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On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became a civil rights legend as the first Black baseball player to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. After Jackie is a nuanced film that chronicles the stories of the Black men who were brave enough to play baseball after the color barrier was broken.
Documentaries about integration are hard on my soul. Whenever I watch films that involve the Jim Crow/segregation era, I know I will be exposed to the trauma my Black ancestors endured and I end up feeling a heavy burden on my soul that my body will have to do the extra work to heal.
Watching the screener of After Jackie, I felt at ease. I knew with Stanley Nelson as co-executive producer, I don’t have to do the internal work to prepare myself for being exposed to “Black trauma porn.” When I’m watching a documentary Stanley Nelson is involved with, I know that care has been taken in sharing these stories as revered testimonies with reverence. We live in a binary world that loves to provide simple, quick, and easy explanations so that the dominant culture can attempt to rewrite history — erasing the insane toxicology that is the construct of white supremacy. Director Andre Gaines weaves an inspiring tale of resilience.
Some conservatives are strategically whitewashing the authentic brutality of segregation. They ban books and protest photographs that show white people all over this country tormenting Black people who wanted to go to school, swim in a pool, or sit at a lunch counter deemed as “white only” to erase history. The first civil rights movement has been diluted into marketable sound bites sanitized to ease the white conscious.
When a Black person breaks a glass ceiling, the people who come up behind them have to deal with the cuts and tend to the wounds from coming through the shards of glass left behind. After Jackie notes that when Jackie Robinson was the only Black man playing baseball, he was sent to Canada and Cuba to spring training. Black players after Jackie had to do spring training in the Jim Crow South.
What a living nightmare.
Culture always wants to focus on the first without examining the work that those coming up behind have to do. For every first Black person to do x, y, or z, the second, third, and fourth Black person must deal with the subtle and blatant racist fallout. I never knew about Kurt Flood, Bob Gibson, and Bill White. Nelson features their stories in After Jackie. These talented men are American national heroes.
The craft of storytelling in After Jackie is evident. Gaines covers Jackie Robinson’s career and the introduction of Black players into baseball. The film is all about complexity and nuance. As I watched After Jackie, I thought of the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Ketanji Brown Jackson. I thought about how those white senators sat there for hours inspecting every word, doubting Justice Jackson’s intellect and challenging her values. Not only did she have to endure that racism for days, but she has also been examined and constantly persecuted on conservative media.
Through it, all, Justice Jackson has been stoic. She has been humble, upstanding, and polite in the face of white fury. As a Black woman, the expectation is for Ketanji Brown Jackson to behave politely in the face of racism. Over fifty years ago, the expectation was for Jackie Robinson to behave politely in the face of racism, making me wonder, why doesn’t the dominant culture expect white folks to not be racist?
Why must Black people consistently have to quietly endure white supremacy and turn the other cheek? The film elegantly teaches us that not every Black person was designed to be the “we shall overcome” kind of Black activist who can be silent in the face of rage.
After Jackie reminded me that we all play different roles in the movement. The documentary shows that when some Black baseball players in the 1960s and 70s advocated for fair wages, they were dragged in the press, and white fans threw beer bottles at them while Black players were on the field.
In many cases, any time any Black players would speak up for themselves, management would trade them to a club in the Jim Crow South, the press would drag them, and fans would turn against them. Some white fans and conservative media outlets command Black and Brown athletes to just “shut up and play” when athletes take a knee to protest police violence or support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sports have been one of the few areas where Black folks can break caste. Athletes who choose to be activists have always played an essential role in the civil rights movement. When I see Black excellence on the ball field, it inspires me. The documentary states that the games in the Negro Leagues were so good that Black churches scheduled Sunday sermons so that everyone could attend the Negro Baseball games. The Negro league was so entertaining that white people also attended. The style of Baseball that we see played today would not exist if Black players did not integrate the game.
Jackie Robinson died young. He was only 53 years old. Kurt Flood mainly went through so much as an athlete/activist, and his bravery left professional sports with the free-agent system that baseball players of all colors benefit from. Still, the stress of racism took its toll and Kurt Flood also passed away at a young age his wife believes, due to all of the racial trauma he endured.
I loved experiencing After Jackie because it dives deep into the whys and hows that are rarely discussed when it comes to the facets of Black activism. Near the documentary’s end, columnist Clinton Yates says, “What we brought to the game made the entire game better. Everybody knows that, and it’s just a matter of educating people.”
