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Punished Skateboards

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THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« on: December 16, 2022, 05:10:43 AM »
No not the skater the writer

https://anthonypappalardo.substack.com/p/the-race-to-soty-and-some-thoughts?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE

The King Gets His Second Crown & the People React.

Anthony Pappalardo
Dec 11

Since the advent of social media, the run-up and announcement of Thrasher Magazine’s “Skater Of the Year” honor have become contentious. That’s mostly a function of more folks having the ability to agree, disagree, shit on, vent, and wax about the award but this year… wow, it’s been strange if not aggressive at times.

Before we dig into all of this let’s make be crystal: The majority of talk around SOTY celebrates Tyshawn’s achievement but it’s worth unpacking the weirdness around the naysayers because that’s part of this newsletter’s intent–figuring out why people get so angry about skateboarding.

On December 8, 2022, Thrasher announced that Tyshawn Jones would net his second SOTY award, immediately causing everyone with the ability to post a reaction to catch feelings. Before we get into that, I’d like to note that this was the same day WNBA player Brittney Griner’s release from a Russian prison was negotiated, resulting in her freedom through a 1-for-1 swap, returning arms dealer Viktor Bout to Russia.

Why am I mentioning this? Like anything Biden or almost any political figure does in 2022, Griner’s return was divisive, with many folks discussing the negotiation as if it were an actual sports trade. In my years on this planet, I’ve never heard so many people and pundits critique a negotiation. Some detractors were so irate, that the only parallel I can think of was the Iranian Hostage Crisis that contributed to Jimmy Carter losing the 1980 Presidential Election to Ronald Reagan. This of course had many, including me wondering if part of the “outrage” was that Griner is both gay and Black and, as we know, the answer is yes because this is the world and time we exist in—a place where we easily disconnect from humanity and context via social media posts because we feel some kind of way about something we’ll move on from in less than 24 hours: the outrage du jour.

THE NOT MY SOTY MEME

Before we get into Tyshawn Jones winning his second SOTY award, I’d like to speak artistic awards. That’s right, I’m calling skateboarding in this case an art because sure, you can say it’s a sport (or not) but in this instance, SOTY isn’t based on any real metric: it’s just a thing the mag invented and give to whomever they like. That’s perfectly fine in my opinion–it’s their magazine, their award, and have never claimed it’s decided by the people or whatever.

I mention art because when people are defending their art or art they admire, they often claim “art is subjective” which is a statement I loathe, not because I own a super useful bachelor’s degree in it but because I find that idea to be lazy and false. Art can be good and art can be terrible and that often lies in the intention.

Here’s an example.

You can give a group of 10 fifth graders some paint, brushes, and canvases and tell them they have an hour to paint whatever they like. One, maybe even three of their paintings might be visually interesting and heck, maybe some of the fifth-grade creators might have a cute reason behind what they pained such as “I painted how I feel when I think of polar bears” or some shit.

That’s great but it’s not art.

Conversely, you could ask a group of 10 art school students to create 10 paintings, put them on a wall upon completion, and have them talk about the work and decide–objectively of course–which paintings work, which paintings deliver on the artist’s intention, and which executions fail.

So artistic awards… I generally don’t care about them and many people who consider themselves fans of the arts don’t either… until they do. We see this when the Grammys occur and people get big mad that their favorite musician didn’t win a thing that has no impact on their personal lives. But some artists want to win awards for several reasons and for some, it’s simply motivation, and after spending their time and effort to achieve something, they might be bummed they didn’t. That’s completely valid, of course.

In a sense, achieving “Skater Of the Year” is an exercise in delivering on your art which is your skateboarding. It can be gnarly art, technical art, expressive art, aggressive art, or something else, but the award (in theory) goes to the person who, during a calendar year (kind of), expressed their skateboarding through photographs, video, and in person in a way that fits with the coveted award. In 2022, Thrasher Magazine decided that person was Tyshawn Jones and you know what? That’s fucking awesome, king, because Tyshawn Jones is not only an incredible skateboarder, he’s an incredible skateboarder who unabashedly wants to win Skater Of the Year and did his best to secure it.

