluded with a call to action. “We’ve been living a lie for far too long, and we know it because we feel it in our bones.” The now-viral video clip of Christensen’s impassioned speech ends with one of the City Council members noting, “For the record, that’s my son,” which answers a whole lot of questions here. Let’s be honest.

(Via KRVN Video)

The Clippers, especially head coach Doc Rivers, have been at the forefront of the conversation around social justice during their time in the NBA’s Bubble this summer. In the aftermath of the players’ wildcat strike last week, Rivers again is leading his team in new ways to be involved in gradual societal reform.

During the Clippers’ break following their six-game first-round victory over Dallas, the team set up a conversation with U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat and the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus whose congressional district includes the southern and western parts of Los Angeles.

Rivers explained during his game day media availability on Wednesday that the team’s chat with Rep. Bass centered around her thoughts on the player strike, her perspective as one of the writers of the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act, and how the Clippers can even go a step further to take pieces of the federal legislation to the California state legislature.

In the days since the strike, NBA players and coaches have focused on how to channel their demonstration and collective energy into meaningful reform. The Bucks, who initiated the strike, demanded that the Wisconsin state legislature meet for the first time in four months, and sought out conversations with the governor’s office and attorney general’s office in the state. The Clippers are following suit by speaking with elected officials who can help them make their voices heard.

When we hear about racial bias in education, we might picture things like disparities in school funding, disciplinary measures, or educational outcomes. But it can also show up in the seemingly simplest of school assignments—ones that some of us wouldn’t even notice if we don’t look outside our own cultural lens.

Ericka Bullock-Jones shared one such instance on Facebook, with her daughter’s responses to questions on a high school ancestry assignment.

“My kids go to a pretty much all white school,” she wrote. “They got an assignment yesterday asking them to talk to their relatives and document how their families came to ‘immigrate’ to the US. The teacher asked for details about the ‘push and pull of the decision’ and really made it sound like a light hearted assignment. Female Offspring was INCENSED. She is a beast – and I mean that in the best possible way. I wish I had a scintilla if [sic] her nerve, knowledge and courage when I was her age. This is what she put together to turn in for this assignment…”

The top of the assignment reads:

“Your objective: Learn a little about your family history by talking to parents, grandparents, aunt, uncles, etc. Go home over the next few days and talk to family members to discover as much information as you can concerning how your family came to live in the United States. As you gather information, type the information you learn to the questions below. Find as much as you can and be prepared to share with the class next week during our Zoom call on Wednesday.”

The image shows the questions the teacher asked in bold, with the students’ answers underneath them. Two of the questions were crossed out by the student and reworded to fit her ancestors’ reality. It reads:

“Who is my first ancestor to come to the United States?

My first ancestor to come to the US has no name. They most likely had an African name, but there are no records of this ancestor because they were not treated as human beings.

Which side of your family is this?

Both sides of my family are mostly black.

Where did they migrate to the United States from?

Where were they taken from?

They did not migrate to the US, they were forcibly ripped from their homes and packed in ships similar to sardines (see pictures). They were stolen from Africa.

Where in the United States did they migrate to?

Where were they sold to?

They were most likely sold somewhere in the 13 colonies.

What brought them to the United States?

They were forcibly relocated to the US by slave ships and white men who wanted to profit off of human trafficking to build their country on the land that they stole from the indigenous people, which they all did under the delusion that they were entitled to do so.”

Ericka Bullock-Jones/Facebook

The assignment assumes the dominant cultural narrative in the U.S.—that we are a nation of immigrants and that our ancestors at some point along the line left a faraway homeland in search of a better life and found it here. But that narrative completely erases the experiences of the millions of descendants of enslaved Africans, in addition to the descendants of Native Americans whose ancestors have lived here for thousands of years.

This 15-year-old succinctly and boldly showed that, intentional or not, this assignment was designed only with non-Black and non-Native students in mind.

Bullock-Jones shared an update with the email that the student sent to the teacher with her assignment as well as his response.

She wrote:

“History Assignment Update:

Today is the day the students were scheduled to present their homework assignments to the other classmates via Zoom. The teacher postponed the presentation. My guess? I suspect he may have caught wind of her completed assignment making the rounds to thousands of people here in the US as well as abroad.
Before Female Offspring submitted her work to him, she sent an email directly to the teacher. It is below:

Dear ____ Good afternoon. I am unsure of whether or not it came to mind when creating this assignment that not all students come from a line of descendants whose history involves voluntary immigration. As an African American, my family history involves somber deep rooted wounds involving enslavement and exploitation which (as you know) continues to constantly weigh heavily on our shoulders. I want to make it clear that I understand that history is not always pretty and in this class we will learn and gain a deeper understanding of tragic historical events. The topic of this assignment it not something I take lightly. I am telling you all of this in the hopes that in the future you might give assignments like this more thought before asking these types of things of your future students.

