- I need you to settle this debate.
We're going to get to the news in a second,
but I need you to settle this.
I am not going to tell you what side of this debate I am on
'cause I don't want to bias you.
But my question to you is,
do you think your life would be drastically different
if you were four inches taller
or four inches shorter
and if so how and why?
And while some of you spill your thoughts onto the internet,
'sup you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to the "Philip DeFranco Show".
Hit that like button if you want me
to punch you in the throat, you weirdo.
And let's just jump into it.
You know, the first thing that we're gonna talk about today
is a tale of two Raes.
Specifically, the creators Valkyrae
and Addison Rae.
All right. So, Addison Rae's beauty line, ITEM Beauty,
just released a product called "Screen Break",
which is a blue light anti-pollution face mist.
With the website's description board reading,
"Relieve tired, screen-drained skin
with this hydrating boost of blue light protection.
A botanical blend clinically proven to protect skin
from screen-emitted HEV blue light and daily pollution."
And adding that it's ingredients quote,
"Protect skin as you scroll, swipe and stream."
And it's being sold on both ITEM's website and Sephora.
Now for her part, Addison has appeared
in promotional content for the product
on its social media channels since last month.
But for the most part,
this completely flew under the radar
until the Twitter account, @ESPORTS
shared this video on Twitter yesterday,
where Addison talks about the spray.
- And if you don't know,
the blue light that comes from devices
can actually cause skin fatigue.
So this is clinically proven to help protect your skin
from those artificial blue lights.
Right. So following that,
the immediate reaction from most of the internet was,
"Wait a minute? This sounds way too familiar."
"Didn't Valkyrae just get drug through the coals
back in October for launching a similar product?"
Yeah. Like we talked about on the show before.
She announced the line called, "RFLCT"
saying that it was designed to protect skin
from blue light pollution.
The internet just dumped on her.
They're ultimately canceling the line
because of the amount of backlash she was facing
for touting pseudoscience.
Or as you might remember,
there are a lot of experts who say there is simply no need
for skin protection against blue light from screens.
With that as you might remember, Michelle Wong.
A cosmetic chemist posting a TikTok saying.
- Even with a bigg (beep) monitor,
you would need days or months to get the same blue light
as 15 minutes of sun.
And if you do want to protect against
blue light from the sun,
which honestly isn't a big issue for most people,
these products still probably won't do much.
- [Philip] Kathleen Suozzi, a dermatologist at Yale
explaining to the "Washington Post"
that this amount of blue light would only really affect an
incredibly small group of people
who are prone to pigment issues,
not your average person.
Referencing a 2019 study,
where researchers exposed one side
of a person's face to blue light
equal to that of a powerful screen,
but shielded the other side of the face
and did so for eight hours a day,
five days in a row.
And explaining they found
that there was absolutely no difference
in the side of the face that was exposed to blue light.
Right. Which is part of the reason why
we saw so many people saying,
"Why would Addison Rae release a product
that literally got destroyed just a few months ago?"
This is like coming out with the Omicron variant
for blue light protection cream.
What potentially makes this especially egregious is that
there's no way the company launching this and or Addison Rae
was not aware of what just happened.
But seemingly, unless there's been this amazing breakthrough
that just put all the other science in the garbage bin,
they don't care that they're just selling snake oil.
All right. So one, if I was Valkyrae,
I would just be fuckin' downright furious.
But she did joke about it saying,
"HOW IS THIS REAL?"
And also too, it will be very interesting
to see what happens with Addison Rae.
Does she kind of quote unquote,
get away with this
because her audience is different?
Like, does Valkyrae end up getting hit
because she has a different community
that actually cares about like,
the moral compass of a person.
Whereas, maybe Addison Rae's is just like,
little, little tiny children
that just like blindly idolize this person.
They're not going to hold that creator accountable.
I mean, that's kind of something that we see now in then.
Usually it's the difference between like a mainstream artist
that doesn't necessarily have to have like,
the amount of interaction with their audience
that a online creator does.
You know, the longer I kind of sit with this story,
the more it feels like,
what Addison and her team have done here
is far more egregious than what Valkyrae did.
Because at least with Valkyrae
there could be some doubt. Right?
She trusts her team.
She maybe was misled by someone.
She just kind of went along with stuff.
But the controversy around her was so big
like we talked about.
It's hard to imagine that Addison and her team
just weren't aware of it
and while I don't have their demographic information
in front of me.
I think an educated guess would say that Addison Rae's
audience is probably far younger.