But some people disagree with the decision and of course, that’s also something they absolutely have the freedom to express through whatever means of communication they choose. In fact, some folks feel that their favorite skater was “robbed” of this unmeasurable award. And, some people take it further by attacking the winner, and in Tyshawn’s case, they start to talk about his character in derogatory ways, sometimes with racial overtones, most commonly about his “work ethic” or even calling him “arrogant.” I don’t want to repost any of that but let’s dig into some opinions.

This guy has an opinion. (He’s a pro!)

[screenshot of David Gravette’s IG comment]

So does this guy. (He’s not!)

[screenshot of Weckingball’s IG story]

And who could forget this guy?

[screenshot of GH’s switch ollie video]

He felt so strongly (or maybe felt there was a strong chance he could monetize his opinion) about a switch ollie that he created an entire video “debunking” a switch ollie because it could impact the award Tyshawn had yet to win, only to be debunked himself by Tyshawn Jones through an Instagram post. And then TJ won anyway.

Regardless of any posts, tweets, or rants, Tyshawn Jones is Thrasher Magazine’s 2022 “Skater Of the Year,” and won the award by doing some incredible things on a skateboard. In a sense, NBDs are one of skateboarding’s only metrics outside of contests and Tyshawn did plenty of them.

*Perhaps Dumb Data or 4Ply Magazine can break them down and start another potentially awesome conversation, but there is no way in hell I’m watching a bunch of YouTube videos again to catalog NBDs and continue the discourse.

I interviewed Tyshawn Jones twice in 2017. During one of the interviews he told me the following things:

“I’m not a contest skater. No shade, but doing the same five tricks over and over perfectly is boring—it’s just doing the same thing. I like to do what’s in my mind.”

“I’m always motivated because I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted to yet. Maybe once I get everything I want in life, maybe I’ll get lazy—who knows?”

Since 2017, Tyshawn’s opened a restaurant, had two signature shoes on adidas Skateboarding, been featured prominently in Supreme videos, arguably the biggest skateboarding brand in the world, as well as other brand videos and projects, continued to operate Hardies Hardware, won Thrasher’s “Skater Of the Year” twice, modeled for several fashion campaigns, just launched a board brand, King Skateboards, with his friend Na-Kel Smith, and probably did a grip of other things I’m forgetting.

You can be upset that your binky didn’t win SOTY but come on, don’t call this man lazy, that’s objectively false.

*A previous version of this post stated the date of the SOTY announcement incorrectly has been updated for accuracy.

Punished Skateboards

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2022, 05:15:32 AM »
And then someone reposted this GH patreon video where he claps back at Pappalardo at 24:32

https://youtu.be/hvRe4DpNiPI

There’s some other good stuff in this vid like

GH’s thoughts on being called racist by Tyshawn

Phelps not liking T-Funk

Nak lobbying against T-Funk for soty bc he said the n word as a teenager

BurgerCop

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2022, 05:24:34 AM »
Not really feeling this.
Conflating racism with not thinking Tyshawn should have won would make more sense if Nyjah were white but it'd still be shitty.
The whole "skateboarding is art" thing has always been overplayed to me. It's like, yeah there's a lot of room to choose your own path and style, and I consider it an art to an extent, but it's not the same as painting, sculpting etc.
"This kickflip represents the duality of mankind, how we can be both good and evil, beautiful and ugly"
Yeah, doesn't really work.

And then the closing statement...lazy? Who the hell is calling Tyshawn lazy? Pretty sure the outrage was that Nyjah, you know, did harder tricks.

Tom Pearl

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2022, 05:26:54 AM »
No not the skater the writer

https://anthonypappalardo.substack.com/p/the-race-to-soty-and-some-thoughts?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE

The King Gets His Second Crown & the People React.

Anthony Pappalardo
Dec 11

Since the advent of social media, the run-up and announcement of Thrasher Magazine’s “Skater Of the Year” honor have become contentious. That’s mostly a function of more folks having the ability to agree, disagree, shit on, vent, and wax about the award but this year… wow, it’s been strange if not aggressive at times.

