While y'all's cousin Sage Steele was on Instagram lamenting that the airport protesters might cause some people to be a little late for their flights — ultimately reminding us all to never trust a Black person named after a spice — Mahershala Ali took his SAG award acceptance speech as an opportunity to provide the antithesis to the souffle of callous fuckshit churning in Steele's head.
(Also, can you imagine how she would have been during the Montgomery Bus Boycott? "This march thing is cute y'all but can y'all chill cause I gotta get home to watch Shark Tank and read blogs about swirling?")
Fighting tears, he articulated the power and the value of compassion and empathy while also providing a personal context — his mother (an ordained minister) wasn't exactly thrilled when learning he converted to Islam, but they worked through it and their relationship grew stronger. Of course, Ali's words are especially relevant and pertinent today, as our President — a man whose inauguration address literally plagiarized freakin Bane — seems to want to transmute America into the Gotham from The Dark Knight Rises.
On a much, much, much, much lighter note, to those of you old enough to remember how awesome Atari was, do you remember how awesome Atari was??? It was the best shit ever. Better than Pop Tarts, Biz Markie, the Nerf footballs with the grooves in them that you could throw like 350 yards, and Cinemax After Dark. And Atari maybe took that status for granted. And then Nintendo came through and smashed the buildings, and we were all like "Atari we can still be cool, but I think we're better as friends now"? And it all seemed to happen overnight? Well, I feel like the same thing is happening now with Idris Elba and Mahershala Ali. I'm not saying it's right. But I'm just sayin.