After Jackie is inspiring, the kind of film to watch to remember that advocating for equity is a team effort. We can witness the actions of our elders, learn from the impact and grow as we do our part to make the American Dream into an equitable reality while practicing self-care, and when we do, everyone wins.
After Jackie premieres on The History Channel, on June 18, 2022, at 8:00 pm ET/PT.
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became a civil rights legend as the first Black baseball player to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. After Jackie is a nuanced film that chronicles the stories of the Black men who were brave enough to play baseball after the color barrier was broken.
Documentaries about integration are hard on my soul. Whenever I watch films that involve the Jim Crow/segregation era, I know I will be exposed to the trauma my Black ancestors endured and I end up feeling a heavy burden on my soul that my body will have to do the extra work to heal.
Watching the screener of After Jackie, I felt at ease. I knew with Stanley Nelson as co-executive producer, I don’t have to do the internal work to prepare myself for being exposed to “Black trauma porn.” When I’m watching a documentary Stanley Nelson is involved with, I know that care has been taken in sharing these stories as revered testimonies with reverence. We live in a binary world that loves to provide simple, quick, and easy explanations so that the dominant culture can attempt to rewrite history — erasing the insane toxicology that is the construct of white supremacy. Director Andre Gaines weaves an inspiring tale of resilience.
Some conservatives are strategically whitewashing the authentic brutality of segregation. They ban books and protest photographs that show white people all over this country tormenting Black people who wanted to go to school, swim in a pool, or sit at a lunch counter deemed as “white only” to erase history. The first civil rights movement has been diluted into marketable sound bites sanitized to ease the white conscious.
When a Black person breaks a glass ceiling, the people who come up behind them have to deal with the cuts and tend to the wounds from coming through the shards of glass left behind. After Jackie notes that when Jackie Robinson was the only Black man playing baseball, he was sent to Canada and Cuba to spring training. Black players after Jackie had to do spring training in the Jim Crow South.
What a living nightmare.
Culture always wants to focus on the first without examining the work that those coming up behind have to do. For every first Black person to do x, y, or z, the second, third, and fourth Black person must deal with the subtle and blatant racist fallout. I never knew about Kurt Flood, Bob Gibson, and Bill White. Nelson features their stories in After Jackie. These talented men are American national heroes.
The craft of storytelling in After Jackie is evident. Gaines covers Jackie Robinson’s career and the introduction of Black players into baseball. The film is all about complexity and nuance. As I watched After Jackie, I thought of the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Ketanji Brown Jackson. I thought about how those white senators sat there for hours inspecting every word, doubting Justice Jackson’s intellect and challenging her values. Not only did she have to endure that racism for days, but she has also been examined and constantly persecuted on conservative media.
Through it, all, Justice Jackson has been stoic. She has been humble, upstanding, and polite in the face of white fury. As a Black woman, the expectation is for Ketanji Brown Jackson to behave politely in the face of racism. Over fifty years ago, the expectation was for Jackie Robinson to behave politely in the face of racism, making me wonder, why doesn’t the dominant culture expect white folks to not be racist?
Why must Black people consistently have to quietly endure white supremacy and turn the other cheek? The film elegantly teaches us that not every Black person was designed to be the “we shall overcome” kind of Black activist who can be silent in the face of rage.
After Jackie reminded me that we all play different roles in the movement. The documentary shows that when some Black baseball players in the 1960s and 70s advocated for fair wages, they were dragged in the press, and white fans threw beer bottles at them while Black players were on the field.
In many cases, any time any Black players would speak up for themselves, management would trade them to a club in the Jim Crow South, the press would drag them, and fans would turn against them. Some white fans and conservative media outlets command Black and Brown athletes to just “shut up and play” when athletes take a knee to protest police violence or support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sports have been one of the few areas where Black folks can break caste. Athletes who choose to be activists have always played an essential role in the civil rights movement. When I see Black excellence on the ball field, it inspires me. The documentary states that the games in the Negro Leagues were so good that Black churches scheduled Sunday sermons so that everyone could attend the Negro Baseball games. The Negro league was so entertaining that white people also attended. The style of Baseball that we see played today would not exist if Black players did not integrate the game.
