Month: June 2020

Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard Announced as NBA 2K21 Cover Star for Current-Gen Systems

Posted on by Phil Lam X

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NBA 2K21 will have three different cover athletes. Now we know Damian Lillard will be the first.

2K announced the Portland Trail Blazers star will serve as the cover athlete for current-gen systems in a press release Tuesday.

Lillard expressed gratitude for the cover spot:

“This is a special moment for me in my NBA career. I’ve been a fan of NBA 2K for years and love how they represent all aspects of basketball culture. I’m an avid 2K player so I’m honored to join the other NBA greats who have been on the cover. I’m grateful to all my fans and can’t wait for everyone to experience the game later this year.”

Source: Bleacher Report

Dean of USC School of Dramatic Arts David Bridel Admits Improper Romantic Relationship with Student, Resigns

Posted on by Phil Lam X

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The dean of USC’s School of Dramatic Arts has resigned after a woman publicly revealed that he had a romantic relationship with a student while she was attending the university more than a decade ago.

The relationship was revealed during a town hall meeting on Wednesday for faculty, students and alumni of the MFA in acting program, prompting Dean David Bridel to pen a letter to faculty admitting that he briefly dated an unnamed BFA senior in 2009.

USC Provost Charles Zukoski announced in a memo to the school on Thursday that he had accepted Bridel’s resignation, adding that the university was investigating the allegation. School of Cinematic Arts Dean Elizabeth Daley was named interim dean.

Source: NBC LA

Burger Meat Brand ‘Meat District’ Found at Costco Sparks Anger After Using Asian Woman’s Geisha Image on Packaging

Posted on by Phil Lam X

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With its suggestive name “Meat District,” the line of burger products from food manufacturing company Golden West Food Group is being criticized for perpetuating racial stereotypes in the branding of one of its labels.

The particular product in question is the “Kanpai burger,” a type of patty made with American wagyu beef.

The use of a silhouette of an apparent geisha on meat products captured the attention of a Costco shopper who posted a photo of it on Twitter. Geishas are traditional female Japanese entertainers thought to have come about in 17th century Japan.

Source: NextShark

2017 – The Carter Effect transformed Canadian basketball: Ex-Raptors star ignited sport’s popularity in a hockey-mad country

Posted on by Phil Lam X

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Prior to Carter’s arrival, Raptors games were such a tough sell even scalpers found it difficult to make anything off their tickets.

The Daytona Beach, Fla., native took the league by storm earning the nicknames “Half man, half amazing” and “Air Canada” for his electrifying dunks and high-flying acrobatics.

“When he was ‘Vinsanity,’ I was enjoying it as a fan like everyone else and noticing the talks amongst my friends in the classrooms — it was no longer about hockey, it was basketball now,” Menard said.

Carter’s performance at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest on February 13, 2000 forever changed the landscape of Toronto and Canadian basketball’s reputation.

The burgeoning star opened the competition at Oracle Arena in Oakland with a 360 windmill dunk and later executed the iconic between the legs dunk off a bounce.

“Without that dunk competition, I don’t know if you have this type of effect [on Canadian basketball]. It was so important that he was wearing ‘Toronto’ across his chest for that dunk contest because it put the city on the map globally — he was representing our city,” Menard said.

Source: CBC

Dallas Stars fire visual effects designer Alex Kleuser after racist social media post comparing Chinese people to squirrels and prompted violence by suggesting they should be shot

Posted on by Phil Lam X

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The Dallas Stars fired Alex Kleuser, a visual effects designer for the team, after they were alerted to a racist comment he made on social media.

“Alex was an employee of the Dallas Stars. This individual’s statement does not represent the culture and values of the club. As such, this employee is no longer a part of the organization,” the team said in a statement.

According to screenshots of his post, Kleuser was responding to a thread on Nextdoor, a social networking hub focused on specific neighborhoods, regarding how to deal with a squirrel infestation and made a racist comment about Chinese people.

