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As kids have prepared to go back to school in recent weeks, a cruel prank has circulated on TikTok. Dubbed the #NewTeacherChallenge, parents are sharing videos of them telling their kids that they have a new teacher, showing the kids the face of someone who is disabled or who has a facial deformity or disfigurement, and then filming the child’s reaction.

If that sounds horrible, it’s because it is.

The people whose faces are being used in this challenge have every right to be angry and hurt. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior, and no one would blame them if they colorfully told the whole internet to shove it.

But two of the targets in these challenges are well-known disability activists who somehow manage to always take the high road, serving as an example to the rest of us. Their ability to respond to people’s basest behaviors with dignity and strength, calling out the cruelty with clear and calm eloquence, saying over and over again, “It is absolutely not okay to treat me or any other human being this way and here’s why,” is awe-inspiring. If you want a role model for your kids, look to these ladies.

Lizzie Velasquez was born with a rare congenital disease called Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome, which prevents her from putting on weight, among other physical symptoms After being dubbed “The World’s Ugliest Woman” at age 17, she became a popular of advocacy for people who are different, for anti-bullying, and for teaching empathy and compassion. She continues to be an ongoing target of horrible memes and jokes, and yet she continues to respond by teaching valuable lessons and showing her own kind heart with her motivational speaking.

She shared a video when the New Teacher Challenge first started surfacing, explaining how the prank was not okay:

This week, she posted another video showing how not to teach your kids about empathy utilizing this challenge. Some parents might use it as a teaching opportunity, getting kids to see why their own reactions are unkind, but if the parent’s own reaction to the reaction is to laugh, then kids can get confused and the lesson gets lost.

Responses to Velasquez’s videos have been largely positive, but of course she has also received even more cruel messages. And again, she reacts by stating that these people “need help figuring out how to channel their own anger/hate in a way that doesn’t hurt someone else.” (I would personally like to tell these people to shove it on her behalf, but I will try to follow her example.)

Melissa Blake is another disability activist and writer who has been the subject of countless jokes, memes, and pranks on social media. She wrote an article for Refinery29 about her face being used as a prop for unkindness-as-entertainment in the New Teacher Challenge.

One thing she pointed out was that the parents making these videos aren’t just being cruel to her and others with disabilities, but also to their own children.

“I can’t help but feel sorry for their children,” she wrote. “Imagine your mom filming a vulnerable moment, one where you can’t help but burst into tears, and they actually post it for the whole world to see. How is humiliating your child, or watching other children go through that, a source of amusement?”

She was also direct about the impact this cruel treatment has on her personally:

“I want to be clear: I am violated. Every single time. Each photo, taunt, and cruel word is a clear violation of my dignity and my worth as a human being. And every time these platforms fail to take action, they’re sending the message that this bullying is okay. So many disabled people have become inured to our appearance being mocked. That’s not something we should ever have to get used to.”

Blake battles the trolls in a delightfully subversive way—by insisting she be seen in all her glory, refusing to hide away the way some tell her she should, and letting bullies know they will not win in her world.

Not only should we be teaching our kids to understand and embrace that some people are going to look different or move differently or have different abilities, but we should also show our kids outstanding examples of strength, resilience, and respect they can look up to. These women fit that bill to a tee.

Many people’s first f-bomb during the Trump administration (as in: “What the f*ck is going on?”) happened on ‎January 20, 2017, the day the “ullu“ officially became president. It took a few years for Jim Gaffigan to get there, but it happened last week, when the normally clean-cut comedian expressed his frustration on Twitter.

“I don’t give a f*ck if anyone thinks this is virtue signaling or whatever. We need to wake up. We need to call trump the con man and thief that he is,” he wrote in one tweet, and in another, “Remember everything Trump accuses the Democrats of he’s guilt of. Don’t let the socialist name calling distract you from the fact he is a fascist who has no belief in law.” Gaffigan won’t apologize for his Twitter rant, and over the weekend on Facebook, he explained why he decided to finally (to quote the meme) join the resistance.

