Desert Vista Student Apology

Above is the image of a child drowning on dry land. She is Rachel Steigerwald, one of the students from Desert Vista High School of Arizona that I wrote about previously that for whatever reason thought it'd be cool to wear shirts that spelled out “Ni**er.” She stepped up during a rally regarding civil rights to apologize for her actions. It didn't turn out so well.

“I have come here to say that I am incredibly, incredibly sorry. I have love for everyone in my heart. I am not a racist and I'm asking everyone for forgiveness.” School officials are pissed about the photo as well as thousands of other people around the world. Change.org has set up a petition to get all the girls expelled and has over 40,000 signatures so far. I'm not angry so much as disappointed with all six girls and the person that took the photo. They also want the principal, Christine Barela, to resign for giving the girls just a five day suspension.

As of last year the school had 66% White students and 7% Black. The Black Student Union says that the picture does not represent what their school is about. Workshops have been started for students and the principal talked to them about what happened. And the last thing that girl should've said was that the picture was taken for the boyfriend of one of the girls.

Desert Vista High School's Finest

Yay! Senior picture day! This is one of those things that students get excited about. A chance to leave a mark in history...at school. Line up with fellow students and take a picture that will be around for years. Or you can be like these girls at Desert Vista High School in Arizona and use letters from “BEST *YOU'VE* EVER *SEEN* CLASS *OF* 2016” and take an extra picture with “Ni**er.” Yeah. You could do that. Not sure where the letter “I” came from unless its the “1.” Either way it happened.

The school had to release a statement after this image got online saying “The students will be disciplined in accordance with district policy and while we don’t discuss specific discipline I can tell you that will be addressing the obvious need for sensitivity training in this case.” The school and faculty approve what will appear in images for the yearbook and of course this nonsense was not approved. Eventually the students were suspended for five days.

Some people are asking if nigger even means the same thing to kids as it does to older people. Unless you are a toddler you know what the word means and when you say it are aware of what you are doing and hopefully who you're doing it around. Otherwise you could get hurt. These girls knew exactly what they were doing. They were trying to be funny. They weren't, but points for trying. Allow me to make an attempt to answer some questions regarding this word.

Thank You, Quentin Tarantino

“...as a writer, I am God. As a writer. And all these characters are mine and they're me and I'm telling the truth. And you know what? He (Spike Lee) might not like it, but there's a hell of a lot of black guys in Compton saying 'nigger' all the goddamn time. You know, in Carson, in Inglewood, that's where I'm from. Not everybody, but there’s a hell of a lot of guys.” - Quentin Tarantino 

Thank you, Quentin Tarantino. If not for your latest film The Hateful Eight I wouldn't know that as a Black man that I am supposed to not only use the word nigger every few words but that I am supposed to be okay with it being said by anyone. Thank you so much for teaching me what it means to be Black as well.

The thing people don't realize the way you do and have shown me through your movies is that being Black is about not trying to be better than your environment, but wallowing in it. Everyone around me saying nigger? Well, hell. I might as well too. And it feels so good when I'm sitting in a theater hearing it said to the only Black man in the film, Samuel L. Jackson. And as an actor his is fine with it so its fine with me because Black people all agree on everything! Jackson recently said “Once again, I'm sure there will be people who want to nitpick this whole nigger thing. But it ain't like that ain't the time.” Exactly. Historical accuracy is what Tarantino films are all about!

Starbucks Social Justice Shaming

There is this story that has been floating around online about this lady named Juana Martinez that discovered that a Starbucks employee in Lakewood, CA had stolen her credit card number and spent a little over $200 on it to buy some stuff at Ralph's. The cashier had disappeared with the card claiming she needed more paper for the receipt. Juana and her brother Brian Espinoza pulled into the drive through per usual and the same cashier was there. This was all recorded of course because that is the world we live in.

Juana told her “We got you on camera yesterday at Ralph's for $200, so just know that the cops are coming up here. You took a copy of my [expletive] card on New Year's Day. You know what you did, right?” The girl freaked out and immediately incriminated herself. You can tell that this is a not bright 19 year old and pretty much what I think is typical of someone around that age doing what she does and having done the crime she did. She said “I'm sorry that I took money from you and your kids. I'm sorry that you had to come up here. I'm sorry that this is inconvenient for you...I am a good child. I swear I am really good. I really do go to school. I'm 19. I play soccer.” Its futbol, bitch!