We Got Another Good News Roundup!

A Crash Course to Kendrick's Super Bowl Performance, from a Black Woman

Note: this does NOT go in depth into all of the song's lyrics. I don't have time to recount two decades of his discography. This is just a summary of the performance itself.

Let's start with the first visual we get:

UNCLE SAM - most notably recognized from WWII American wartime propaganda, Uncle Sam is the personification of American patriotism and freedom. The term "uncle" is also evocative of Uncle Tom from Uncle Tom's Cabin, an abolitionist book that aided in inciting the Civil War. Uncle is also a very common term (both endearment and derogatory) towards Black men (eg. "unc"). Samuel L Jackson was fantastic.

Uncle Sam also resembles a circus ringleader, notable for my next point:

THE GREAT AMERICAN GAME - no, not Super Bowl. The GAG is us the people being pitted against each other: through late-stage capitalism, through the culture war, through class warfare, through being built of the backs of slaves. We are all players in the GAG because none of us on this site were the oligarchs seated at the inauguration.

This is also seen as Kendrick's stage was a Play Station controller. Not only did it remind of circus rings visually, but it was a game battle stage. The Great American Game is a battle royale of the commoners for the amusement of the rich whites.

Remember the foods / Them color was tin and brown / But now they 100 and blue - For this I'll just say, look what the last election said about lowering the price of eggs... and look at the prices now.

The revolution about to be televised / You picked the right time / But the wrong guy - Election 2024 once more.

THE FLAG DANCERS - yes, the dancers formed the US flag... off of the backs of Black people. Not a single white person in sight, and that's true of the cotton pickers in the fields. Plantations are part of how the US came to economic prominence after being a "backwater" colony. Remember tobacco? Cotton? Our bloodlines do.

The red and blue dancers are also notable for representing the Crips and Bloods, two infamous street gangs. The dance in Not Like Us is the Crip Walk. I recommend researching more on your own time about them, but just know they are a large part of the stereotype of Black people being "ghetto."

TOO LOUD, TOO RECKLESS, TOO GHETTO. Do you really know how to play the game? - This is exactly what Black people, especially Black men, get told all the time. It's why we change our names on resumes if they sound "too Black." It's why we codeswitch in non-Black company. This is especially rich considering how non-Black people love our culture and love to make money off of us, as the latter part of the quote points to. And it's even more profound during the Super Bowl-- the NFL is majority Black players.

STREET LIGHT A CAPELLA -- "thug" stereotype dancers to counteract the a capella connotations, with Uncle Sam then saying that Kendrick figured out "bringing other street guys around being a culture cheat code." Yes, this is a direct hit at Drake (listen to "Not Like Us") but also politically. Look up "model minority". Notably I would point to Candace Owens, or the Miami Venezuelan political group that's been in the news recently, especially as this directly led to Kendrick being surrounded by...

DANCERS IN WHITE -- it's white America. That's... that's the allegory.

NOT LIKE US TEASER -- Kendrick says "Not Like Us" is "their favorite song." -> he means white people specifically here. It comes after he's surrounded by all white dancers, the women around him who are his call and response are also in white (my opinion, they represent the industry). He's saying "Not Like Us" is the favorite of yts because it is about BLACK MEN FIGHTING. This again is reflected in the video game stage and ringleader Uncle Sam.

SZA -- instead of giving what they want, we see SZA. She's one of Drake's exes and Kendrick has always supported her.

ALL THE STARS -- This was in the first Black Panther movie, which I recommend you watch. Rest in Power Chadwick. Notably, this movie was incredibly mainstream as a major Marvel movie, and then we have Uncle Sam say...

"THAT'S WHAT AMERICA WANTS: NICE AND CALM. DON'T MESS THIS UP" -- translation: Marvel (the industry, America, etc.) wanted a safe, semi-pop song because white American likes safe pop songs, not Kendrick's usual heavy rap style about his life as a Black man! Don't mess up what you've got going mainstream for having this "Black rap feud" with Drake, who is an R&B model minority to white people because he's safe.

So what does Kendrick say?

IT'S A CULTURAL DIVIDE / IMMA GET IT ON THE FLOOR -- He was warned not to be political or apologetically Black for this Super Bowl performance, but he is using this big stage opportunity to speak out.

40 ACRES AND A MULE / THIS IS BIGGER THAN THE MUSIC -- 40 acres and a mule are what the freed slaves were promised. Instead, this land went to white sharecroppers. Research Jim Crow laws.

THEY TRIED TO RIG THE GAME / BUT YOU CAN'T FAKE INFLUENCE -- rig the election, rig the industry like with model minority Drake, rig the Great American Game with culture war to distract from active class warfare.

NOT LIKE US -- the only thing I'll mention because it made me holler is Serena Williams crip walking on Drake's metaphorical grave. She's another one of his exes.

TURN THE TV OFF -- exactly like he said! The TV is a distraction, the Super Bowl is a distraction, the mainstream news is often a distraction. Turn it off and get with your people!

GAME OVER — could not see this on my stream but at the end of the performance, the lights in the stadium spelled this out. The world is watching, America…

In conclusion, Kendrick Lamar is a visionary and thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

now that trump has tiktok, twitter, facebook and insta in his pocket, get ready for a massive wave of internet censorship. one of trump's greatest weapons has always been misinformation; it's going to become harder and harder to spread facts and criticism going forward. posts that aren't made invisible will be magically ignored by the algorithm. dissidents will have their accounts deleted and voices erased.

this is a suppression tactic. this is another stage of fascism.