Jackie Robinson died young. He was only 53 years old. Kurt Flood mainly went through so much as an athlete/activist, and his bravery left professional sports with the free-agent system that baseball players of all colors benefit from. Still, the stress of racism took its toll and Kurt Flood also passed away at a young age his wife believes, due to all of the racial trauma he endured.
I loved experiencing After Jackie because it dives deep into the whys and hows that are rarely discussed when it comes to the facets of Black activism. Near the documentary’s end, columnist Clinton Yates says, “What we brought to the game made the entire game better. Everybody knows that, and it’s just a matter of educating people.”
After Jackie is inspiring, the kind of film to watch to remember that advocating for equity is a team effort. We can witness the actions of our elders, learn from the impact and grow as we do our part to make the American Dream into an equitable reality while practicing self-care, and when we do, everyone wins.
After Jackie premieres on The History Channel, on June 18, 2022, at 8:00 pm ET/PT.
What happens when you use an air cannon to hurl baseballs at supersonic speeds? If you record it on high speed cameras, the answer is that you get YouTube videos with millions of views. Destin Sandlin and the team at Smarter Every Day continue their series of videos using the baseball cannon they made last year. In their latest, they decimate a gong, silly putty, a mirror, and even a container of sprinkles. All in the name of science, of course.
The team asked for audience input into what to fling the baseball into. Basically, what they wanted to watch explode in really slow motion. In part one of their experimentation, this included jars of mayonnaise. At supersonic speeds, the baseball itself often explodes too. Using the high speed cameras at different angles, it’s apparent that it’s already tattered before reaching the target.
Supersonic means faster than the speed of sound, which is 767 miles per hour. This is also referred to as Mach 1. The team records the baseball traveling 1,189 miles per hour, or Mach 1.54. For comparison, the Guinness World Record for fastest baseball pitch is 105.1 mph by Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds, in 2010.
If there’s any doubt that these are science experiments and not just YouTube stunts, it’s obvious in the glee in Sandlin’s voice. He says, “We have our first data point!” The video also shows what goes into setting up the cameras, lighting, and other elements to get the shot right the first time. Though it doesn’t show the cleanup, which I imagine is extensive.
The Smarter Every Day YouTube channel includes lots of other slow motion videos of engineering feats, like the internal combustion engine or setting up a vortex collision.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
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Episode one of Ms. Marvel really laid down the (infinity) gauntlet when it came to Marvel Easter eggs. We bet nothing will ever top AvengerCon when it comes to shouting out to the MCU. But even though episode two didn’t go quite that far, it still had its fair share of Marvel call-outs and other fun references. And sometimes, Easter eggs are more fun when they’re harder to spot. Here’s every Ms. Marvel Easter egg we saw in the show’s second episode.
The Ant-Man love really continued in Ms. Marvel episode two. In episode one, Kamala Khan let us know that Scott Lang had been on a podcast—one she had clearly devoured. And she even created a video all about Ant-Man and the Wasp. In episode two, our favorite insect-based hero continues to play a role. Although Captain Marvel is Kamala’s first love, it’s Ant-Man she turns to for inspiration when exploring her new powers. She even tries talking to ants and shrinking. Of course, in the comics, Ms. Marvel’s power do involve changing her size, notably “Embiggen”-ing her fist, so we appreciate that bit of a nod. We even see Kamala making a big fist our of her cosmic powers in the episode.
Kamala’s love of the Avengers continues to show throughout the episode. Of course, she’s still dressing up as Captain Marvel to do her heroing. But Ms. Marvel would also love to be related to Thor. As Kamala and Bruno discuss her powers, he lets her know it’s not the bangle giving Kamala powers, but that the bangle unlocked powers Ms. Marvel already had. Kamala’s immediate conclusion is that she must be Asgardian. It’s a nice thought and a nice Easter egg, but Thor seems like he has all the family he can handle already.
This call-out to Kamala’s powers does serve another purpose. Although Ms. Marvel’s powers have changed from the comics, making the powers a part of Kamala, something inherent that gets activated, ties the two versions together. Though we don’t yet know the origin of what has been unlocked, those worried about the changes will likely appreciate the sentiment.
Finally, my special favorite of the Easter eggs in Ms. Marvel episode two has to be the call-out to the Devil Wars Prada. Mr. Wilson definitely makes Meryl Streep proud. We definitely enjoyed the nod to Jedi as well.
It looks like the action is picking up in Ms. Marvel‘s world, so we’re sure episode three will hit us with many more Easter eggs to consume.
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