Monday, the Female Offspring had office hours with the teacher. He was apologetic, conciliatory and complimentary of the assignment she turned in. He told her that it was insensitive of him to put her in that position. He said that he would need to re-evaluate the assignment, after having assigned it to his students for many years. He complimented her on how she had chosen to answer and re-frame his questions. Finally, he told her that it was the BEST response to the assignment that he had ever received and he’s been teaching for more than 15 years. I assume that when he said her response was the best he’d ever received, that means that she’ll be getting an A.

Right on, Female Offspring! Keep up the good fight!”

Indeed, keep up the good fight. We all need to learn to look outside our assumptions, challenge the dominant cultural narrative when it erases other Americans, and courageously speak the truth. Kudos to this student, and good for her teacher for hearing her, acknowledging the impact of the assignment, and committing to reevaluate it. (And also for giving her an A—she certainly earned it.)

Some of the moments that make us smile the most have come from everyday superstars (like Zaza!).

Everyone could use a little morning motivation, so Crest – the #1 Toothpaste Brand in America – is teaming up with some popular digital all-stars to share their smile-worthy, positivity-filled (virtual) pep talks for this year’s back-to-school season!

Let’s encourage confident smiles this back-to-school season. Check out Zaza‘s back-to-school pep talk above!

Teyana Taylor shared her highly-anticipated 23-track record The Album a few months ago. The Album boasted a handful of features from artists like Missy Elliot and Erykah Badu, who Taylor says will assist in delivering her next baby. But the record also showcased Taylor’s intimate and affecting solo songwriting, like with the soaring track “Still.” Taylor now returns with a moving video alongside “Still,” calling attention to racial justice and the ongoing demonstrations against police brutality.

The visual opens with a powerful message from one of Malcom X’s infamous speeches: “We are oppressed. We are exploited. We are downtrodden. We are denied not only civil rights, but even human rights. So the only way we’re going to get some of the oppression and exploitation away from us or aside from us is to come together against the common enemy.”

The video then flashes the names of Black Americans who were victims of policy brutality and racism, like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Throughout the remainder of her “Still” video, Taylor intercuts vintage footage of iconic civil rights speakers like Angela Davis and Martin Luther King Jr. with footage of herself dressed as several recent victims of police violence.

Watch Taylor’s “Still” video above.

The Album is out now via G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam. Get it here.

When he’s not collaborating with his sister Billie Eilish on her beloved music, Finneas has been building a nice solo career for himself. He released his debut EP Blood Harmony last year, which was followed by a deluxe edition last month. Now he’s continuing to churn out new music, as he dropped a fresh single today, “What They’ll Say About Us,” an evocative piano-pop ballad for which he also released a video.

The clip is a close-up of Finneas staring down the barrel of the camera as his background and environment continually shift behind him. Press materials describe the track as “an ode to human strength and connection when faced with life’s tribulations,” and Finneas says of it:

“I wrote this song in June after spending the day at a protest in Downtown LA, filled with hope with the prospect that millions of people were coming together from all over the world to fight against institutionalized racism and inequality. During that time, I’d also been following Amanda Kloots as she documented her husband Nick Cordero’s time in the ICU while in a coma after being admitted for COVID-19. Imagining her sitting by his side, waiting, hopeful for him to wake up, it got me thinking about all the millions of people, all over the world, who also have loved ones, parents, children and extended family members going through the same thing. Fighting this horrific virus. Some will over-come and wake up again, while others, tragically may not. This song is dedicated to all who have had to endure this year. I hope this song can offer some sort of comfort to those who may need it.”

Watch the video for “What They’ll Say About Us” above.

Guarding James Harden seems terrible. There might not be a less pleasant job in basketball than being tasked with checking the Houston Rockets’ MVP candidate. Harden has a better understanding than any other player in basketball of how to get to the free throw line, he’s able to mix skill and power to go at defenders, and, oh by the way, he also has the greenest light to let it fly from deep of any player we’ve seen and he’s capable of trying (and connecting) on stepback threes that opponents just cannot stop. Even on his off nights, drawing the Harden assignment seems, truly, like a miserable experience.

This is what makes the fact that the Oklahoma City Thunder found someone who can at least battle admirably against Harden so fascinating. What makes that endlessly more fascinating, though, is who that someone is: Luguentz Dort, a 21-year-old undrafted Canadian rookie from Arizona State whose singular job in this series has been “guard the most ruthless offensive player in the world.”

Dort did not play in Game 1 against the Rockets, a 111-98 win for Houston in which Billy Donovan threw, primarily, the 1-2 punch of Dennis Schröder and Terrance Ferguson at Harden, per NBA.com’s matchup data. Harden was excellent, scoring 37 points on 12-for-22 shooting from the field and 6-for-13 from three. A number of guys got to spend some time checking him, too, and largely, it didn’t go well.