Before we dig into all of this let’s make be crystal: The majority of talk around SOTY celebrates Tyshawn’s achievement but it’s worth unpacking the weirdness around the naysayers because that’s part of this newsletter’s intent–figuring out why people get so angry about skateboarding.

On December 8, 2022, Thrasher announced that Tyshawn Jones would net his second SOTY award, immediately causing everyone with the ability to post a reaction to catch feelings. Before we get into that, I’d like to note that this was the same day WNBA player Brittney Griner’s release from a Russian prison was negotiated, resulting in her freedom through a 1-for-1 swap, returning arms dealer Viktor Bout to Russia.

Why am I mentioning this? Like anything Biden or almost any political figure does in 2022, Griner’s return was divisive, with many folks discussing the negotiation as if it were an actual sports trade. In my years on this planet, I’ve never heard so many people and pundits critique a negotiation. Some detractors were so irate, that the only parallel I can think of was the Iranian Hostage Crisis that contributed to Jimmy Carter losing the 1980 Presidential Election to Ronald Reagan. This of course had many, including me wondering if part of the “outrage” was that Griner is both gay and Black and, as we know, the answer is yes because this is the world and time we exist in—a place where we easily disconnect from humanity and context via social media posts because we feel some kind of way about something we’ll move on from in less than 24 hours: the outrage du jour.

THE NOT MY SOTY MEME

Before we get into Tyshawn Jones winning his second SOTY award, I’d like to speak artistic awards. That’s right, I’m calling skateboarding in this case an art because sure, you can say it’s a sport (or not) but in this instance, SOTY isn’t based on any real metric: it’s just a thing the mag invented and give to whomever they like. That’s perfectly fine in my opinion–it’s their magazine, their award, and have never claimed it’s decided by the people or whatever.

I mention art because when people are defending their art or art they admire, they often claim “art is subjective” which is a statement I loathe, not because I own a super useful bachelor’s degree in it but because I find that idea to be lazy and false. Art can be good and art can be terrible and that often lies in the intention.

Here’s an example.

You can give a group of 10 fifth graders some paint, brushes, and canvases and tell them they have an hour to paint whatever they like. One, maybe even three of their paintings might be visually interesting and heck, maybe some of the fifth-grade creators might have a cute reason behind what they pained such as “I painted how I feel when I think of polar bears” or some shit.

That’s great but it’s not art.

Conversely, you could ask a group of 10 art school students to create 10 paintings, put them on a wall upon completion, and have them talk about the work and decide–objectively of course–which paintings work, which paintings deliver on the artist’s intention, and which executions fail.

So artistic awards… I generally don’t care about them and many people who consider themselves fans of the arts don’t either… until they do. We see this when the Grammys occur and people get big mad that their favorite musician didn’t win a thing that has no impact on their personal lives. But some artists want to win awards for several reasons and for some, it’s simply motivation, and after spending their time and effort to achieve something, they might be bummed they didn’t. That’s completely valid, of course.

In a sense, achieving “Skater Of the Year” is an exercise in delivering on your art which is your skateboarding. It can be gnarly art, technical art, expressive art, aggressive art, or something else, but the award (in theory) goes to the person who, during a calendar year (kind of), expressed their skateboarding through photographs, video, and in person in a way that fits with the coveted award. In 2022, Thrasher Magazine decided that person was Tyshawn Jones and you know what? That’s fucking awesome, king, because Tyshawn Jones is not only an incredible skateboarder, he’s an incredible skateboarder who unabashedly wants to win Skater Of the Year and did his best to secure it.

But some people disagree with the decision and of course, that’s also something they absolutely have the freedom to express through whatever means of communication they choose. In fact, some folks feel that their favorite skater was “robbed” of this unmeasurable award. And, some people take it further by attacking the winner, and in Tyshawn’s case, they start to talk about his character in derogatory ways, sometimes with racial overtones, most commonly about his “work ethic” or even calling him “arrogant.” I don’t want to repost any of that but let’s dig into some opinions.

