On July 8, Zaila Avant-Garde made headlines when she became the first Black American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. A scholar and an athlete, Zaila's lesser known accomplishments include three Guinness World Records for Basketball. Our hosts discuss why it is that Zaila's academic achievement has received wall-to-wall media coverage, while her basketball records are treated as almost a footnote in her story. They explore black excellence and the ways in which the media discredits, dehumanizes, and erases black youth, while still demanding perfection from them.