Rapper nails all the ways defending blackface is totally wrong

It's simple: Blackface is very, very bad.

Yet it's (once again) become the source of outrage Thursday, following the case of an Australian mother dressing her kid up as a famous football player, complete with blackface makeup. Luckily, Yorta Yorta rapper/actor Adam Briggs has broken down just how invalid all defences of the practice are.

The child was dressed to look like Australian rules player Nic Naitanui, who is of Fijian descent, for a school event called Book Week. You're meant to dress as your favourite book character, but that's a different story. 

"He wanted to go as his idol Nic Naitanui from the west coast Eagles. I was a little worried about painting him. (So many politically correct extremists these days) ... So I grew a set of balls and painted my boy brown and he looked fanf*ckingtastic," the mother wrote on the Facebook page of blogger Constance Hall, which has since been deleted.

That post attracted the attention of many people, but particularly Briggs, who took to his Facebook and Twitter pages to shut down all those arguments defending blackface.

Briggs took aim at those who criticised him for making it an issue, mainstream Australia's attitudes, and the now ubiquitous White Chicks defence used for blackface.

Yes, the crappy early-00s movie featuring the Wayans brothers dressing up as white women has somehow become an argument for why blackface is okay. Sigh.

IMAGE: FACEBOOK/BRIGGS

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BRIGGS AKA BIG SIGH 

✔@BriggsGE

ATTN WHITE PEOPLE: WHITE CHICKS IS NOT A DEFENCE.

11:44 AM - 25 Aug 2016

 
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BRIGGS AKA BIG SIGH 

✔@BriggsGE

All these white dudes telling me I'm 'making it an issue', I hope so. It's your privilege to ignore this stuff - it's my burden call it out.

5:24 PM - 25 Aug 2016 · Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

 
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Nic Naitanui himself took a more diplomatic approach on Twitter and didn't place any blame on the mother or the child, but hope they would learn from it.

View image on Twitter

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Nic Naitanui 

✔@RealNaitanui

Honestly I've encouraged this mistake in the past but I'm now educated of its origins.lets grow together #BookWeek

2:32 AM - 26 Aug 2016

 
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And here's the picture in question. Sorry in advance. Sigh.

IMAGE: FACEBOOK/BRIGGS

Minor league baseball player's windshield destroyed by his own grand slam

Hitting a grand slam is typically cause for celebration. 

However, it was bittersweet for minor league baseball player Brandon Thomas, who hit a baseball out of the stadium and straight into the front windshield of his own car.

Thomas is an outfielder for the Gateway Grizzles, a minor league baseball team based in Sauget, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis.

The minors may not pay as well as the majors, but Thomas doesn't seem to mind that he's responsible for repairing his own windshield. 

He tweeted that it was "Definitely worth it!!" – especially because his run helped the Grizzlies beat the Joliet Slammers 17-6.

The proud ball player shared a video of his powerful and coincidental grand slam on Twitter:

Hopefully someone gave Thomas a ride home from the game.

Bonus: Are These Tweets by Donald Trump or a Troll? Adam Pally Takes a Guess.

Report says Rio athletes want more out of their wearables

Wearables are becoming commonplace in practice games and training, but have received a lukewarm response from athletes, unhappy with the lack of advice or instructions.

Athletes see the advantages of using wearables, according to a report from Lux Research, but want to see wearable providers take more of an active role on the advice side.

That would include analysis on training performance, how to avoid injuries, and how to be healthier. Fitbit, the largest wearable vendor, currently provides limited analytics, outside of a weekly rundown of your efforts alongside heart-rate level and calories burnt during a workout.

“Most wearables today do a great job of reporting factual information but fail to educate consumers on how to modify their behavior to achieve their health and performance goals,” said Noa Ghersin, a Lux Research associate that penned the report.

“The 2016 Rio Olympics have highlighted how wearables can provide technique tracking, not just fitness monitoring. However, other major applications for sports wearables – like team strategy and safety – deserve more attention, too.”