This guy has an opinion. (He’s a pro!)

[screenshot of David Gravette’s IG comment]

So does this guy. (He’s not!)

[screenshot of Weckingball’s IG story]

And who could forget this guy?

[screenshot of GH’s switch ollie video]

He felt so strongly (or maybe felt there was a strong chance he could monetize his opinion) about a switch ollie that he created an entire video “debunking” a switch ollie because it could impact the award Tyshawn had yet to win, only to be debunked himself by Tyshawn Jones through an Instagram post. And then TJ won anyway.

Regardless of any posts, tweets, or rants, Tyshawn Jones is Thrasher Magazine’s 2022 “Skater Of the Year,” and won the award by doing some incredible things on a skateboard. In a sense, NBDs are one of skateboarding’s only metrics outside of contests and Tyshawn did plenty of them.

*Perhaps Dumb Data or 4Ply Magazine can break them down and start another potentially awesome conversation, but there is no way in hell I’m watching a bunch of YouTube videos again to catalog NBDs and continue the discourse.

I interviewed Tyshawn Jones twice in 2017. During one of the interviews he told me the following things:

“I’m not a contest skater. No shade, but doing the same five tricks over and over perfectly is boring—it’s just doing the same thing. I like to do what’s in my mind.”

“I’m always motivated because I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted to yet. Maybe once I get everything I want in life, maybe I’ll get lazy—who knows?”

Since 2017, Tyshawn’s opened a restaurant, had two signature shoes on adidas Skateboarding, been featured prominently in Supreme videos, arguably the biggest skateboarding brand in the world, as well as other brand videos and projects, continued to operate Hardies Hardware, won Thrasher’s “Skater Of the Year” twice, modeled for several fashion campaigns, just launched a board brand, King Skateboards, with his friend Na-Kel Smith, and probably did a grip of other things I’m forgetting.

You can be upset that your binky didn’t win SOTY but come on, don’t call this man lazy, that’s objectively false.

*A previous version of this post stated the date of the SOTY announcement incorrectly has been updated for accuracy.



he used my Weck screen shot that i posted on here, im honored
« Last Edit: December 16, 2022, 05:47:13 AM by Not me »

TheWineClub

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2022, 05:37:43 AM »
Anthony Pappalardo is corny

ziggy

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2022, 05:42:56 AM »
I’m not reading that. That shit is for Suciu and people who like him

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2022, 05:44:00 AM »
Anthony Pappalardo is corny

 Anthony Pappalardo is whack but Anthony Pappalardo definitely isn't.

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2022, 05:46:25 AM »
No not the skater the writer

https://anthonypappalardo.substack.com/p/the-race-to-soty-and-some-thoughts?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE

The King Gets His Second Crown & the People React.

Anthony Pappalardo
Dec 11

Since the advent of social media, the run-up and announcement of Thrasher Magazine’s “Skater Of the Year” honor have become contentious. That’s mostly a function of more folks having the ability to agree, disagree, shit on, vent, and wax about the award but this year… wow, it’s been strange if not aggressive at times.

Before we dig into all of this let’s make be crystal: The majority of talk around SOTY celebrates Tyshawn’s achievement but it’s worth unpacking the weirdness around the naysayers because that’s part of this newsletter’s intent–figuring out why people get so angry about skateboarding.

On December 8, 2022, Thrasher announced that Tyshawn Jones would net his second SOTY award, immediately causing everyone with the ability to post a reaction to catch feelings. Before we get into that, I’d like to note that this was the same day WNBA player Brittney Griner’s release from a Russian prison was negotiated, resulting in her freedom through a 1-for-1 swap, returning arms dealer Viktor Bout to Russia.

