Category: The Current Situation
It took a tiebreaking round against the other remaining competitor, but at the end of the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee, St. Pete-based Bruhat Soma correctly spelled 29 out of 30 words correctly, trouncing Faizan Zaki from Texas, who managed to get nine of them right.
He won with the word “abseil” (pronounced “ab-SAIL”), a term used in rock and mountain climbing to descend a vertical surface by using a rope tied around your body and secured to a point above. It’s used more in the UK than in North America, and it’s a synonym for rappel.
In his honor, these billboards have been popping up alkl over the area:
Congrats, Bruhat, and thanks for representing all of us Asian overachievers in Tampa Bay!
Bruhat Soma in the news
- Tampa Bay Times: Tampa’s new national spelling bee champion: ‘I knew I had a chance.’
- Tampa Bay Times: Florida claims second straight Scripps spelling bee champ
- Associated Press: Bruhat Soma, 12, wins Scripps National Spelling Bee
- Associated Press: National Spelling Bee reflects the economic success and cultural impact of immigrants from India
- Washington Post: Meet the record-setting 2024 spelling bee champion: Bruhat Soma
- New York Times: From 74th Place to Spelling Champion: One Boy’s Journey to Win the Scripps Bee
- CNN: See the moment 12-year-old won the National Spelling Bee
- NPR: A 12-year-old from Florida has won this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee
- NBC News: Spelling champ Bruhat Soma rides an unbeaten streak to the Scripps National Bee title, winning tiebreaker
Need context? It’s a recent internet debate, and you can find out more in this article, Women Are More Afraid of Men Than Bears, According to TikTok.
And if you don’t read the whole article, at least read its closing paragraph (added emphasis is mine):
The bear experiment shouldn’t make men mad, it should make them pause. The more we can be curious about the experiences of women under patriarchy, rather than question them, the better positioned we are to modify the systems that harm us all. The fact that this dialogue about gender-based violence could be uncomfortable is what makes it most imperative. Men should be bold and have that conversation, even if they’re scared. If women are strong enough to brave a bear alone in the woods, then surely men can muster up the courage to talk about the reason why.
…because the current crop of headlines suggests that’s not the case.
According to the American Library Association, last year books bans and attempted book bans hit “the highest levels ever documented,” and Florida “led” the nation in the push to either remove or restrict access to certain books.
To counter this, Firestorm Books, who describe themselves as a radical bookstore co-operative & community event space in Asheville, NC, is giving away 22,500 books rescued from the public schools in Florida’s Duval County (Jacksonville and surrounding areas).
You can request from two different sets of books aimed at different age groups:
- Six picture books for kids age 4 – 8
- Six chapter books for kids age 8 – 12
Find out more and request your free books here!
What sort of books were banned?
For starters, there’s Grace Lin’s Dim Sum for Everyone:
It was banned because Florida has a ban on the discussion of race in schools. DeSantis is such a snowflake.
Another book banned in Duval County: Sonia Sotomayor: I’ll Be the Judge of That!:
This is particularly strange because this is a book about a current Supreme Court Justice. One gets the feeling that no such challenge would ever be issued against a book about a laughably less-qualified judge like Amy Coney Barrett.
Here’s another banned book: Nya’s Long Walk:
Here’s what the book’s about:
Young Nya takes little sister Akeer along on the two-hour walk to fetch water for the family. But Akeer becomes too ill to walk, and Nya faces the impossible: her sister and the full water vessel together are too heavy to carry.
As she struggles, she discovers that if she manages to take one step, then another, she can reach home and Mama’s care.
Bold, impressionistic paintings by Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Honor winner Brian Pinkney evoke the dry, barren landscape and the tenderness between the two sisters.
An afterword discusses the process of providing clean water in South Sudan to reduce waterborne illness.
You get one guess as to why this book was banned.
Sam! is about a transgender boy and his family, so of course it got banned:
Want to know more about the books that have been banned from schools and libraries in Florida? Here’s a list compiled by PEN America.
