My Speech at the Unveiling of the Kobe Bryant Statue & Tucker Carlson Is Putin's New PR Flak
Why Some Gen Z Males Reject Feminism, Alarming New Study Shows Risks of Brain Damage in H.S. Football, Bachelor Franchise Silent About Racial Accusations, Jazz Phenom Joey Alexander Performs “Blue”
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Here’s the speech I gave at the unveiling of the Kobe Bryant statue. It was a heartfelt day for all of us.
‘Talkshow or a serious conversation?’ Tucker Carlson’s interview of Putin offered neither: Useful idiot Carlson wants you to snuggle in with Uncle Putin as he reads you a bedtime fairytale about heroic Russia’s invasion of a democracy.
Gen Z boys and men more likely than baby boomers to believe feminism is harmful, says poll: Why are young men so afraid of feminism?
‘Bachelor’ Producers Freeze When Asked About Franchise Diversity Woes: The popular franchise has been criticized by two of its Black contestants for racial insensitivity. When questioned, their response was insulting.
'Scare Tactic Much?': Critics Pounce On Trump Over Bonkers Pennsylvania Claim: This isn’t about Trump, but about certain news media platforms that manufacture a “news” story that is misleading. Label it as an editorial or don’t do it at all.
UPDATE: Football Can Damage the Brains of High-School Players: A new study shows alarming possible damage to the brains of high school football players. Is it worth the risk?
Kareem’s Video Break: This example of interspecies caring gives me hope for same-species compassion. It’s touching and funny.
Joey Alexander Performs “Blue”: Jazz phenom Alexander has made seven albums since he was 10. Here’s why at 20 he’s still wowing the jazz world.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Today’s Daily Quote is from me. Last Thursday, I gave a speech at the unveiling of the Kobe Bryant statue at the Crypto.com Arena. I thought you might enjoy reading it.
The first known statue was made 35,000 years ago—which was just around the time I hit puberty. Not much has changed since then. People still have a deep need to pay homage to those among us who represent the best versions of humanity. This statue may look like Kobe, but really it’s what excellence looks like, what discipline looks like, what commitment looks like. What love of family looks like. The fact that all those qualities come in the form of an exceptionally handsome man is just a bonus.
Coach Wooden used to frequently quote Benjamin Franklin’s line, “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” When I was on the Laker’s coaching staff, I had the opportunity to watch Kobe practice. I had never seen a player prepare with such focus and determination. It is one thing to want to excel, it’s another to drive yourself to acquire the necessary tools to excel. Kobe’s relentless determination made his teammates push themselves, too. He made everyone around him a better player.
Kobe once said something that has stuck with me ever since. He said, “I see the beauty in getting up in the morning and being in pain because I know all the hard work that it took to get to this point.” He was referring to the physical pain that all professional athletes learn to live with in pursuit of excellence. But his statement is even more profound than that, because we all arise from bed each day with some pain—the pain of lost loved ones, the pain of lost dreams, the pain of aging out of relevance. Yet, we endure that daily pain because it is the worthwhile cost of the daily joys and delights we experience in loving, in dreaming, and in growing older among family and friends.
I like to think of athletes as artists. Like the painter or poet, the athlete offers a temporary distraction from the struggles of life as well as keen insights into that struggle that help lessen the weight we all carry. We battered our hands in amazement as we watched Kobe defy the laws of gravity and movement as he leapt, dodged, and pirouetted from one end of the court to the other. He was a defender’s worst nightmare. That was entertainment. We learned from him that the limits of what is physically possible can be expanded—given enough effort, given enough heart. That was insight. That was Kobe.
A statue is a wonderful contradiction: It captures a person frozen in time while at the same time acknowledges that the reason there’s a statue in the first place is because that person is timeless. We’re all here today to honor a man who represents not just extraordinary sports achievements, but also timeless values that inspire us all to try harder to be, not just better, but our best.
Thank you, Kobe.
‘Talkshow or a serious conversation?’ Tucker Carlson’s interview of Putin offered neither (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: “Are we having a talkshow or a serious conversation?” Vladimir Putin asked Tucker Carlson at the start of their interview on Thursday.
By the end of the two-hour conversation, the answer was clear: neither.
Instead, viewers got a lesson in Russian history, going all the way back to Prince Rurik – a Scandinavian who came and dished out a good kicking in the region in 862 – and taking in the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, the circa-1300 threat of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia going to war with Poland in the mid-1600s.
…The interview dragged on like this for about 40 minutes. It was not the veil-lifting insight into the region that Carlson had promised in a video message he released two days earlier.