Why am I mentioning this? Like anything Biden or almost any political figure does in 2022, Griner’s return was divisive, with many folks discussing the negotiation as if it were an actual sports trade. In my years on this planet, I’ve never heard so many people and pundits critique a negotiation. Some detractors were so irate, that the only parallel I can think of was the Iranian Hostage Crisis that contributed to Jimmy Carter losing the 1980 Presidential Election to Ronald Reagan. This of course had many, including me wondering if part of the “outrage” was that Griner is both gay and Black and, as we know, the answer is yes because this is the world and time we exist in—a place where we easily disconnect from humanity and context via social media posts because we feel some kind of way about something we’ll move on from in less than 24 hours: the outrage du jour.

THE NOT MY SOTY MEME

Before we get into Tyshawn Jones winning his second SOTY award, I’d like to speak artistic awards. That’s right, I’m calling skateboarding in this case an art because sure, you can say it’s a sport (or not) but in this instance, SOTY isn’t based on any real metric: it’s just a thing the mag invented and give to whomever they like. That’s perfectly fine in my opinion–it’s their magazine, their award, and have never claimed it’s decided by the people or whatever.

I mention art because when people are defending their art or art they admire, they often claim “art is subjective” which is a statement I loathe, not because I own a super useful bachelor’s degree in it but because I find that idea to be lazy and false. Art can be good and art can be terrible and that often lies in the intention.

Here’s an example.

You can give a group of 10 fifth graders some paint, brushes, and canvases and tell them they have an hour to paint whatever they like. One, maybe even three of their paintings might be visually interesting and heck, maybe some of the fifth-grade creators might have a cute reason behind what they pained such as “I painted how I feel when I think of polar bears” or some shit.

That’s great but it’s not art.

Conversely, you could ask a group of 10 art school students to create 10 paintings, put them on a wall upon completion, and have them talk about the work and decide–objectively of course–which paintings work, which paintings deliver on the artist’s intention, and which executions fail.

So artistic awards… I generally don’t care about them and many people who consider themselves fans of the arts don’t either… until they do. We see this when the Grammys occur and people get big mad that their favorite musician didn’t win a thing that has no impact on their personal lives. But some artists want to win awards for several reasons and for some, it’s simply motivation, and after spending their time and effort to achieve something, they might be bummed they didn’t. That’s completely valid, of course.

In a sense, achieving “Skater Of the Year” is an exercise in delivering on your art which is your skateboarding. It can be gnarly art, technical art, expressive art, aggressive art, or something else, but the award (in theory) goes to the person who, during a calendar year (kind of), expressed their skateboarding through photographs, video, and in person in a way that fits with the coveted award. In 2022, Thrasher Magazine decided that person was Tyshawn Jones and you know what? That’s fucking awesome, king, because Tyshawn Jones is not only an incredible skateboarder, he’s an incredible skateboarder who unabashedly wants to win Skater Of the Year and did his best to secure it.

But some people disagree with the decision and of course, that’s also something they absolutely have the freedom to express through whatever means of communication they choose. In fact, some folks feel that their favorite skater was “robbed” of this unmeasurable award. And, some people take it further by attacking the winner, and in Tyshawn’s case, they start to talk about his character in derogatory ways, sometimes with racial overtones, most commonly about his “work ethic” or even calling him “arrogant.” I don’t want to repost any of that but let’s dig into some opinions.

This guy has an opinion. (He’s a pro!)

[screenshot of David Gravette’s IG comment]

So does this guy. (He’s not!)

[screenshot of Weckingball’s IG story]

And who could forget this guy?

[screenshot of GH’s switch ollie video]

He felt so strongly (or maybe felt there was a strong chance he could monetize his opinion) about a switch ollie that he created an entire video “debunking” a switch ollie because it could impact the award Tyshawn had yet to win, only to be debunked himself by Tyshawn Jones through an Instagram post. And then TJ won anyway.

Regardless of any posts, tweets, or rants, Tyshawn Jones is Thrasher Magazine’s 2022 “Skater Of the Year,” and won the award by doing some incredible things on a skateboard. In a sense, NBDs are one of skateboarding’s only metrics outside of contests and Tyshawn did plenty of them.

*Perhaps Dumb Data or 4Ply Magazine can break them down and start another potentially awesome conversation, but there is no way in hell I’m watching a bunch of YouTube videos again to catalog NBDs and continue the discourse.

