Dear Meteor readers,

Yesterday morning, while I was sitting by my window trying to get some work done, I suddenly heard the sounds of police cars and helicopters. News alerts came in along with text messages: “Are you ok?”

Just on the other side of Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, there had been a smoke bomb set off and a mass shooting in a subway station. As of Wednesday morning, 26 people were injured, 10 of whom had been shot. The details of the case are still coming together, and a suspect has been arrested.

I looked up to the helicopters hovering all over Brooklyn, felt my blood pressure rising, and logged on to a Zoom meeting. There was a live-action manhunt in front of me, but the day had to go on.

I don’t share this to add to the cacophony of media outlets trying to get their unique angle to you before we’ve even identified the victims. And I’m not trying to suggest that we’ve all grown numb. All of those analyses have been made and we know it’s more complicated than that.

I am sharing because perhaps, much like you, I thought, what is there to say? What is there to even say? This type of daily violence and trauma—whether it’s the latest in what is starting to feel like a never-ending war, an ongoing pandemic, or the unstoppable regularity of gun violence—has largely grown normalized.

But it’s not normal. We’re sending love from the Meteor family to anyone affected by yesterday’s tragic events and to the city we love. And wherever you are, take time to reflect, breathe, log off. It’s all been a lot.

This week we are marking Black Maternal Health Week with a fantastic interview from our own Rebecca Carroll with director Tonya Lewis Lee about the shocking disparities Black mothers face when they give birth. This conversation is a good reminder that there are so many people working to make things not just normal, but better.

With love,

Samhita

WHAT’S GOING ON

• House of Mouse: The heir to the Disney empire, Charlee Corra, has come out as transgender. The news comes at an interesting time for the company—Disney employees have been protesting Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” laws (CEO Bob Chapek has refused to make any comment before the bills pass because statements “are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame”). Corra’s announcement comes with a sizable donation to the Human Rights Campaign, which previously turned down a $5 million donation from Chapek. How wild is it to live in a country where a theme park holds the emotional welfare of LGBTQIA+ children in its hands?

• Colonial rule: More families in Puerto Rico are now eligible to apply for the Expanded Child Tax Credit under the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan. Previously, Puerto Ricans could only apply for the child tax credit if they had three or more qualifying children. Now that the credit is being offered to smaller families, the White House believes that 97% of families on the island are eligible for this crucial aid. So considerate of the government to treat its colony almost as well as it treats mainland citizens. 

• Bye, Bitch: The iconic media outlet is taking her final bow. On Tuesday, Bitch Media announced that as of June 2022, it would no longer be creating new content. Founded in 1996, Bitch laid the groundwork for decades of feminist journalism to come. Thumb through their best of to reacquaint yourself with their groundbreaking, intersectional coverage which brought us some of the best writing on race, sexuality, fat politics, and trans identity—long before most media outlets. And who could forget their 2000 interview with bell hooks? Thank you for all you did, Bitch. We’ll never forget you.

THIS WAS A GREAT ISSUE ON FRUIT (SCREENGRAB VIA BITCH.ORG)

AND:

• One Black mom-to-be explains why she won’t be giving birth in a hospital

• This week marked the start of the Etsy strike: sellers on the platform are shutting down their pages and asking customers to boycott over an increased transaction fee implemented by the company in February

• The cost of literally everything is too damn high

• Some encouraging news regarding the climate crisis 

• Long read: “Inside the Bitcoin Bust That Took Down the Web’s Biggest Child Abuse Site”

• And in closing, take a look at Leak NYC’s line of men’s lingerie. Because apparently, true equality is everyone having to wear uncomfortable thongs to get laid

BLACK MOTHERS MATTER

Are We Finally Acknowledging Black Maternal Mortality? 

Director Tonya Lewis Lee talks to us about the health care workers giving her hope

BY REBECCA CARROLL

PROTESTERS WITH THE UK’S MARCH WITH MIDWIVES GROUP (PHOTO BY BELINDA JIAO VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

Black women in America are three times more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women. Three times as likely: What the entire hell’s bells is that?

That question is the starting point of the highly anticipated new documentary Aftershock from Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt, forthcoming from Hulu this summer. The situation the film investigates is ghastly yet—I need to understand, we all need to understand how and why this is the reality for so many Black mothers giving birth. So in honor of Black Maternal Health Week, I sat down with Tonya Lewis Lee to discuss just that.