English language “media outlets are corrupt – they lie to their readers and viewers”, Carlson said in that preview.
He said he was conducting the interview because: “Most Americans have no real idea what is happening in this region – here in Russia or 600 miles away in Ukraine. But they should know. They’re paying for much of it.”
MY TAKE: The term “useful idiot” first appeared in 1864 in a British periodical and has been a common term ever since to refer to a naive or unwitting person manipulated by someone to do their bidding. Since its popularity during the Cold War, it often refers to someone being controlled by the communists to make the communist point of view more sympathetic. This phrase describes Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, and a gang of other Republicans offering support to Russia in an unspoken exchange for Russia undermining American elections to benefit Republicans. That’s not conspiracy: Russia admitted using bot farms to influence our elections to their benefit.
Tucker Carlson became another “useful idiot” as he tried to humanize Putin to the American public to undercut support for Ukraine that for some reason prefers its independence from a dictatorship that rigs elections, assassinates critics, and imprisons journalists. Remember when America went begging for help in Europe during our War of Independence, without which we would have surely been defeated? There were plenty who warned against helping the Americans because King George III was such a sweetie. Carlson would have been one of them.
It’s an oddity how Carlson, Trump, and other conservatives can rant against communism so vehemently, constantly calling Democrats communists and Marxists, while at the same time supporting the spread of communism through violence.
Gen Z boys and men more likely than baby boomers to believe feminism harmful, says poll (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: Boys and men from generation Z are more likely than older baby boomers to believe that feminism has done more harm than good, according to research that shows a “real risk of fractious division among this coming generation”.
One in four UK males aged 16 to 29 believe it is harder to be a man than a woman and a fifth of those who have heard of him now look favourably on the social media influencer Andrew Tate, the polling of over 3,600 people found.
Tate, the British-American former kickboxer who has 8.7 million followers on the social media platform X, is facing charges in Romania, which he denies, of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. He has talked about hitting and choking women and has said he is “absolutely a misogynist”.
The bestselling author and Canadian academic, Jordan Peterson, is also seen favourably by 32% of 16 to 29-year-old men, compared with 12% among women of the same generation. Peterson speaks up for “demoralised young men” and says Tate offers “forthright aggression” as an alternative to “cringing defeat”.
On feminism, 16% of gen Z males felt it had done more harm than good. Among over-60s the figure was 13%.
MY TAKE: Britannica defines feminism as “the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes.” According to that definition, most people in America would consider themselves feminists. The problem is branding: A lot of guys don’t like to be labeled with any word associated with feminine. Of course, their discomfort perfectly defines the problem. Culturally, we associate femininity with weakness, frivolity, and irrationality, and most males, especially younger ones, fear that characterization as degrading.
If we take a closer look at this UK poll, we see that more younger men than older men are disillusioned by feminism. Oddly, that might be hopeful. Those same men over 65 who are more likely to endorse feminism very likely weren’t as supportive of it when they were in their youth. The fact that they were able to mature out of their adolescent views shows progress.
More disturbing is that 25% of males aged 16-29 believed it was harder to be a man than a woman and that 20% and 32% respectively looked favorably on misogynists like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson. Tate struts about proclaiming his duty to protect women from their bad decisions while Peterson wraps his paternalism in selective history and bad logic. The young men who follow them prefer strict father figures who mete out praise and punishment under the guise of tough love.
I’m sympathetic to the struggles of young men who feel like they’re expected to run full speed across slippery ice covered with slick oil and littered with thumbtacks and broken glass. The temptation of traditional roles—man is decision-making king, woman his dutiful queen—is that they have hundreds of years of cultural weight behind them, they benefit the male more than the female, and the rules are easy to follow. The burden of equality between the sexes is that roles have to be continually redefined, males aren’t superior, and the rules aren’t always clear. The benefit: Equality.
It’s shocking and disappointing to me that we’re still having conversations about gender equality 50 years after the Women’s Liberation Movement began (in its modern form). That laws regarding a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body have whiplashed back to the 1950s. That some men are so clueless that they are willing to oppress women, even though these women are their wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters. That some women have been brainwashed into low self-esteem that they don’t even realize that they are the jailers of their own imprisonment. Dostoevsky said, “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.”
Those fighting to keep women subjugated often proclaim that women already have equal rights. First, that’s not true. Second, even when a law proclaims rights, there’s a vast difference between legality and social practices. The law can demand equal treatment, but men may still talk over women, dismiss their ideas because they’re women, and promote guys they hang out with after work.