One guy who did not get the chance to try and slow down Harden was Dort, who hurt his knee in Oklahoma City’s penultimate seeding game and did not return until Game 2 against the Rockets. Since returning, though, he has drawn the Harden assignment, and done as well as anyone could, let alone someone who is still getting used to life in the NBA and played in 29 total games before the league’s COVID-19 hiatus began in March.

Here is the thing that makes Dort such a good defender: Despite the fact that, at 6’3, he is not the tallest player, he is 220 pounds and quite strong for his size. At last year’s NBA Draft Combine, Dort benched 185 pounds 14 times, which tied for the sixth-best mark among all players. An impressive athlete beyond this, NBAAthlete.com listed Dort as the most athletic combo guard in the 2019 class — his bSPARQ score was the best in the draft among guards and wings — and put him in their bSPARQ Hall of Fame. Add in that he is a very willing defender and Dort has everything a coach wants to try and slow down the most prolific guards that basketball has to offer.

Even still, there is guarding those sorts of players and guarding Harden, but Dort has handled that about as well as one can. Per NBA.com, Dort has been the Thunder’s primary defender against Harden in every game where he has played. Here’s how this has gone for Harden:

Game 2: 6:09 minutes with Dort as his primary defender, 9 points, 1-for-7 from the field, 1-for-7 from three
Game 3: 7:34, 9, 2-for-14, 1-for-9
Game 4: 9:23, 18, 5-for-13, 4-for-9
Game 5: 4:34, 16, 5-for-6, 3-for-4
Game 6: 4:10, 6, 2-for-4, 1-for-3
Total: 31:50, 58 points, 15-for-44 (34.1 percent), 10-for-32 (31.3 percent)

Harden’s still getting to the foul line against Dort, as he’s 18-for-20 from the charity stripe across those five games on possessions where his fellow Sun Devil is his primary defender. Still, Dort has been physical with him, and it is evident that Oklahoma City has taken a “do not let James Harden beat us” approach when Dort is able to check him. Some numbers, via NBA.com:

The Rockets, funny enough, have been playing much better with Dort playing, but his presence has given Harden problems as a scorer. Harden is more willing to be a distributor when he’s being checked by Dort, which presents a different can of worms for the Thunder, but it seems evident they would much rather have guys like Eric Gordon, Jeff Green, Danuel House, Ben McLemore, or Austin Rivers beat them than Harden. As a result, Harden’s shooting numbers are down when Dort plays and make a noticeable leap when he does not. But despite that, interestingly enough, that has not made the Rockets better, in large part because taking Dort off the floor makes Oklahoma City’s offense much better.

On that end of the floor, Dort has a major, major weakness. Saying he’s been a non-factor on offense ignores the fact that he has the worst offensive box plus-minus among Thunder players this postseason and he’s shot the second-most threes on his team this series (38) despite connecting on, and this is not a typo, 18.4 percent of them. Threes make up 69.1 percent of his attempts in this series, and while his numbers on twos are not bad (everything he’s attempted has been within 10 feet and he’s connecting on 58.8 percent of those shots), that’s not often what he’s asked to do.

As a result, the team’s offense has been straight up wretched with him on the floor. According to Cleaning the Glass, and I must warn you that the numbers you’re about to see are horrible, the most-used lineup that features Dort (Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort, Danilo Gallinari, Steven Adams) has played 130 possessions. It is scoring 80 points per 100 possessions, has an effective field goal percentage of 44 percent, and has a turnover percentage of 21.5 percent. Those are the three worst marks that any lineup has in those metrics this postseason. That also applies for the points per 100 possessions differential that lineup has — it is being outscored by 36.8 points per 100 possessions by Houston.

Now, in much smaller sample sizes (although they do add up to 128 possessions), the next five most-used lineups that use Dort the most are much better. But even in that one very bad lineup, it’s not like Dort’s role changes. Think of him in the same vein you did Andre Iguodala in the Warriors’ famed Death Lineup, only without the playmaking or the sense of calm he brought. His Nos. 1-10 roles are to look at the other team’s best player and make him work extremely hard. Anything else he gives is a gigantic bonus.

He’s getting opportunities to give them something on offense. An insane 67.2 percent of his shots in this series have been “Open” or “Wide Open” threes because the Rockets realize they do not need to defend him — which is part of how they make life difficult on the rest of OKC’s offense by making them play 4-on-5. But Donovan seems to understand this, too, and seems to be fine with it as long as he is hounding Harden on the other end of the floor.

Luguentz Dort is not going to be the absolute deciding factor in what happens in Game 7 on Wednesday night. That distinction probably goes to Harden, who, as Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer laid out on Wednesday, has a whole lot on his shoulders heading into the game. But while guys like Paul, Gilgeous-Alexander, and Schröder will be tasked with winning the game for Oklahoma City, Dort’s job will be making sure Harden can’t win it for Houston. If he can make sure that happens, then the Thunder will very likely get the chance to take on the Los Angeles Lakers in the conference semifinals.

