Wassapened This Week: Aug. 29th – Sept. 4

TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual Abuse

Author Note: These are events that happened this week that I chose to highlight. These are in no way everything everyone needs to know. I highly encourage everyone to read the news from reliable sources to develop their own opinions. My opinions have been italicized. With that being said, all opinions stated in this article are my own so if you don’t like them, drink water and mind your business. Abeg, with all the wahala wey dey for earth no put my matta for head.

This week of Wassapened This Week, we discuss nuclear disasters, rubbish human beings and icons. 

Tennis

On Monday, Aug. 29, Serena Williams began playing in what is expected to be the match of her tennis career in the U.S. Open. In her first round, she beat Danka Kovinić, then in her second round, she defeated Anett Kontaveit, ultimately losing to Ajla Tomljanović during her third round. Serena is one of the most successful athletes of all time and arguably the best tennis player in history. Williams ends her tennis career with 858 tour victories, 73 singles titles, 14 major doubles titles, four Olympic gold medals and 319 weeks at No. 1. Williams’ 23-major mark remains the most by a player, man or woman, in the Open Era. Serena Williams is iconic in every sense of the word. No other human being has made an impact in tennis the way she has. She shattered barriers, broke ceilings and destroyed standards every time she stepped onto the court. I’m happy that this black woman can finally rest. She has carried this sport and all the pressure that comes with it on her shoulders for years and deserves to rest. Black people all over the world and others are so incredibly proud of everything that she has accomplished. Without Serena, there will be a void in tennis that can never and will never be filled by any other person. 

Fukushima

On Tuesday, Aug. 30, the Japanese town of Futaba lifted its evacuation order that had been in place since 2011. For the last 11 years, the town had been off limits to its previous residents. Futaba is the city that housed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. On Mar. 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake occurred off Japan’s east coast, which triggered a massive tsunami that caused a nuclear meltdown at the power plant, ultimately causing a major release of radioactive material and rendering more than 300,000 displaced. This nuclear event was classified as level seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), the highest level on the scale. There have only been two classified events as level seven: Chernobyl and Fukushima. Authorities have been preparing for the ban lift and have slowly allowed residents to return temporarily since March 2020. While I believe it is great that families can once again live in their homes and return to their city, I wonder how good their quality of life will be. There’s no way to tell how many people will actually come back and since it is unknown who will run the stores, the schools, or the city itself. Just because the city is back doesn’t mean that the city has fully recovered. A spokesman for the city even said, “More than 80% of the municipality is designated as a “difficult-to-return” zone still experiencing high levels of radiation.” This is devastating to hear and I can’t even think of the long-term effects of living in a city with such proximity to so much radiation. 

Comedy Gone Stupid

On Friday, Sept. 2, Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears were accused of child sexual abuse in a lawsuit. They were accused of grooming and molesting two then-minor siblings, Jane Doe and John Doe, in 2013 and 2014. According to the complaint, the siblings were 14 and 7, respectively, when they alleged that both Haddish and Spears had them participate in sexually suggestive videos for a skit they were preparing. Haddish was a “longtime family friend” of the mother of the siblings and she introduced Jane Doe to Spears. Where they showed her a video of “an older man and a college-age woman” eating a sandwich simultaneously from either end while “moaning and making sexual noises as they both ate the sandwich in a manner that simulated the act of fellatio.” Then asked Jane Doe to reciprocate what was done in the video. First of all, why tf did they have such a video on deck and ready. What kinda sick sh*t is that. There’s nothing to say other than this is downright disturbing and gross but there’s more, unfortunately. Haddish then “offered to book, arrange, and film Mr.Doe content for a Nickelodeon sizzle reel at the home of Spears.” According to the suit, “Upon information and belief, Haddish and Spears removed the 7-year-old victim from his sister, placed him upstairs in a bedroom, and stripped the child down to his underwear.” This is why I’m tired of people giving actresses, actors and celebrities second chances because this is not the first time that Haddish has been involved in some nonsense. People continue to prove that they’re into some s*ck shit. Also, how do you even come up with such nonsense as a skit idea and why was there no one in place to stop you. Was everyone like, “aww, this is great, this is awesome. I, too, wanna become a sexual predator?” Like, be so f*cking for real!