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a good weather vane to determine which way the wind is blowing regarding how women are perceived in America. First introduced in 1923, the ERA has failed to be adopted for 100 years. Why? The text is simple: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” There’s also a sentence giving Congress the power to enforce the article. That’s it. Yet, despite continued efforts, including having had 38 states ratify the amendment, it’s still not part of the Constitution, mostly because of right-wing backlash.
One argument given was that the amendment is unnecessary because women already are protected by the Constitution. They aren’t, as Supreme Court Justice Scalia made clear in 2011: “Certainly, the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t.” Yet, 70% of American voters believe otherwise. Still, 85% of American voters support passing the ERA. Just for context, Canada, France, Ireland, Sweden, and Spain guarantee women’s equal rights. On paper, a vast majority want the ERA, in reality, we refuse to protect women. (Oddly, those blocking the ERA are the same ones claiming it is a male’s duty to protect women. I guess they mean to protect them from freedom.)
Feminism is like a beautiful white home that’s been covered with obscene graffiti by those afraid of equal rights. Young men growing up now can’t see the beauty through the sloppily painted slogans. Of course, when you have some Americans lining up behind a presidential candidate who a judge declared a rapist and who bragged about grabbing women “by the pussy,” then it’s easy to see why some young men have less regard for women’s autonomy. It’s all about the zeitgeist.
Kareem’s Video Break
You can stare longingly at Edward Hicks’ Peaceable Kingdom painting all you want, imagining a word of interspecies love, but this video makes us think about it on a whole new level.
You don’t need a crow to prod you. You know what to do.
This Week in Kareem’s Petty Media Gripes
Some things are irksome without the relevance of a full-blown rant. Like when someone installs the toilet roll so the paper rolls out from the top instead of from the bottom. Annoying, but not consequential. Here are petty media gripes for this week:
‘Bachelor’ Producers Freeze When Asked About Franchise Diversity Woes (The Hollywood Reporter)
SUMMARY: During a panel featuring showrunners from Jeopardy, Dancing With the Stars and Shark Tank, NPR’s Eric Deggans polled Bachelor producing trio Jason Ehrlich, Claire Freeland (both newcomers) and franchise veteran Bennett Graebner about why former star Rachel Lindsay and Matt James were both critical about how the Warners-produced franchise talks about race.
Freeland, who joined the Warner Bros. TV-produced Bachelor franchise in January 2023, attempted a response by saying that the show’s goal is to “represent the country” before shifting away from the question. Deggans, a respected veteran journalist and TCA member, then reiterated the question in a more direct fashion. At that point, all three producers remained mum for around 10 seconds, creating one of the more awkward moments of press tour. Deggans ended the prolonged silence by then saying, “Guess we have our answer.”
“It is impossible for me to comment on the seasons before I joined them here,” Freeland told The Hollywood Reporter following the panel. “I can only speak to the seasons I have made as part of the U.S. franchise as well as our plans as we go forward. And that is to get better at some of the areas that have not necessarily been as strong, perhaps, before in the past on the franchise.”
…“Notably, two of the three producers onstage representing the Bachelor franchise are new and had no involvement with the seasons @Deggans referenced. But the third? Who literally sat there in silence, not even a ‘no comment?’ It was flabbergasting,” wrote cultural critic Myles McNutt.
MY TAKE: Several years ago I criticized The Bachelor franchise for its lack of meaningful diversity. Then I appeared on The Bachelorette when they had their first Black Bachelorette, the delightful Rachel Lindsay. So, it’s a bit disappointing that race is still an issue. But that’s not what bothers me about that panel. I’m bothered by the ridiculous defense of the two new producers’ lame defense that the claims were before their time and they know nothing about it: “It is impossible for me to comment on the seasons before I joined them here.” Nonsense. Why is it “impossible” to comment? Because you don’t know what happened or because you’re afraid for your job?
No competent person takes a powerful job on a show without knowing its past problems and having some ideas about either ignoring or fixing them. No honest person uses ignorance of the past as an excuse. No intelligent person accepts that excuse as logical. As for the executive who remained silent—that’s just cowardly.
'Scare Tactic Much?': Critics Pounce On Trump Over Bonkers Pennsylvania Claim (The Huffington Post)
SUMMARY: Donald Trump warned National Rifle Association members Friday that Democrats would change the name of Pennsylvania if their party wins at the polls in November.
The former president, during an hour-plus speech in Harrisburg, reflected on his election victory in the state back in 2016 before declaring that his 2024 campaign to retake the White House must be victorious.
“Or we’re not going to have Pennsylvania. They’ll change the name,” Trump said. “They’re going to change the name of Pennsylvania.”