So you're gonna have people saying, you know,
"She's just misleading children
who are going to be less likely to push back
than other people and all for personal profit."
Yeah. Ultimately that is where we are with this right now.
While most of the internet has seemingly sounded off.
So far, Addison has not publicly responded to the criticism.
All right. So maybe she's hoping
she can kind of just withstand this storm.
Just wait it out.
Or, you know, I wonder what's going to happen from here.
And so with that, I do want to ask the question,
what are your thoughts on any and all aspects of this story?
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And then, well, maybe this morning you saw the news
that the Washington Football team in the NFL
is now called the Washington Commanders.
The NFL's race issues and racism accusations
are not over.
The fired Dolphin's coach, Brian Flores,
alleging in a devastating lawsuit yesterday
that racism is alive and well in the NFL.
The suit which is seeking class action status,
specifically names the NFL, New York Giants,
Denver Broncos, Dolphins,
but also lists the other 29 teams in the league
as John Doe's.
With Flores claiming the NFL remains rife with racism,
especially when it comes to hiring and retention
of Black Head Coaches, Coordinators in General Managers.
And adding that over the years,
the NFL and its teams
have been given every chance to do the right thing.
Rules have been implemented, promises made
but nothing has changed.
Saying, "In fact,
the racial discrimination has only been made worse
by the NFL's disingenuous commitment to social equity."
The following going on to say and pulling no punches,
"In certain critical ways,
the NFL is racially segregated
and is managed much like a plantation.
It's 32 owners,
none of whom are Black,
profit substantially from the labor of NFL players,
70% of whom are black.
The owners watch the games from atop NFL stadiums
in their luxury boxes,
while they're majority-Black workforce
put their bodies on the line every Sunday,
taking vicious hits and suffering debilitating injuries
to their bodies and their brains
while the NFL and its owners
reap billions of dollars.
With a suit, noting that with the recent firings of Flores
and Houston Texans coach David Culley,
there is now just one Black Head Coach in the League.
And adding that, in the rare cases
Black Head Coaches are hired,
they are discriminated against
in connection with the terms and conditions
of their employment and compensation and terminated
even as far less successful white Head Coaches are retained.
And specifically the filing states that
Flores was fired from the Dolphins
despite leading the team to back to back winning seasons
for the first time since 2003.
And according to the suit,
Flores refused the directive from Dolphins Owner,
Stephen Ross to intentionally lose games
so the team would get a top pick in the draft.
Even claiming that Ross offered to pay Flores $100,000
for every loss in his first season as Coach
and was mad at the Coach's success in winning games.
Where they're going on to accuse Ross
of repeatedly pressuring Flores to recruit a prominent
quarterback in violation of League tampering rules.
And when he refused,
he was treated with disdain
and ostracized until he was ultimately fired
and saying that after his removal,
he was defamed in the media and the League
as someone who was hard to work with
and cast as an "angry black man".
Flores also went on to explain
that he was up for the Head Coach position
with the New York Giants,
but he claims that management subjected him
to a sham interview process.
So that he'd be in compliance with the Rooney Rule,
which is a rule that requires
teams to interview minority candidates
for vacant, senior positions.
With Flores claiming that,
just hours after setting up his interview,
he learned that the Giants had actually hired
Buffalo Bill's white offensive coordinator, Brian Daboll.
This after receiving text
from New England Patriots coach, Bill Belichick
And in those messages, Belichick appeared to congratulate
Flores for landing the job,
which he hadn't even interviewed for yet,
with him ultimately realizing
and Belichick even apologizing for
accidentally sending the message to him
instead of Brian Daboll.
With Flores saying that,
after that he was still forced to sit through a dinner
with the Giant's General Manager and quote,
"Give an extensive interview for a job
that he already knew he would not get for no reason
other than for the Giants to demonstrate falsely
that it was in compliance with the Rooney Rule."
But Flores' also saying that was
not the only sham interview.
Claiming that in 2019,
he had an interview with the Broncos
and the team executive showed up an hour late
looking completely disheveled.
It was very obvious
they had been drinking heavily the night before.
And adding, it was clear from the substance of the interview
that he was only interviewed because of the Rooney Rule
and that the Broncos never had any intention
to consider him as a legitimate candidate.
And there are other allegations,
but those are kind of the top line overarching claims
that Flores is seeking unspecified damages for.
Now as far as how the NFL has since responded,
they have denied the allegations.
Releasing a statement saying the claims are without merit.