I interviewed Tyshawn Jones twice in 2017. During one of the interviews he told me the following things:

“I’m not a contest skater. No shade, but doing the same five tricks over and over perfectly is boring—it’s just doing the same thing. I like to do what’s in my mind.”

“I’m always motivated because I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted to yet. Maybe once I get everything I want in life, maybe I’ll get lazy—who knows?”

Since 2017, Tyshawn’s opened a restaurant, had two signature shoes on adidas Skateboarding, been featured prominently in Supreme videos, arguably the biggest skateboarding brand in the world, as well as other brand videos and projects, continued to operate Hardies Hardware, won Thrasher’s “Skater Of the Year” twice, modeled for several fashion campaigns, just launched a board brand, King Skateboards, with his friend Na-Kel Smith, and probably did a grip of other things I’m forgetting.

You can be upset that your binky didn’t win SOTY but come on, don’t call this man lazy, that’s objectively false.

*A previous version of this post stated the date of the SOTY announcement incorrectly has been updated for accuracy.

Yeah, this guy is dumb as fuck.

Bupstop

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2022, 05:46:44 AM »
More manufactured outrage from a guy that doesn’t even skate.

manysnakes

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2022, 05:58:25 AM »
"SOTY and some thoughts of race" no thanks.

I'm sure a bunch of people arrived at the same joke, but I created a "NOT MY SOTY" meme with a very deep sense of irony, more about the reaction from people flipping their lids over who gets a magazine trophy than any vague accusations of racism. If anything, there's a class element at play, but we have no vocabulary for a conversation about class in America so I won't even bother with that. But obviously, the people who were upset, were upset that the other black guy didn't win, so you know, it's not really particularly racist.
This is not my SOTY. I'm telling my kids there was no SOTY for 2021

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #10 on: December 16, 2022, 06:02:44 AM »
Also, once again, Slap > "skate Twitter"
This is not my SOTY. I'm telling my kids there was no SOTY for 2021

big_kev_215

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #11 on: December 16, 2022, 06:17:43 AM »
Not really feeling this.
Conflating racism with not thinking Tyshawn should have won would make more sense if Nyjah were white but it'd still be shitty.
The whole "skateboarding is art" thing has always been overplayed to me. It's like, yeah there's a lot of room to choose your own path and style, and I consider it an art to an extent, but it's not the same as painting, sculpting etc.
"This kickflip represents the duality of mankind, how we can be both good and evil, beautiful and ugly"
Yeah, doesn't really work.

And then the closing statement...lazy? Who the hell is calling Tyshawn lazy? Pretty sure the outrage was that Nyjah, you know, did harder tricks.

Is he confusing people’s opinions of KB and Na-Kel with their opinions of Tyshawn?  I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone call Tyshawn lazy. 

I think a major factor of some of the grumbling behind this win, in my opinion, was that a second skater of the year trophy was being award to Tyshawn in a year where there were 3 other people making the same type of legitimate SOTY push who have yet to win their first SOTY.  Glad we’re nearing the end of these conversations.  I want to go back to making fun of Illegal Civ.

cky enthusiast

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #12 on: December 16, 2022, 06:19:37 AM »
some thoughts on race by tony gabagoolianzino

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #13 on: December 16, 2022, 06:21:01 AM »
That article was doomed from the start: that Brittney Griner comparison was rough and shows he doesn’t even have a cursory knowledge of that issue.   But I guess Paul Whelan is Nyjah or is he T-Funk bc they’re both white…

(Also, Nyjah’s black.   You can’t really do a article about latent racism when you’re denying the ethnicity of one of the other major contenders)


But I do love him calling out the “outrage du jour” and then seeking to exploit that by ginning up controversy two weeks after the fact when most people’s emotions have cooled over it

straight fucking edge

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #14 on: December 16, 2022, 06:21:37 AM »
this guy sucks so bad.  he definitely wrote that and sat back and said "god damn i am so much smarter than everyone that will read this"

do people forget or just flat out not know that nyjah is black?
i don't want to link to the channel because is promotes athiesm.

manysnakes

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #15 on: December 16, 2022, 06:28:24 AM »
this guy sucks so bad.  he definitely wrote that and sat back and said "god damn i am so much smarter than everyone that will read this"

do people forget or just flat out not know that nyjah is black?