“So if I believe I won’t sway any voters, why speak out like I did? Honestly, I feel I had no choice at this point. I think Trump is ruining and possibly has already ruined my country,” Gaffigan wrote. “I feel a responsibility to coming generations, my children but selfishly I didn’t want to explain to my grandchildren that I didn’t fight to stop Trump. Maybe they will see that I stood up for decency, rule of law, and equality. That’s way more important to me than selling out an arena.” He then shared the things he’s learned since last week, including Getting Mad Online is “liberating,” bots are a nuisance (“Was it a Russian bot? A Trump bot? Is Trump a bot?”), GOP talking points are effective, and “it’s about Trump.”

It doesn’t matter that Trump and his folks are breaking laws, trying to kill Obamacare, pre-existing conditions or that his handling of the pandemic was disastrous, to Trump voters he is THEIR guy. More importantly he’s “THEIR president” and disagreeing with them is a personal insult. For many Trump voters this isn’t about any other issue except Trump himself. To me that is not only weird but kind of scary.

Gaffigan ended his post with a request to everyone who’s still undecided between Trump and Biden (those people exist, somehow). “I encourage you to vote not for who I want you to vote for but for who your grandchildren would be proud you fucking voted for,” he wrote. You can read the whole thing here.

(Via Facebook)

After attending Donald Trump’s infamous mask-free rally in Oklahoma, Herman Cain landed in the hospital where he died a month later from the coronavirus. Despite conspiracy theories to the contrary, Cain’s official cause of death was COVID-19, not cancer, which the former presidential candidate battled in 2006. So with that information in mind, Twitter users were very surprised on Sunday when Cain’s account tweeted a now-deleted claim that the novel coronavirus really isn’t that deadly.

“It looks like the virus is not as deadly as the mainstream media first made it out to be,” the account tweeted before linking to an article from the conservative outlet the Western Journal. As for how a dead man’s account is still tweeting, it’s now being used by family members and a social media team.

You can see the tweet below:

Obviously, claiming the coronavirus isn’t that deadly is a bold claim from an account whose previous owner literally died of the coronavirus. The reaction tweets practically wrote themselves.

Others flagged the tweet for risking public safety and putting lives at risk. Not to mention, the questionable practice of allowing a verified Twitter account to continue to tweet despite the fact that its original owner is deceased.

Despite deleting the offending tweet after it kicked off a social media feeding frenzy, it didn’t take long for Cain’s account to return to downplaying the pandemic.

Of course, there is one possibility to consider courtesy of Patton Oswalt, and the way 2020 has been going, we probably shouldn’t rule it out.

Would anyone really be surprised if zombies are a thing now? Be honest.

The most optimistic among us believed that COVID-19, aside from all the damage it would cause, would lead to some improvements in our way of life. We were all going to work from home, corporatism would have to evolve, maybe we’d even be a little kinder to each other. While we’ve yet to really see many improvements as we’re still frustratingly knee-deep in the pandemic. Yet, United Airlines’ announcement that they’d be “permanently” eliminating change fees for all domestic U.S. travel has us wondering if COVID-19 might actually change air travel for the better?

The carrier announced on August 30th that effective immediately, all change fees on standard economy and premium cabin tickets for travelers would be completely eliminated for travel within the U.S. Additionally, beginning on January 1st, 2021, all customers traveling within the U.S. and to and from international destinations can switch flights and add themselves on the standby list on the same day with the same origin and destination airports as their original itinerary. That’s so long as they make the changes no later than 30 minutes prior to departure for domestic flights and one hour for international flights, which essentially makes United hands down the most flexible American airline.

The fee for flight changes on domestic U.S. travel was $200 prior to the change and travelers hoping to be added to the standby list originally had to pay a $75 fee.

United Airlines isn’t just making things better for the average traveler though, members of the carrier’s MileagePlus Premier program get even more perks. The carrier is eliminating redeposit fees on all award travel for flights changed or canceled more than 30 days before departure. They’re also reducing thresholds for Premier qualification by 50 percent for each status level, giving customers access to better perks faster. United Airlines also announced an extension of its wavier for unlimited changes for all domestic and international ticket types issued after March 2rd, 2020 through December 31st, 2020.

Given that a U.S. passport is still pretty worthless — in comparison to just six months ago — and airlines canceling flights with short notice is the new norm, we all could desperately use that flexibility. And one would have to assume that United’s move could prompt other U.S. commercial airlines to drop their flight change fees as well. Your move JetBlue, American, Virgin, Southwest, Alaska, and Spirit (we won’t hold our breath)!

