[dropcap size=big]H[/dropcap]ey, LeBron James, you didn’t invent Taco Tuesday, you didn’t make it a thing on social media, you aren’t the king of tacos, and you can’t patent Taco Tuesday because white people already stole that shit from us.
I hate to think the Latinx community is invisible to James, a modern day Renaissance man who I admire. But what else would explain the audacity, as reported by USA Today, of James trying to trademark Taco Tuesday as it pertains “to downloadable audio/visual works; advertising and marketing services provided by means of indirect methods of marketing communications, namely, social media; podcast services; and online entertainment services, namely, providing a website featuring non-downloadable videos, and social media posts in the field of sports, entertainment, current events and popular culture.”
[Update: Since this article was published, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied LeBron's trademark application of Taco Tuesday saying it is "a commonplace term, message, or expression widely used by a variety of sources that merely conveys an ordinary, familiar, well-recognized concept or sentiment message."]
That grito at the end though, always made my racial spidey sense activate like it did when I watched Speedy Gonzales cartoons.
Long before LeBron’s Taco Tuesday videos became ESPN’s favorite fun fact, first-generation Mexican American millennials were creating the modern taco craze in the streets and online, where taco memes became as ubiquitous as the racism against us. In fact, this very publication was founded on a Taco Tuesday nearly 10 years ago.