Coco for the culture
Tennis star Coco Gauff dedicated her victory in the French Open final last week to “people that look like me” in the U.S. and said she hopes it will bring “hope and light” to those who do not feel supported in the country. The 21-year-old won her second grand slam title as she battled from behind to win a dramatic three-set final against the World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. “It means a lot, and obviously there’s a lot going on in our country right now with… like, everything,” Gauff said. “I remember after the [2024] election and everything, it kind of felt [like a] down period a little bit,” Gauff added, alluding to the onslaught of Project 2025-inspired measures and executive orders that have eroded life as we know it. Gauff said her mother told her, “Just try to win the tournament just to give something for people to smile for.” And Coco responded… for the culture.
LA is a preview
LA residents refused to allow ICE to run roughshod over their civil and human rights and chose to peacefully and forcefully resist. The result: the Trump administration deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops and labeled the protesters as “lawless,” expecting to crush their will. But like Dr. Xavier Buck reminded the world via IG (@historyin3), just like Homey the Clown, LA’s POC don’t play that.
In 1785, Tongva women pushed colonizers and their missions off their land. After 18 Chinese males were lynched in 1871, Chinatown residents didn’t run; they rebuilt. In the 1930s, thousands of LA Latina garment workers went on strike for 26 days and won a 40-hour work week and fair pay. In 1943, when white sailors attacked Chicano youth, the Zoot Suit Rebellion was on, with Latinos, Blacks and Filipinos standing together. When the 1965 Watts Rebellion jumped off in protest of police violence, 14,000 National Guard troops stormed in. Blackfolk responded by building Black strongholds, the Ujima Village, Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital and Charles Drew University. In other words, 2,000 troops won’t stop LA’s long tradition of fighting for POC rights. But know that similar scenarios will be popping off across the country. How will H-Town respond when it comes our way?
Enemies of the State
The current White House administration declared DEI the enemy, firing thousands of Black people at all levels of government and slapping them with the label “unqualified.” However, their replacements epitomize entitled, inept and incompetent. FEMA head David Richardson told his staff he didn’t know the U.S. had a hurricane season. The head of Social Security, Frank Bisignano, admitted he had to Google info on the Social Security Commissioner role after being offered the position.
Former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz put national security at risk with Signal Gate, and for his incompetence, was named Ambassador to the UN. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth might as well have tweeted classified war plans while focusing more on culture wars than actual defense. Department of Education head Linda McMahon confused AI (artificial intelligence) with A-One (the steak sauce). U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the nation’s “top cop,” has put partisan attacks above the rule of law so often that her home state (Florida) is suing to disbar her. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spreads anti-vaxxer pseudoscience from the helm of HHS, undermining public trust in medicine with reckless abandon.
Americans (Republicans, Independents and Democrats) deserve better.