Sans and... Sans. Fell Sans (the red one) is not my AU, and his design in this drawing is based on a combination of other people's versions of him

there's no context for this drawing, just Fell somehow ending up in Classic Sans' universe

Trapped Family in Gaza Appeals for Help to Survive

A Plea for Help from Gaza: A Family Seeking Safety

Hello, I am reem shehab, married to fahed sshehab, and we have five wonderful children.

We live in the midst of the ongoing hellish war in Gaza, trapped between walls of fear and despair.

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Sahar and Her Family to Evacuate Gaza, organized by Ahmed Shamia

My name is Sahar Shehab. I am 14 years old from Gaza . I ask you for urgent h… Ahmed Shamia needs your support for Help Sahar and Her Famil

We struggle daily to survive in an environment filled with threats and dangers.

I lost our only source of livelihood when the war destroyed my husband's gym, which he built with dedication and hard work. My children Sahar, Dana, Mona, Malak and Yahya have been deprived of education after their schools were destroyed, severely threatening their future. , which increased the state of hopelessness and hopelessness in which we live.

My children live in constant anxiety because of the bombing and war going on in our area. My husband lost his source of income, leaving us unable to provide for our family's needs and safety. The war destroyed our home, forcing us to flee repeatedly and making us homeless.

We are now facing great difficulty in providing a safe place to live, clean clothes, and food for our children. In addition, our children have contracted diseases such as measles, and our daughter Dana was diagnosed with viral hepatitis.

Our only hope now is to escape this ongoing nightmare and find a safe haven for our family. However, this requires exorbitant financial costs.

We urgently appeal for your moral and financial assistance to cover the necessary costs for escaping to a safe environment, where we can build a better future for our children and ensure our family's safety.

We are in desperate need of your support. Any donation, no matter how small, can help save our lives. Thank you for your attention and support during these harsh times.

GoFundMe Campaign Link ♥️ :

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Sahar and Her Family to Evacuate Gaza, organized by Ahmed Shamia

My name is Sahar Shehab. I am 14 years old from Gaza . I ask you for urgent h… Ahmed Shamia needs your support for Help Sahar and Her Famil

With deepest respect and gratitude,

Reem Shehab 🌺🌹

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

Note :

My account vetted by :

@el-shab-hussein. link vetted 🌺

MY COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!

my god it's been 5 years (not kidding)

for all the details and rules:

if on desktop, go to the Commissions page on my blog

otherwise, join my Discord server (link in profile)

or just contact me here!!

some of my stuff:

major info:

i mostly draw people and architecture (links to my various online art accounts in my bio, if you want more examples!)

for now, I'm only doing digital pieces, the final products of which I'll send you via email

for now, i only have PayPal as a way to pay for my art. if there are some other big ones you guys want me to use, it may take some time, but I'll do my best to get those up as well!

for pricing, follow the "more info" instructions above, but they vaguely fall between $15 and $50, depending on complexity and how much time it'll take me

i scrolled to this post RIGHT as this drawing showed up on the Drawfee video i was watching and it. startled me to say the least

🪷

Spread the word.

this is super helpful!! I've been trying to figure out how to stay on top of the news without getting facebook or twitter.

If you live in the US and want a way to follow good non-right wing news for free, consider:

Subscribing to PBS News on YouTube (they have a news hour every night/half hour on weekends, broken up into smaller consumable segments. Sometimes they live stream national events like the inauguration. You don't have to watch it all, but pick and choose what to watch & when. Like, say, only watching the half hour weekend segments).

Subscribing to NPR News on whatever podcast app you have (they do 5-minute news updates throughout the day; you usually only need to listen to it 1x/day to get highlights).

Subscribe to nonprofit investigative online news source ProPublica; you can sign up for either daily, weekly, or top news stories sent to your email. You can also follow them on sm.

Okay this one isn't free, but if you have any extra money, don't underestimate how important or endangered local newspapers are. Subscribe if you can. Some papers will also send you short summaries if you're a subscriber, and you can also follow local papers on social media.

Remember that just generally getting deluged with news on social media is not good for your mental health, and is much more susceptible to misinformation or propaganda. Getting news online works best when it's supplemental to verified news sources; usually as grassroots, on-the-ground info from people you know and trust who are living out a certain experience.

You can keep a particular online space "safe" from politics without hurting anything, provided you make routine space for good, responsible news in your schedule.

AND that you make sure to follow a diverse group of people and support their inclusion in that space, even if you're online for a niche interest (in almost any online hobby, there are lots of people who are not at all the same class, race, ethnicity, gender identity, from the same place, etc, etc). Honor, protect, and value a wide variety of voices even in your online hobbyist spaces, while also making regular time for real news? You'll find yourself with a decent snapshot of information from both the top down and the bottom up about how the world works and is impacting a wide variety of people.

Without feeling like you have to absorb/respond to everything happening every single moment of every day. For the next 4 years

5/5/25 ⚠️

Remaking this post because our electricity is set to get shut off any day now. We've tried to make payment arrangements but they wont take less than 900.

I just had to spend the last of my money on rent. Any help is super appreciated. This is urgent. 🥺🙏

Paypal: the50foottaco@ymail.com

Venmo: kashebu

Cashapp: $sinisterspiral

0 / 500

that was sick