THE SUDDEN EMERGENCE OF BLACK FEMALE AMERICANS

It all began with Amanda Gorman, who was 22 when she shined at Joe Biden's inauguration earlier this year. While she was new to most of us, she had in 2015 published a poetry book, The One for Whom Food is Not Enough. Plus, in 2017 she had already become the first National Youth Poet Laureate.

That introduction to the general public catapulted her to an even bigger stage, the pregame ceremony for Super Bowl LV, where she read a poem honoring the heroes of the pandemic:

So while we honor them, it is they, every day, who honor us.

In the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics around a quarter of the athletes representing the U.S. were Black. You can expect about as many in Tokyo. While Simone Biles and Sha'Carri Richardson led the list, Simone is too famous to qualify for this posting, and Richardson was not selected for failing a marijuana test. However, black females dominate the U.S. basketball and track teams. One of them will attain international stardom through her victories. For the record, 11 of the 12 men's basketball players are Black. The lone White is Kevin Love, who is also the oldest. Of course there is controversy here.

And speaking of victories, Victory Brinker made history this week in America's Got Talent. She is 9 years old, 4'3" tall and weighs in at 63 pounds. Victory is an adopted daughter of white parents. I think her audition was at least as momentous as that of Susan Boyle, Kodi Lee and Jackie Evancho. Simon Cowell saw this happening, so convened the judges and moderator before passing judgement, and they unanimously all pressed the golden buzzer at the same time, when they had run out of this option. You have just got to watch her performance. Oh, that must have been my Blue-Bar Pigeon also making an appearance.

Then last night 14-year old Zaila Avant-garde became the first African-American to win the Scripps Spelling Bee, an event that has been around for a century. Zaila is clearly special:

She already holds three Guinness world records, all dribbling a basketball, a sport where she is rated among the top ten in the nation in her age category and wants to eventually play in the WNBA.
Her parents are definitely unique, for her mother goes by the name of Alma Heard, while her father is Jawara Spacetime. He said that they legally changed her last name to Avant-garde in homage to John Coltrane.
Is from Harvey, Louisiana, the first from the state to win this competition, and is home-schooled.
This is only her second year at spelling, but practiced 7 hours/day in preparation for the bee.

She has the same coach as runner-up Chaitra Thummala. Cole Shafer-Ray (right) is a 20-year old Yale student who came in second in the 2015 Scripps bee. He charges $170/hour. The three interacted digitally.
Has already made a commercial, in 2018, with NBA star Stephen Curry. Wow, watch her basketball skills.
Can divide any five-digit number by a two-digit number to mentally get the right answer. She can't explain how she does it.

I'll close the week with sharks. You need to keep up with this field to appreciate what is happening. For example, most of you did not know that National Geographic's 9th annual SharkFest began earlier this week featuring Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth, preceded by When Sharks Attack. But do not despair for there will be six weeks of shark programming: 21 hours of new premieres plus 60 hour of enhanced content.

Further, many of you probably did not realize that there is stiff competition. Discovery's Shark Week kicks off on Sunday, July 11, and continues on for the finale on July 18. Watch for Tiffany Haddish, William Shatner, Robert Irwin, Snoop Dog and Brad Paisley. As a public service, here is the full schedule (note that you should subtract 3 hours if you live in Hawaii).