In the MLB, two wearables, the Zephyr Bioharness and Motus elbow sleeve, provide coaches and physicians with detailed performance analytics and data on how hard balls are thrown or hit.

From there, coaches can inquire about lack of practice performance and physicians can check on health issues that need to be addressed before a big game.

Pro sports are embracing wearables warily

Other American sports are embracing wearables, albeit slowly to avoid oversaturation of tech on the field. Unions have also pushed back, worried that coaches will use the analytics as justification for benching or removing a player from the team.

Lux Research spoke to a number of athletes and coaches on three wearables, HTC and Under Armour’s HealthBox, Xmetrics swimming wearable, and Vert’s wearable clip.

For HealthBox, athletes said it needed more “instructive insights” to be a potential replacement for the personal trainer. Xmetrics has to make its metrics easier to understand. Vert should have alerts and recommendations to avoid injuries.

All of these are valid complaints, but part of the reason for low level insights and lack of medical advice is mostly due to regulation. The FDA has come down hard on wearables that attempt to be medical products, something that Apple reportedly found out when it filed its original Watch to the FDA, and had it swiftly denied.

For athletes to receive better insights and advice, U.S. and foreign regulatory bodies need to be more open to wearables outside the traditional healthcare market offering medical advice.

Activist Darya Safai continues protest in Rio despite security request

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Olympic security personnel questioned a female Iranian volleyball fan Saturday when she showed up for a match holding a large sign that read "Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums" and wearing a white T-shirt with those same words.

Darya Safai, who sat in a front-row courtside seat at Maracanazinho arena and briefly cried during the ordeal "because it hurts," said that Olympic officials pushed her to leave the venue but she was determined to stay put."

They said they didn't want the sign in front of the cameras and they asked us to leave," said Safai, who was with friends also wearing the T-shirts. "They even tried to impress me with military people. I think it is a pity they always listen to what the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran says.

"This is not the first time I had this experience but I won't give up because that's what Iranian women do, they keep fighting for their rights."

The International Olympic Committee bans political statements at the games.

"So with all the things that happened here today at Maracanazinho, I stayed inside because it is my right," she wrote in a text message to The Associated Press.

Born in Tehran and now living in Belgium, the 35-year-old Safai is the founder and director of "Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums!" and an activist against gender discrimination. Women have generally been banned or heavily restricted from attending all-male sports events in Iran.

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Janie McCauley 

✔@JanieMcCAP

.@SafaiDarya held sign for Iranian women to be let in stadiums. "I won’t give up because that’s what Iranian women do, they keep fighting."

12:34 AM - 14 Aug 2016

 
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Safai plans to try to bring her cause to Maracanazinho arena again. She wore a headband with the colors of Iran's flag and also face paint of the flag on each cheek."

"For the next game on Monday we also have tickets and we are going to do the same," Safai said.

Iran's volleyball team, in its first Olympics, swept Egypt in the match 3-0 for its second victory in Rio.

View image on Twitter

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Adèle Smith @adelesmith100

Le message politique du Jour à #Rio2016 c'est elle@SafaiDarya @LetIranianWom

7:23 PM - 13 Aug 2016

 
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In 2012, the longtime ban on women from soccer matches in Iran was extended to volleyball. Women have for years been trying to change the long-standing efforts by authorities to enforce strict interpretations of Islamic norms.

USA Volleyball chairwoman Lori Okimura has been outspoken on the issue — she even brought her own "Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums" T-shirt to Brazil — and checked in with Safai on Saturday to make sure she was OK.

"This is not a political statement. This is not a political issue," Okimura said. "This, to me, is not about politics, it's about gender. Volleyball has always been about equality, why now are we not sending that same consistent message?"

Women in Iran saw Safai's efforts on TV and appreciated the solidarity, taking to social media to offer their support.

"The Olympic Spirit, which is against discrimination, is what Iranian women need in their country," Safai said. "It should be the right of everyone, men and women, to attend a sports game. It is a pity that women have to travel to Brazil to watch and cheer for their national team."