Trump also mentioned efforts in the U.S. to reexamine naming things after historical figures, such as schools named for George Washington.
“That’s one even I thought was safe. Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, their names are now in danger,” he said.
Trump’s claim about Pennsylvania comes roughly one month after headlines about the National Park Service’s proposal to remove a statue of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, from a park in Philadelphia.
…Trump’s claim about Pennsylvania led to mockery from online critics, with one social media user saying, “Scare tactic much?”
Conservative attorney George Conway, a frequent Trump critic, jokingly wrote that the former president’s remarks were “perfectly normal.”
MY TAKE: My gripe here is not with Trump (his absurdity speaks for itself) but with The Huffington Post and other media outlets like Fox News that use social media criticism to imply a larger popular backlash. (Full disclosure: I have written for The Huffington Post in the past.) In this case, HuffPost’s headline says “Critics Pounce on Trump,” which is technically true but, as they well know, not an honest news story. Fox does the same thing. They feature a headline like “Biden Gets Destroyed by Backlash” and then proceed to offer critical responses to Biden by a bunch of hard-right conservatives, most of them working for Fox.
The actual story here is Trump lying about the situation. The National Park Service intended to remove the statue and a model of Penn’s original home to revamp Welcome Park ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Part of the revitalization was to include some celebration of indigenous people. This is especially significant because the land where the park is located was given to the Haudenosaunee in 1755 by John Penn, William Penn’s grandson. No one knows how it happened (wink, wink), but the land is now owned by the federal government and the owners of nearby condominiums.
Bottom line: The info that got Trump and other Republicans so worked up was a preliminary report that hadn’t yet been internally reviewed. No one wants to change the name of the state. Pennsylvania state Rep. Bryan Cutler (R) ranted that President Biden was trying to “cancel” William Penn (though Biden had nothing to do with any of this). Because Republicans have no plan of substance during this election, they are resorting to becoming cultural snipers picking tiny issues and blowing them out of proportion while also lying about them. Their strategy: keep the base riled up so they don’t notice there are no specific proposals to improve their lives.
That’s the focus of this story, not listing a bunch of Trump critics gleefully pointing out his simple-mindedness. That’s an editorial disguised as news. I expect better from HuffPost.
UPDATE: Football Can Damage the Brains of High-School Players (Time)
SUMMARY: …According to a new study in JAMA Network Open, high-school football players can show alterations in brain tissue too. While it’s impossible to determine the presence of CTE without conducting an autopsy of the brain, the work provided disturbing evidence that playing the game early in life may lead to serious problems later on.
MY TAKE: A few weeks ago, I wrote about California’s Gov. Newsom rejecting a ban on tackle football for children and why that was a dangerous precedent. Since then, this report has confirmed how significant the threat is to our children’s health. Keisuke Kawata, an associate professor of clinical neuroscience at the Indiana University School of Public Health, and a coauthor of the new paper, said, “There are some brain changes that are normal over time. But among adolescent football players, we saw changes that it usually takes until middle age to exhibit.”
Some argue that it’s better for kids’ health to be out on the field getting exercise than sitting at home playing video games and stuffing their faces with chips. In logic, that’s called a false dilemma because it only gives two choices when there are many other choices available, including flag football or other organized sports. The real choice here is whether it’s worth the risk. Children are not able to understand the long-term consequences so it’s up to the adults to act like adults.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Joey Alexander: “Blue”
Joey Alexander is a piano prodigy from Indonesia who became a sensation when, as a ten-year-old, he impressed jazz great Wynton Marsalis in 2014. Ten years and seven albums later, he’s still a jazz sensation. At twenty.
“Blue” is from his new album Continuance, which features all original compositions by Alexander. What I like about this video is the feeling of intimacy as if we’re sitting in the kind of jazz clubs I used to frequent as a young man. Even though the band seems to be up on a stage doing their own thing, there is an unmistakable communication between them and the audience, bonding them as fellow travelers through this audio world outside of time and space. It is a world of mellow contemplation and yet also a world devoid of intrusive thoughts. It is a contradiction and that’s what makes it so powerful.
Thanks for the recommendation of Joey Alexander. I’m just getting into jazz, and I’m loving the way his music feels!
Re: your Jukebox Playlist and Joey Alexander- Kareem, I want to thank you for the incredible music this part of your column exposes me to. It's a feast in every sense of the word. Joey Alexander is just one example, but he's a perfect one. I'd never heard of him, but his music blew me away. I'm getting quite an education just by listening here. Thank you, thank you.