(Warning: Spoilers from this week’s Lovecraft Country will be found below.)

This week’s Lovecraft Country showed off striking sights of this world (Jurnee Smollett tearing down the street with a baseball bat) and of another realm inside her home. That’s where those racist Chicago North Side neighbors had stirred up dormant spirits, and we saw one heck of an exorcism scene that was attended by a baby-headed ghost. That ghost, which was really something, also managed to scare the bejesus out of some white home invaders. The sight of a giant man with a tiny baby head may very well have scared them to death. What a terrible (and fitting) fate for them, but seriously, imagine that ^^^ being the last thing that you see.

From what we learned later in the episode, it was clear that this poor soul had been experimented upon by Hirem Epstein. Presumably, the guy was insane and sociopathic and so on, but is there a reason that a baby head sat atop this ghost? Yes, and the explanation might be even more disturbing than the sight itself. Creator Misha Green revealed to CinemaBlend that Epstein’s acts were based upon the Tuskegee experiments “and the kind of medical things that have been done to people of color on American soil.” That fits right in with the show’s contextual tapestry thus far, but then Misha revealed exactly how they wove this idea into the mythology of the show:

“Okay, well, what is then the mythology? What is Hiram the ghost testing?’ He’s testing a time machine. So if he sent people through this time machine, what would happen to them? Like, would part of their body change in time? So then, their head is their baby self, but their body is their adult self. And so, it’s like you go down those things and then you get to ‘baby-headed ghost.’”

Soooo, time travel is now a part of this show. Not only that, but Hirem’s apparently got some sort of contraption upstairs that might be a part of that process. Perhaps we’ll find out more next week about that device, but we also know that Christina is very interested in the Winthrop House, though I still cannot figure out where she sits on the good-evil spectrum. I can’t even process thought right now, though, because… Baby. Headed. Ghost. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

(Via CinemaBlend)

BTS are one of the biggest bands globally, and they’ve increased their stronghold over the American music industry in recent years as well. Their two latest Korean albums — Love Yourself: Tear and Map Of The Soul: 7 — topped the Billboard 200 chart. Before today, they hadn’t had a No. 1 single in the US, though. They came close recently with “On,” which achieved a peak of No. 4 on the Hot 100. Now, however, they’ve done it: The group’s first English-language single, “Dynamite,” debuts at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart dated September 5.

This is a historic moment for BTS and K-pop more broadly, as “Dynamite” makes BTS the first all-South Korean group to ever top the Hot 100. It’s also their fourth top-10 hit, following “On,” “Boy With Luv” (which peaked at No. 8), and “Fake Love” (No. 10). “Dynamite” is the 43rd song to ever debut on top of the Hot 100. “Dynamite” relegates Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s hit “WAP” to the No. 2 spot on the chart

The past two days have been great for BTS, as they’re just coming off a tremendous night at the VMAs. They were nominated for four awards, and they won all of them: Best Pop, Best K-Pop, Best Choreography (all for their “On” video), and Best Group.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When the 2019-20 NBA season shut down in mid-March, it wasn’t abundantly clear that Vince Carter’s playing career was over. The future Hall of Fame forward previously indicated that he would likely step away following the season but, with the Atlanta Hawks out of the playoff picture, Carter spoke emotionally following a loss to the New York Knicks on March 11, and that ended up being his final post-game press conference as an active player. Since then, attention has shifted to Carter’s post-playing career, with Andrew Marchand of the New York Post now reporting that the 43-year-old will be joining ESPN.

Even before this report, all indications were that Carter would be shifting into broadcasting in some form, even while reportedly keeping the door open for work with the Hawks. Carter currently hosts a podcast, alongside Hawks digital reporter Annie Finberg, for The Ringer, and he was active in media work during a two-year stint with the Hawks. With that said, his role at ESPN will reportedly be “full-time,” according to Marchand.

Though it is unclear what Carter’s responsibilities will be with the worldwide leader, Marchand reports that Carter “was looked upon as a top broadcasting free agent once he finished playing.” At ESPN, there are myriad opportunities, both in the studio and with the potential for in-game work, and Carter famously announced his intent to play one more season on The Jump in 2019.

