On the last day working at an afterschool program, I came up with an art activity. Draw Santa, and add cottonballs for his white beard and the white part of his hat.
We ran out of white paper, so we had to rely on construction papers of other colors. So I drew my Santa on yellow paper and added pasted some cottonballs.
I used my art as an example, and the students could make their own versions.
Here is my version. It will appear on the Christmas cards I will give to family members tomorrow.
Right before the Christmas weekend, rapper Tory Lanez was convicted for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot back in 2020!
All this over an argument. An argument he could've walked away from, or an argument he could've continued on social media with a war of words instead of a war with gunshots.
Megan was initially reluctant to involve the police due to the "no snitching" code in hip-hop as well as the historical distrust of police within the African-American community.
But she understood (as we all should) that in order to solve problems and to stop the violence, we have to start snitching. We can't let people like Tory Lanez take advantage of historical grievances to get away with stuff.
And the thing was that while Tory Lanez has his defenders on social media, this hurt his career.
When I heard his "Pluto's Last Comet" (the song that sampled Madonna's "Get into the Groove"), I had it on repeat. If I was a record executive, I would've said "you got a hit right there, we'll put it out there as soon as the sample clears". That song was that good.
But mainstream radio stations were understandably reluctant to play something by the guy who shot Megan Thee Stallion.
What could've easily been a #1 hit for the ages got shunned by the gatekeepers for his one big mistake. One wrong move can change the direction of your life in a really bad way.
While Megan Thee Stallion survived, we already had too many rappers getting murdered in recent years. Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, PNB Rock, Takeoff, Young Dolph, the list goes on. When will it stop?
Learn more about the case at
Blanca Begert, Joe Coscarelli, and Douglas Morino, “Tory Lanez Found Guilty of Shooting Megan Thee Stallion,” The New York Times ,December 23, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/23/arts/music/tory-lanez-megan-thee-stallion-verdict.html
Thania Garcia, “Tory Lanez Found Guilty in Megan Thee Stallion Shooting Trial,” Yahoo! December 23, 2022, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tory-lanez-found-guilty-megan-233450875.html