Gunna didn’t release many music videos to promote his May album Wunna ahead of time, but he’s making up for it now. While he’d only released “Skybox” and “Wunna” by the time the album dropped, he quickly followed up with “Rockstar Bikers & Chains,” “Dollaz On My Head,” and “Wunna Flo,” with a double video for “200 For Lunch” and “Dirty Diana” landing most recently. Today, he keeps the hits coming with the video for his Lil Baby collaboration, “Blindfold.”

For the video’s straightforward concept, Gunna and Lil Baby borrow some on-the-nose inspiration from the buzzy Netflix original film Bird Box. The Atlanta duo wanders through a forest and a post-apocalyptic landscape while, yes, blindfolded before finding some surprisingly beat-up luxury cars and driving them — this is dangerous, please don’t try it at home — to a warehouse, where they remove their occular impairments and don their bling for a final performance sequence in the garage’s lounge.

In addition to promoting his own project, Gunna’s been spotted recently on tracks from British grime star Octavian (“Famous“), Texas XXL Freshman dropout Don Toliver (“Lemonade“), and North Carolina troublemaker DaBaby (“TLC“).

Watch Gunna’s “Blindfold” video featuring Lil Baby above.

Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Verzuz series of livestream battles has become one of the highlights of virtual entertainment during the pandemic, and so far, some great artists have been matched up to compare their discographies. Yesterday, though, a Twitter user sparked perhaps the greatest debate related to the franchise so far. Sharing photos of Barney and Sesame Street icon Elmo, they asked, “Verzuz track for track, who y’all got?” The tweet got a lot of replies, including some from Chance The Rapper.

Answering the original tweet, somebody offered, “What the f*ck is Elmo gone play when Barney drops ‘Clean Up’ or ‘I Love You’??? Barney in 4.” Chance couldn’t help but chime in, responding, “Elmos World, Together Forever. And if he play his [features] its a done deal.”

Journalist Charles Preston then entered the chat, replying to Chance, “Barney got sleepers, champ. He got ‘Bubble bath’ in the tuck with a severely underrated PB&J song. We not even talking about the Baby Bop features.” Chance fired back, “The feature game not gon be kind to Barney. He got some joints wit Bj and Baby Bop. Elmo got sum joint wit the Street. but thats just talkin puppets and mascots. ELMO GOT HITS WITH ALL THE GREATS.” The tweet also featured a video of an En Vogue guest appearance on the show.

Preston had a brilliant retort to that, though: “That’s not fair. That’s like DJ Khaled vs Lauryn Hill. lol. We gotta say no to the features. Sesame Street had the budget!” Chance was left speechless at that comeback, as he just responded with three crying emojis.

Indeed, Elmo has worked with some greats. Just since 2019, he has collaborated with Lil Nas X, Kacey Musgraves, Dave Grohl, and, yes, Chance himself, although instead of a song, they put on an ill-fated theatrical production with Cookie Monster.

Big Sean has released the tracklist to his highly-anticipated album Detroit 2 and to put it bluntly, it’s stacked. Not only will it include the previously teased features from Lil Wayne and Nipsey Hussle, but Sean’s also recruited an all-star cast to join him on his comeback project — which is only right, considering it’s his first since 2017’s I Decided.

Longtime Sean fans will be happy to know that, yes, he does include girlfriend Jhene Aiko on the album. She appears twice on the 21-track project; once on the song “Body Language” with Ty Dolla Sign, and again — credited as Twenty88, the duo she formed with Sean in 2016 — on “Time In.” Then there’s longtime Sean collaborator and close friend Wale, who pops up on “Guard Your Heart” with Anderson .Paak and Earlly Mac, while Dave Chappelle, Diddy(!), Dom Kennedy, Erykah Badu(!!), Key Wane, Travis Scott, Young Thug, and Stevie Wonder(!!!) appear elsewhere on the project.

But it wouldn’t be Detroit 2 if Sean Don didn’t put on for the Motor City, which he does in spades. First, unearths underrated R&B star Dwele on “Everything That’s Missing,” but that’s only the set up for the big Motown blowout on “Friday Night Cypher.” Remember that “Detroit Vs. Everybody” posse cut from 2014? This is fully-developed, Jordan-in-The-Last-Dance version of that, as Sean shares his spotlight with D-Town up-and-comers Tee Grizzley, Kash Doll, 42 Dugg, Boldy James, Sada Baby, and a couple of nobodies by the names of Eminem and Royce Da 5’9. Take a second to catch your breath, Detroit, you deserve it.

Detroit 2 is due 9/4 via Def Jam Recordings. Pre-save it here.