Remember The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock? The movie showed how a kid who had an extremely rough upbringing got help from the family of a school friend, found success in football and ultimately ended up being adopted by the family. Turns out he was never adopted.
Michael Oher says that he was tricked by the Tuohy family into signing documents that made them his conservators. Since he was already 18 at the time the family told him, “that it means pretty much the exact same thing as ‘adoptive parents,’ but that the laws were just written in a way that took [his] age into account.”
Oher also says that papers were signed so that his story and likeness were given away for free to use in The Blind Side. He also never got a single royalty check for the hugely successful, Oscar nominated film in the 14 years since its release.
It just continues to baffle me that they essentially purchased a young Black man’s life to make football money off of, like buying a racing horse, except a person. Like, I don’t know how else to say it. And then made everyone think it was something wonderful they did to “save” an “impoverished, Black boy”, and he’s been saying it for years to no avail that they took advantage of him!
This shouldn’t be as surprising as it is. Disability advocates have been talking about this (the purchase of a human being via conservatership) for years. If you find this abhorrent, and you should, it’s time to start dismantling your ableism, paying attention to disability advocates, and boosting their voices.
Y’all in the American SW and west Mexico better check the national hurricane center and your weather for this weekend and next week.
Hurricane Hilary is about to make landfall and that whole desert area is supposed to get a years worth of rain or more. Death Valley is supposed to get twice the annual rainfall. Severe winds, massive flooding, and landslides are all strong possibilities.
This is gonna get ugly. Please spread the word. This is a majorly anomalous event and people may be unaware of the threat headed their way.
Flash floods are definitely gonna kill people, so here’s your regularly scheduled PSA:
Desert soil does not absorb a significant amount of water. It reaches maximum saturation very very quickly, and all the rest of the water rushes downhill. Even if you can’t tell that the ground is not perfectly flat, the water can. And it will move. Quickly. No, faster than that. Nope, still faster. If you try to cross moving floodwater, you will get swept downstream and probably die.
Do not try to wade in/cross flood water that is any deeper than the thickness of the sole of an average athletic shoe, no I am not kidding, the water will get deeper literally while you’re standing in it.
This goes for cars, too. I’ve seen entire vehicles getting swept downstream in flash floods because the driver thought they could cross the “puddle” and Found Out.
Stay safe, y’all.
A couple of inches of moving water is more than enough to move a car. Don’t fuck with it.
This thread is full of the luckiest people on the planet, I think. Also goes to show just how calm even venomous snakes are - coral snakes rarely bite unless you’re actively harassing them - and how important it is to make sure your ID as non-venomous is 1000% certain before picking up any wild snake.
See, the hooded pitohuis here is the odd one out in that is is not going to actively try to kill you, and basically as long as you don’t try to eat it you’re fine. Picking up a blue ring octopus however is a seriously dangerous mistake.