So Dolphins also saying
they deny any allegations of racial discrimination
and are proud of the diversity
and inclusion throughout their organization.
Also saying, "The implication that we acted in a manner
inconsistent with the integrity of the game is incorrect."
You also have the Broncos calling the allegations
"blatantly false".
As well as the Giants defending their selection of Daboll
and claiming that, "Flores was in the conversation
to be our head coach until the eleventh hour."
But ultimately as far as
what's going to happen with the lawsuit.
I mean, Flores has implied
that he's still open to being hired as a coach though,
saying even if he was hired,
he'd still continue with his lawsuit.
Well, it'll be interesting to see
if others join his suit.
Already we've seen some speaking out as well.
This including former Cleveland Browns Head Coach,
Hue Jackson, who tweeted that he knows exactly
what Brian Flores feels and that there are some similarities
to his experience.
With both Jackson and the head
of his charitable organization posting
and sharing multiple tweets
that seemed to claim that he had been paid off
by the Browns owner to lose games
and implying he may join Flores' suit.
But for now, that is where we are
and we're gonna have to wait to see how this develops.
And then finally,
let's talk about the super fun topic of Russia, Ukraine,
and definitely, definitely not World War III.
It's not going to happen.
I'm throwing that out into the world.
So one of the last things you might've seen with this,
is Ukrainian President Zelensky
seemingly trying to have like a softer tone.
Spending part of last week,
having the United States and Western media
downplay its rhetoric about the situation
between Ukraine and Russia.
But in a surprising turn of events,
all of that might've been based off of a misunderstanding.
So apparently Ukrainian doesn't have a word that corresponds
very well with imminent.
The closest word they have is (speaks foreign language),
which means inevitable.
Right, with that obviously in English,
there is a clear difference between imminent and inevitable.
So apparently what Zelensky's been hearing is,
"War is inevitably going to happen",
which would explain why he's been like,
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's chill out."
And actually, as I was recording today,
White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki,
pretty much confirmed this
and said the US won't use imminent anymore
to avoid unintended messaging.
The mistranslation and misunderstandings aside,
the concern over possible Russian aggression
continues to be real.
With it leading to a number of countries,
sending weapons to Ukraine with the most recent being Poland
promising to send Shoulder-Fired Anti-Aircraft Missiles.
Also, there's the news that leaders from Poland,
the UK and Ukraine met
and are working on a trilateral security pack.
Well, the details there aren't completely known yet.
It could mean that if Russia were to engage
in aggressive action,
that would lead directly to two NATO members
becoming militarily involved,
which could be a huge deterrent.
And Russia for their part,
have been doing their own things.
Getting more and more troops at the border.
Also getting Belarus to agree to help if war happened,
which has also now led to the US announcing this morning
that it would deploy troops to NATO allies in the region,
or we're talking about thousands of troops.
And the intention here,
seems to be to ease the minds of NATO allies.
Many of which fear that
Russia may not only strike Ukraine but them as well.
This is a really big deal because up until today,
the US really downplayed that possibility.
But in the press conference of about the move,
the Pentagon's Press Secretary was pretty clear.
- It's important that we send a strong signal
to Mr. Putin and frankly to the world,
that NATO matters to the United States.
It matters to our allies and we have
Ironclad Article 5 Commitments.
An attack on one is an attack on all.
And so,
we know that that,
that he also bristles at NATO
about NATO
and he has made no secret of that.
We are making it clear
that we're going to be prepared to defend our NATO allies
if it comes to that,
- [Philip] You also have the Ukrainian Foreign Minister
today, endorsing a plan proposed by the US
to ease tensions.
With the proposal attempting to ease
one of Putin's biggest concerns,
that if Ukraine joins NATO,
it would allow the United States
to place short-range missiles there,
that could reach Moscow.
But president Biden countered,
saying that both the US and Russia
should abstain from putting offensive military capabilities
in Ukraine and prevent those short range missiles
from entering the country.
While also clearly indicating that Russian troops
and material in the country be withdrawn.
And as the Ukrainian foreign minister put it,
"I would like to note that while the United States
has neither missiles nor combat units in Ukraine,
Russia has both."
And with all of that said, I mean,
we just have to kind of wait to see what happens next,
which is horrifying.
Especially because this situation just feels like
it's escalating every single day with no end in sight.
But we'll see.
But ultimately that is where that story
and today's show ends.
As always thank you for watching, liking
and hitting that subscribe button
for these daily dimes into the news.
I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.