I feel like I'm always repeating myself, but there's a decently large and mostly untapped market out there for "skaters who went to college" (Suciu, Beachy, Pappalardo, Feedback Ted).
This is not my SOTY. I'm telling my kids there was no SOTY for 2021

veritas

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #16 on: December 16, 2022, 06:32:14 AM »
This is as tough a read as that two page knob slobbing tribute article to K Rod.

Bring back the original Pappalardo I take back everything I said about those cellar doors

IpathCats

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #17 on: December 16, 2022, 06:32:33 AM »
There's no kook button on substack.com

not sure how to proceed....

Newphone

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #18 on: December 16, 2022, 06:34:56 AM »
this guy sucks so bad.  he definitely wrote that and sat back and said "god damn i am so much smarter than everyone that will read this"

do people forget or just flat out not know that nyjah is black?

He’s not stereotypically black enough, I think.  Criticize Nyjahs “fits” and you’re good, do the same with tyshawns clown ass apparel, and you might be racist.

ok boomer

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #19 on: December 16, 2022, 06:38:38 AM »
I'm just commenting in here to say that I'm not gonna read that article

Newphone

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #20 on: December 16, 2022, 06:44:03 AM »
There are so many terrible takes jammed into this article, but my favorite is that a fifth grader has 0 artistic ability.  How did we even have art before pretentious upper middle class art school colleges?

offkilter

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #21 on: December 16, 2022, 06:51:05 AM »
There are so many terrible takes jammed into this article, but my favorite is that a fifth grader has 0 artistic ability.  How did we even have art before pretentious upper middle class art school colleges?

We didn’t go to art school, that’s where you learn that young humans making very literal works of art isn’t ART.

Sizzle

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #22 on: December 16, 2022, 07:08:08 AM »
Tyshawn vs Nyjah has much more of a “coolguy vs transworld skater” vibe than some racewar shit

dannyprovolone

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #23 on: December 16, 2022, 07:15:58 AM »
one of the dumbest things ive ever read


Mean salto

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #24 on: December 16, 2022, 07:18:43 AM »
So both Anthony papalardos make stools. One wooden the other written.

dropintopileout

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #25 on: December 16, 2022, 07:22:19 AM »
Imma second it, Anthony Pappalardo is corny

IpathCats

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #26 on: December 16, 2022, 07:26:45 AM »
this guy sucks so bad.  he definitely wrote that and sat back and said "god damn i am so much smarter than everyone that will read this"

do people forget or just flat out not know that nyjah is black?

Yea, this shit makes me laugh tbh. When tyshawn was talking about his being the first black owned board brand, it's funny enough that he just completely disregards all of them from the past, but he also completely ignores the one owned by his biggest SOTY competitor.

I respect tyshawns skating, but this ignorance/ego shit is only gonna get you so far before you wind up looking like Mikey Alfred out here on some total kook shit.

Pipe Dreamer

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #27 on: December 16, 2022, 07:27:31 AM »
Total pen name to garner clout. They should play a game of skate to TM the name in the modern era.

Robert Baratheon

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #28 on: December 16, 2022, 07:33:45 AM »
This article was definitely stupid. Shitting on GH because he does his thing on YouTube is cringy. It’s not a contest but GH is more eloquent anyway. You’re not Hemingway just because you wrote it down.

manysnakes

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Re: THE RACE TO SOTY & SOME THOUGHTS ON RACE by Anthony Pappalardo
« Reply #29 on: December 16, 2022, 07:36:22 AM »
Just so I am clear, this Anthony Pappalardo is not the Anthony Pappalardo? This dork adopted Anthony Pappalardo as a fucking pen name?!
This is not my SOTY. I'm telling my kids there was no SOTY for 2021