Happy Friday, and welcome to the fourth edition of The Internet Inside of My Mind, a weekly gathering of the most absurd and sometimes mundane things on the Internet. Do you ever feel like a large plushie frog bopping to the beat of life; a chaotic and entrancing percussion-filled hedonistic flailing movement, as if forced to perform at the mercy of total strangers for your livelihood?
Same. That’s why I hope you will find something to make you laugh, think and share this week’s The Internet Inside of My Mind. If you enjoy and value this work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. Or share it with friends and family; this is a 100% reader-supported publication, and I would love to keep expanding. Thanks for being here!
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In this week’s post, we’re covering:
The white people behind The Blind Side are literally evil
The fears of housing displacement for the residents of Lahaina are very REAL
Everybody say, “Thank you, Georgia”
When They Said “The Blind Side,” They MEANT IT
The feel-good story behind The Blind Side never existed. It isn’t real, and it was [mostly] made up, so says Michael Oher, former NFL player and the main character of the 2009 rags-to-sports riches film. In a bombshell Court filing obtained by ESPN, Oher seeks to end the conservatorship he is held under by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the white family that “adopted him.”
Except, they didn’t.
In the court filing, Oher is asking to end the conservatorship, block the Tuohys from further using his name and likeness, and for them to give a FULL accounting of any money they made from his story. The story has been covered ad nauseam, but here are some salient points:
Not only did the Tuohys lie to the entire world about the adoption, repeatedly referring to Oher as their “adopted son” and presenting themselves as his parents, but they lied to Oher, as well. According to the court filing, Oher didn’t discover he wasn’t legally adopted until this year.
Back when the film was released, many called out the film’s obvious white savior trope and inaccuracies. The film portrayed Oher as a poor, dumb Black kid who needed the Touhys to teach him how to play football. Over the years, Oher publicly criticized the film and corrected several inaccuracies, such as the fact they definitely had a bed before going to live with the Tuohys
The Tuohys ensured that their biological children were also enriched by Oher’s life story. On Monday, August 14, Sean “SJ” Tuohy Jr. appeared as a guest on Barstool Sports Radio (BARF) and admitted to receiving a payout of $14,000 and then at least one additional payout of $60,000 to $70,000 “over the course of the last four or five years.” The fact that he made any money off of Oher’s story at all is absolutely unethical
Contemporary critics of professional sports leagues have long called out the treatment of Black players (and by “contemporary critics,” I mean that one episode of South Park where Cartman asks the head of the athletic department of the University of Colorado how they are able to procure “slaves,” AKA their unpaid student-athletes) as exploitative, and Ohey’s story is a very real example of how unprotected, often poor BIPOC children are funneled into a system that doesn’t care about them outside of the labor they can provide. The Tuohys have already made their statement and did not deny that Ohey was never legally adopted, but say they were NOT financially enriched by the film.
Historically, Post-Disaster Housing Displacement Hits People of Color Harder
Devastating wildfires in the Lahaina area of Maui left families without shelter or supplies, claimed the lives of many, and reignited conversations around the land in disaster areas. Of note, the land is a tertiary issue here—the loss of life is what’s important, but Lahaina residents are fully within their rights to be concerned about maintaining ownership of their property.
In the months following Hurricane Katrina, while evacuees were still waiting on FEMA and insurance to provide a pathway to get them back into their homes, out-of-town investors swooped in and capitalized on the disaster to the tune of millions. The Gulf Opportunity Zone Act, passed in 2005, was meant to spurn rebuilding along the gulf coast after Katrina, Rita and Wilma. What should have helped local home and business owners rebuild their livelihoods, was spent on projects such as luxury condominiums at the University of Alabama. Speculators and investors made cutthroat offers in the neighborhoods ravaged by Katrina, often getting homes for 50% of their pre-hurricane value. The problem is, aid to historical Black and poor neighborhoods was often improperly disbursed, leaving many Black homeowners without a way to afford to rebuild their homes. Research points to inequitable access to federal post-disaster aid. After Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, a full 60% of people who applied for the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) rental assistance program were denied.
In New Orleans, FEMA also decided to use house value as one of the deciding factors when choosing to disburse crucial rebuilding aid to homeowners. And guess what happened? Black homeowners were disproportionately denied funding to help rebuild, forcing them to either foreclose or sell their homes. To add insult to injury, the privatization of public housing and other land ran rampant in New Orleans for years after Hurricane Katrina, helping fuel a housing market that far outpaces wages.
With this type of history, it’s no wonder Lahaina residents are already loudly proclaiming that they do need support to keep their homes. Luckily, Hawaii’s Governor, Josh Green, issued a statement saying he is working with the state’s Attorney General to place a moratorium on land transactions in Lahaina.
Let’s hope the Federal Government and insurers work fast enough to provide people with what they need to stay in their homes.
If you are looking for ways to donate to the people of Lahaina, this Google Spreadsheet has places where you can donate that go directly to the families, organizations and businesses impacted by the wildfires.
RICO LAW Catches Another One!
Nobody is having a better year than the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act, apparently. After hitting fast fashion behemoth Shein last month, RICO’s latest target is Donald Trump and associates, as the state of Georgia lobbied charges that they tried to fix the 2020 presidential election.
As a reminder, here is what RICO covers: “a type of organized crime in which the persons set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.” Passed by Congress in 1970, RICO was originally meant to convict people associated with the Italian-American mafia and was purposefully left vague so that investigators and prosecutors could target suspected mobsters with an established pattern of behavior, rather than specific and individual crimes. This is why today, RICO can seemingly be used for a number of criminal enterprises; from rappers to baseball fixers to former presidents. RICO is an adaptable girl.
On Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and associates, like former NYC mayor and current pauper Rudy Giuliani, were charged with 161 “overt acts” of election tampering. This is in addition to the four charges announced by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith on August 2, which include “conspiracy to defraud the US, tampering with a witness and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.”
There are 19 total co-defendants in this case, and they can be hard to keep track of, so ABC News made a handy infographic:
RICO is a much longer and tougher road than other laws, and the burden of proof is much higher on prosecutors, due to ambiguity of the law. We’ll have to wait and see if Georgia prevails, though, according to DA Willis, it will take at least “six months” before the trial even begins.
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