Carter is an astute basketball observer, as evidenced by his podcast work, previous on-air experience and consistent insight delivered in media appearances during his playing days. That approach, combined with his expansive profile as a former All-Star turned valuable role player, gives Carter a leg up on many players transitioning into analyst work, and he should be able to draw from varied experiences as a result.

The MTV Video Music Awards have never been about just music, which is why many fans were irked when one of basketball’s biggest stars didn’t make the show’s In Memoriam segment on Sunday night. Kobe Bryant’s death in late January shocked the NBA and the world at large, and sparked a number of tributes to Bryant and his life in recent months.

The NBA continued to honor Bryant earlier in the month on what would have been his birthday, with the Lakers wearing their Mamba black jerseys and wearing patches honoring both Bryant and his daughter, who died in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles. Tributes have taken shape all around the world and at many other major events, including the Grammy Awards which were held the night of their death.

Which is why his omission on Sunday night was immediately noticed. The awards paid tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who died on Friday night in yet another tragic loss to the entertainment community in what’s been a heartbreaking year. But later in the show, when a video In Memoriam tribute was aired, Bryant was nowhere to be found.

Bryant wasn’t a musician, of course, but the show paid tribute to a number of other artists and notable celebrities on Sunday night. According to Billboard, the In Memoriam segment highlighted musicians like Eddie Money, Bushwick Neil Peart, Bill Withers, Adam Schlesinger, Kenny Rogers and Little Richard. But it also honored actress and Glee musician Naya Rivera and Boseman, who played a musician on screen in Get On Up but wasn’t strictly known for music. It’s unclear why Bryant was excluded, and whether it was intentional or an oversight, but it’s clear many fans noticed on Sunday night.

It’s a big music day for Compton. First, YG and Day Sulan released the raunchy video for their new single “Equinox” and now, their fellow Hub City native Buddy follows up with a single of his own. On “Glitch,” the Harlan & Alondra rapper recruits singer Tinashe to sing the hook on the aggressive, boastful track.

Buddy comes in hostile from the jump, barking, “System got a glitch, bitch / Money comin’ in, it got an itch, bitch.” He continues in that vein for the rest of the song, never letting up for an instant. Tinashe comes in on the hook to accentuate his braggadocious stance, chanting the refrain: “Money bags, cash cars, clothes / Hunnid racks, stack tall, woah.” Incidentally, the two artists were labelmates on RCA until Tinashe took her leave last year.

“Glitch” is the fourth single from Buddy’s delayed second studio album, following “Black 2,” “Faces” featuring Lucky Daye, and “Ain’t Sweet” with Matt Ox. Despite the steady stream of new tracks, the follow-up to Harlan & Alondra doesn’t have a release date or even a title yet. However, that doesn’t mean there’s been a dearth of new Buddy tracks; he and Los Angeles rapper/singer Kent Jamz released their joint project Janktape, Vol. 1 earlier this year, and Buddy has been featured on a number of tracks, including the Dreamville posse cut “Don’t Hit Me Right Now.”

Listen to Buddy’s new single “Glitch” featuring Tinashe above.

Doja Cat has a fruitful night at the MTV VMAs yesterday: She was nominated for three honors and took home one of them, the PUSH Best New Artist award. After she heard the news, she sat down with MTV News for an interview, in which she discussed her upcoming third album.

She didn’t want to reveal too much, but she did tease a diverse effort and compared it to Hot Pink, saying:

“I’m always kind of winging it. But, I have my album coming, can’t say when, but that’s pretty much it. I really want to make it a surprise, I don’t want to say too much. It’s very similar to Hot Pink in the sense that each of the songs do have their own personality to them and sound. It’s not gonna be perfectly consistent. I’ve never been, anyway. But I definitely wanted to have fun and just do that again. We have some dancehall stuff on there, some Afrobeat stuff, we have some funk, house kind of stuff on there. I’m trying to cover all bases, is what I’m saying. I’m having a lot of fun doing this album and I can’t wait for people to hear it, and I think my fans are excited, so I’m excited, too.”

Watch the full interview above.