The 411 Dumpster Fire of the Week: Justin Trudeau

The 411mania Dumpster Fire of the Week

Hello, everyone, and welcome to The 411 Dumpster Fire of the Week. I’m Bryan Kristopowitz.

When it was announced that NXT and All Elite Wrestling would be going head-to-head on Wednesday nights, creating a full on, real deal pro wrestling war, I was annoyed because it didn’t look like either show would be doing a replay that same night. I kind of figured that NXT wouldn’t do one anyway, as the WWE rarely does replays of anything (I’m assuming that the WWE does replays of Raw and Smackdown! on the WWE Network but are those replays the same day, a few hours after the live broadcast? I don’t know, I don’t subscribe to the network), but the lack of a late night replay of AEW on TNT was distressing. Wednesday night is a big TV night, with shows on ABC and NBC that I watch regularly. Despite being a pro wrestling nerd, I didn’t want to have to sacrifice anything in order to watch wrestling (I can’t stand watching TV shows On Demand. It’s a pain in the ass).

But then it was announced recently that AEW would be getting a late night replay, and my TV watching schedule was saved. Well, sort of. I was hoping that the WWE would announce that NXT would also be getting a replay late at night at the exact same time as AEW (or, you know, at roughly the same time). But, again, that isn’t going to happen. It’s why the WWE has the network.

So who else is this AEW late night replay good for? And who else thought “Hey, this is what Nitro did back in the day!”?

And now onto this week’s Dumpster Fire of the Week.

This week, the 411 Dumpster Fire of the Week goes to Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, for his ongoing “black face” controversy. And, with the way things seem to be playing out, this controversy could be “ongoing” for quite a while, as Trudeau has said that he doesn’t know how many times he’s “worn black face in his life.”

The controversy started last Wednesday, when Time magazine released a photo of Trudeau wearing “brownface” from back when he was a school teacher in 2001. Trudeau apparently dressed up for an “Arabian nights” party held at a private school he was teaching at then, wearing a turban and flowing white robes and darkening his face and hands. A photo was taken at the event and then placed in the yearbook for the 2000-2001 school year. And that was just the first blackface/brownface incident reported on. Trudeau also apparently wore blackface makeup when he was in high school while singing the Jamaican folk song “Day-O.”

When asked why he did any of this, Trudeau really didn’t have an answer. Trudeau did say that, at the time he wore blackface, he didn’t think it was racist, but he “knows now” that it is racist and has apologized multiple times for it. And, as far as I know, he’s going to have to continue apologizing for it, at least until after the upcoming Canadian election or some other well-known politician is found out to have done something similar. As of this writing, Trudeau hasn’t said he’s thought about resigning in disgrace for these past actions, and I don’t know if the Canadian media has demanded that he do so (I believe I read somewhere that the Liberal party that he leads in Canada hasn’t asked for/demanded his resignation, but that was a few days ago and things may have changed since then).

Now, I will say that Trudeau has handled this situation better than some American politicians who have done the same thing. As far as I know, Trudeau hasn’t held a weird press conference where he offered to show everyone how he sang “Day-O” (disgraced Virginia governor Ralph Northam almost showed everyone his moonwalk when it was revealed that he once wore blackface while impersonating Michael Jackson at a dance contest), and he hasn’t tried to turn the revelations into a “this is just my political opponents trying to take me down” kind of thing. Trudeau has just continued to apologize. That’s almost admirable.

At the same time, this whole story is baffling, not because Trudeau is “the West’s great liberal hope in the age of Trump” and this goes against his public image, but because, even twenty/twenty-five years ago, anyone thought it was okay to appear in blackface for any reason. I mean, Trudeau wasn’t appearing in some sort of satirical play where his character is clueless while wearing blackface or something like that. Trudeau was donning black face to “celebrate” something. Why the fuck would anyone do that?

It’s insane. And the fact that he did it multiple times and admits that he doesn’t know how many times he did it, how many more shoes are going to drop on this story, and in what other contexts did he wear blackface? How many fucking school events did he do this at? And, at the time he did it, did anyone complain then? I can’t imagine that there isn’t a record of complaints somewhere. There has to be.

So what happens next for Trudeau? Will these revelations cost him the election? Will the Liberal party lose big time as a result of this? I don’t know. You would think it would hurt his chances considerably because the whole story is awful and hurtful and just plain wrong, but there’s always the chance that nothing comes of it. Northam was asked to resign multiple times by multiple people and entities and he refused and he’s still governor of Virginia, so this whole story could end up being not that big of a deal in the big scheme of things. It’s still disgraceful, though. Incredibly disgraceful.

If Trudeau loses, he has no one to blame but himself. No one.

How do you not remember how many times you’ve worn blackface in your life? How?

**

And now for this week’s honorable mentions…

–The Democrats, for for once again wimping out when it comes to going after President Trump. It sure as hell looks like the President did something incredibly shady when it comes to Ukraine and Joe Biden, and instead of saying that what the President did is reprehensible, illegal, whatever, they’re standing around “debating” about what to do. “But the Republicans in the Senate won’t help us!” Go to war with them. Shame them publicly. Shame the “liberal media” for engaging in “both sides do it” nonsense. Engage in actual message discipline, repeat over and over again that the President did something illegal, and, again, go to war. Fight. Stop hemming and hawing and wimping out and acting like a bunch of fucking pussies. Why is that so hard to do?

Fucking Democrats.

-Stand-up comedian and actor Andrew “Dice” Clay, for being the latest comic to defend Louis C.K. While appearing with Roseanne Barr as part of their stand-up comedy tour, Dice wanted to know how C.K.’s victims could feel afraid when C.K. jerked off in front of them while also lamenting the fact that C.K. “lost everything.” I know that Dice, who I love, is “just playing a character” when he’s doing his act, but this bullshit where we’re supposed to feel sorry for Louis C.K. because of all he’s been through is just nonsense. C.K. deserves nothing but endless disdain until he apologizes to his victims and makes actual, real deal amends for the pain and suffering he’s caused. He hasn’t done any of those things, so fuck him, and fuck everyone who thinks C.K. has been put through enough. Everyone.

–Saturday Night Live, for the Shane Gillis fiasco. And, yes, it is a fiasco. The show hired the stand-up comedian to be a part of the cast for its 45th season, and then had to fire him several days later when it was revealed that he used racial slurs against Asians. How could they not know about that? Who the hell checks out this stuff? Who did they talk to about him? The show shouldn’t have fired him, it should have just replaced him and moved on (yeah, not having him on the show anymore is firing him, but it wasn’t his fault the show fucked up).

-NASCAR star Kyle Busch, for for his complaints about “back markers” after the Cup race in Las Vegas. Yes, Kyle, I know, they impeded your progress and you’re running for a championship and you’re one of the greatest of all time (and he is. His stats back that up), but getting around “back markers” is part of auto racing. Always has been, always will be. And if it’s all about “track awareness,” you don’t truly grasp that without experience on the track, and running late models on a ¼ mile is not the same, in the big scheme of things, as running Cup cars at a 1.5 mile superspeedway. But you know all that. You’re just pissed and whiny because you had a shit day in your hometown. For the love of God, Kyle, just stop the bullshit and be a professional. People are allowed to have a bad day and a meltdown of some sort every so often. People are not allowed to do it every time they don’t get their own way.

**

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