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The Olympics, Tai Babilonia, and the Cartoon That Helped Build TRON

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The emotional intensity of the Olympics can be viewed through two very different lenses: the real-life story of Tai Babilonia and the animated fever dream that is Animalympics. One is a story of devastating loss at the height of ambition. The other is an animal parody of the Olympics that quietly helped finance TRON... (AP Photo, Tai Babilonia & Randy Gardner) On Thin Ice : The Tai Babilonia Story In the heart of Black History month, we remember that at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, Tai Babilonia and her skating partner Randy Gardner were favorites for gold. They were charismatic, technically strong, and widely expected to win. The pressure was huge, but they were ready for it. Then, just before the competition, Gardner suffered a groin injury. They had to withdraw from the 1980 Winter Olympics. After years of training for that exact moment, it was over before it even began. The TV film On Thin Ice tells the story of what happened next. It focuses not just on the injury b...
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Bad Bunny's Historic Halftime Show: Exploring Latino Identity and Culture

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Bad Bunny fan or not, one cannot deny the electricity his Super Bowl Halftime performance produced. The discourse and backlash were intense and disappointing, but nevertheless, latino’s rejoiced. In a political moment shaped by immigration crackdowns, ICE raids, protests, and rising conversations about identity , watching one of the world’s biggest stages center Spanish language, Latino culture, and unapologetic pride was powerful in a way that is hard to explain unless you felt it too. Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, much like his music, is so much more than the “ perreo .” It was drenched in symbolism, and even a real-life wedding . It encompasses Puerto Rican history, culture , and politics , and sparks conversations that frankly do need to be part of U.S discourse.  Puerto Rico has been a U.S. territory since 1898,  following the Spanish-American War. In the Halftime performance, Puerto Rican pop star Ricky Martin came out singing “ Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii, ” a song th...
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