Kleuser had been with the team since September 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Source: ESPN

Protesters demand answers for why 18-year-old Latino man Andres Guardado was shot by a sheriff’s deputy

Posted on by Phil Lam X

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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Gardena earlier to demand justice for Andres Guardado, an 18-year-old Latino man fatally shot Thursday by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. Authorities said Guardado was armed and had fled from deputies, but have not said what prompted the shooting.

“He ran because he was scared,” one of the protesters’ signs read. “Why’d you kill that kid?” the crowd chanted.

People in cars raised their fists in solidarity and honked their horns. Aztec dancers beat drums at the front of the procession.

Protesters marched down West Redondo Beach Boulevard, where Guardado was shot, filling the street as they headed toward the sheriff’s station in Compton more than three miles away.

Source: Yahoo

Snapchat apologizes for Juneteenth filter that prompted users to ‘smile’ to break chains

Posted on by Phil Lam X

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Snapchat is apologizing for a controversial Juneteenth filter that allowed users to “smile and break the chains,” saying the filter had not gone through its usual review protocols. The filter was panned by critics on Friday morning shortly after its release for its tone deafness, and was disabled by about 11AM ET.

“We deeply apologize to the members of the Snapchat community who found this Lens offensive,” a Snap spokesperson said in an email to The Verge. “A diverse group of Snap team members were involved in developing the concept, but a version of the Lens that went live for Snapchatters this morning had not been approved through our review process. We are investigating why this mistake occurred so that we can avoid it in the future.”

It isn’t the first time a Snapchat filter has gone badly awry. In 2017, it honored International Women’s Day by offering filters of famous women like Frida Kahlo, Rosa Parks, and Marie Curie, but added smoky eye makeup and a face “thinning” effect to the Curie filter. It had two misfires with filters in 2016: it released a Bob Marley filter in honor of 4/20 that put users’ selfies in what many users felt amounted to digital blackface, and later that year made an anime-inspired filter that created “yellowface” caricatures of Asians.

Source: The Verge

Lakers Owner Jeanie Buss Shares Racist Letter from Fan; ‘We All Must Do Better’

Posted on by Phil Lam X

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Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss shared a racist letter sent to her by a fan in an Instagram post Friday.

The letter said: “Dear w—e, After 60 years as a huge Lakers fan, I now say to hell with the overpaid n—-r traitors and the NBA. Go to hell and join [redacted] Kobe Bryant.”

Buss explained she felt it was important to share the letter: “I have received letters like this over the years. The advice I always got? ‘Ignore it.’ I did. But not anymore. On this day, Juneteenth, I ask my white friends to join together, acknowledge the racism that exists in our country and around the world, and pledge to stop ignoring it. We all must do better.”

Source: Bleacher Report

Cal State University East Bay (CSUEB) & Laney College Professor Matthew Hubbard Placed on Leave For Mocking Vietnamese Student’s Name and Telling Her to ‘Anglicize’ it to Accommodate Him

Posted on by Phil Lam X

Laney College in Oakland confirmed that they are aware of allegations of “racist and xenophobic messages” from one of their faculty members about the pronunciation of a student’s name.

According to an email chain, which was later posted onto social media, professor Matthew Hubbard had asked student Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen to change her name as it “sounds like an insult” in English.

“Your name in English sounds like F**k Boy,” Hubbard adds. “If I lived i Vietnam and my name in your language sounded like Eat a D**k, I would change it to avoid embarrassment both on my part and on the part of the people who had to say it.

“I understand you are offended, but you need to understand your name is an offensive sound in my language.”

The emails were posted onto Instagram by the student’s sister along with a video of the professor only referring to the student as P Nguyen.

“As a professor, he should be trying to learn her name and culture and not try to white wash her name. My sister graduated high school thinking she can finally be able to use her name.

“I love that my parents want to keep my culture alive by keeping our Vietnamese name. If you can’t say it then ask.”

Source: Newsweek