SOCIALMED ROUND UP IA
This past week, social media saw a whirlwind of entertaining topics for discussion.
Everything from distasteful jokes to shocking arrests, here are some of the highlights on this week’s Social Media Round Up.
VEE MAMPEEZY’S DISTASTEFUL JOKE
Local star, Vee Mampeezy, landed himself in trouble this past week because of a Tiktok video gone wrong. In the clip, he is seen parking in a handicap spot. Once confronted about it, he limps out of the car only to later walk normally away from the parking lot.
The joke was perhaps that he has tricked the system into getting a good parking spot. However, many on social media were not impressed and saw it to be disrespectful to people living with disabilities.
“Disability is not a joke. It could happen to him and he would regret it,” said one comment.
“This should be illegal. It is a crime of false impersonation. It is also distasteful coming from a public figure with a huge following,” read another response. While someone else said, “I don’t know in what world you thought this was appropriate. You are further perpetuating the stigma and discrimination that people with disabilities face daily.”
Social media was displeased to say the least.
RYAN COOGLER ARRESTED FOR WITHDRAWING HIS OWN MONEY The director of the famed Black Panther and Creed movies, Ryan Coogler, was arrested for withdrawing his own money.
Ryan Coogler was briefly arrested after trying to withdraw $12,000 from the bank. The teller had reportedly told her boss she suspected an attempted robbery and called the police after misinterpreting the situation. Law enforcement officers arrived, went in and were seen bringing Coogler out in handcuffs. After an investigation, the police said the whole thing was just a huge mistake. Social media shared their thoughts.
“If this guy was white even with a face mask, glasses and hat would they have called the police? Even blacks serving other blacks have been conditioned. Racism isn’t ending any time soon,” said another commenter.
One comment read, “I have worked in a bank and at the door it says people need to remove hats and sunglasses. I understand the mask but I’d have freaked out too.”
Was it racism or a genuine misunderstanding? You decide!
JUSSIE SMOLLETT GETS JAIL TIME American actor and artist, Jussie Smollett, has been sentenced to 150 days in jail for his elaborate hoax on the streets of Chicago.
Smollett yelled at the judge, telling him that if he died in prison it wouldn’t be suicide. He was taken into custody and left with his fist in the air like a black revolutionary. Judge Linn says Jussie wasn’t motivated by money but did it because he craved the attention and thought he could boost his profile by tapping into the social justice movement in America. He said he just wanted to make himself more famous, throwing himself a national pity party. “Jussie Smollett pretended he was a victim of a hate crime and got 5 months in jail. Home
grown terrorists broke into and attacked our Capitol and their median sentence so far has been 45 days. I am trying to figure out the difference here,” said one comment.
Another comment read, “What Jussie Smollett did was dumb as hell. But it’s crazy that he’s gonna spend more time in jail than the family who are mostly to blame for America’s opioid epidemic.”
If indeed Smollett did all of this for attention, I hope it was worth it.
PETE DAVIDSON RESPONDS TO KANYE WEST Kanye West has claimed that his arch nemesis, Pete Davidson, has been bragging about being in bed with his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, via text messages.
West had been taunting Davidson for weeks. He even went as far as saying in a song that he would beat up Davidson. As well as releasing a music video with an image of a decapitated Davidson without any response from Pete himself. Now leaked text messages show he was bragging about being in bed with Kim and also challenging Kanye to grow up.
“I stand with Pete on this. Kanye is as soft as butter,” said one response. “While someone else said, “This is honestly an appropriate response considering what Kanye has done in the past few weeks.”
This war is far from over, I fear.
DUBAI EXPO REACTION This past week saw many of our dignitaries fly out to sunny Dubai to attract potential investors to Botswana. As part of the expo’s Botswana celebration day, there was a performance from a few of our local talent, namely; Maxy, Khoisan and Ndingo Jowa.
The performances were available on social media and of course there were a lot of opinions. “The problem is taking people who are not artists to organise an artistic show. It’s just people from public offices,” said another comment.
“Not to ruffle feathers or anything but our participation at the Dubai Expo has that feel ya BOTS50. It’ more ceremonial than anything. We haven’t found our unique selling point, the Botswana story we are trying to sell is all over. We running out of Time and money as a country,” said another commenter.
“Whether you think they did a good job or not, or whether it was worth it or not, I’m really empathetic to the BITC staff charged with our Expo participation. If you understand event management then you understand how hard it is.”