Rebecca Carroll: Let’s just get right into it. I mean, that CDC statistic…

Tonya Lewis Lee: Yes, and I would add to that, it is regardless of economic or educational status. I mean, not that that should matter, but regardless.

Right, we’re not talking about privilege here. So what are we talking about?

Race. We’re talking about race.

You and I know this because this is the work we do—constantly finding new ways to frame an experience and reality that most white people in power don’t want to hear. So how do we build out a narrative that goes beyond just saying, “You all are not paying attention to this because it’s about Black women”?

Right. Well, I often say even if you don’t care about Black women, you should pay attention to what happens to them, because we’re the canaries in the coal mine. You may think you’re doing well, but you’re not. Because Black women die at three to four times the rate of white women, but if white women compare themselves to other white women in other countries, they’re not doing that well either.

And so obviously, if you help those that are the most vulnerable or who are dealing with the most, then you help us all—that’s where I try to go. But I also think it’s important to peel back and understand what the system is, and how we got here. This is not, I mean, in some cases it is about racist individuals, but it’s also about a system that is set up to operate in a racist way. And if we start having the conversation, then maybe we can really start looking at what’s happening and try to fix it, because I believe this issue is fixable.

You do?

Oh, I am optimistic. And I am hopeful because I hear people in the healthcare system say, “Okay, we know there’s a problem,” because they believe in data, data doesn’t lie. And you cannot continue to just blame Black women. That has been the narrative. It’s our fault, right? We are dying at higher rates because we don’t take care of ourselves. We don’t get prenatal care. We’re obese. We have this issue and that issue, but that’s not the problem.

What is the problem?

It is about not being seen and heard when Black women tell health care providers they have a problem. When Black women go to the doctor for prenatal care—and they do—they are often dismissed and ignored when they complain of pain. This issue is not about access to care, it is not about the “quality” of care. Black women often with the best care [still] die. This is an issue of how health care systems view Black women and their perception of our pain.  It is also about the dehumanization of Black women.  And…it is about the over-medicalization of birthing.  Birthing women are not sick, they do not have a health care problem that needs to be managed. They are healthy women mostly who need the proper support to let their bodies do what they are meant to do.

Do you think that the healthcare industry is looking at it in a broader systemic way, as opposed to a micro, one hospital or case at a time, kind of way? 

I don’t think the entire healthcare system is having this conversation. Let me be clear. I remain optimistic because there are a few good people out there who are engaging, who are like, ‘We are messing up and we need to do better.” So there are hospitals, for example, that are saying, “Okay, maybe we’ve traditionally said we don’t like midwives, but maybe we need to think about how that works.” I think those conversations are happening in some places, and that some systems are looking at it in that way.

Why do you think it is so hard to get folks to care about Black women?

Wow, that’s quite a question. Look, Black women have traditionally been the mule, I mean certainly in America and it seems across the globe, but certainly, in America, we have been the ones who have had to take it all, right? We are the ones who are birthing the workforce. We are the ones who had to deal with being raped [during slavery]. And yet, we are still here and we still thrive. And so, I think that there’s a lot of power, quite frankly, in being a Black woman that scares a lot of people. I think sometimes the perceived power and strength of a Black woman is scary to a lot of people and they don’t even understand who we really are.

So…our power is what’s getting us killed?

Yes, yes. The point is to take the power away from her: “You don’t know your own body, you don’t know your pain. You’re telling me you’re in pain. You’re not in pain.”

And again, it’s not about privilege—all you have to do is look at Serena Williams and her pregnancy experience. She had to beg doctors to listen to her.

Beg and demand. And if Serena has to do that, what’s the hope for the rest of us?

Right. As I was researching for this interview, I watched some video footage of you and [your husband] Spike [Lee] arriving at the Cannes Film Festival, and all the paparazzi were snapping and the photographers were like, “Over here, look over here!” And I wondered, do you ever get the urge to just turn around and look straight into one of those photographer’s lenses, and say, “Hi, Black women are dying at three times the rate of white women. Have a nice day.”

Well, I got the urge and made a film. To me, that’s what it was about. How do I figure out how to tell this story, to get people to pay attention and listen.

And what do you hope happens next?

Well, my best hope is that in the United States, we start to integrate midwifery into women’s healthcare. We’re the only country of industrialized nations that do not have midwifery integrated into women’s healthcare. My hope is that we have a cultural shift in the way that we think about birthing. And the ultimate measure is that we have better birth outcomes in this country and that Black women are not dying at three times the rate of white women. And that we all have an opportunity to have a safe, dignified birth.

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