Who gets to be called "child"
  November 28, 2023 Salutations, Meteor readers, If you’re reading this, it’s time to toss out your Thanksgiving leftovers. I’m sure it all still tastes great, but is five-day-old potato salad really worth the risk to your gut health? In today’s newsletter, we look at the media’s coverage of the temporary truce in Gaza, a staggering report out of Puerto Rico, and as much good news as we can muster. Clearing the fridge, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONWar of Words: What do you call a 13-year-old taken from their home and held against their will by an armed group? Well, it depends. After more than a month of siege warfare, a humanitarian pause was established between Hamas and the Israeli government. As part of this pause, each group agreed to an exchange of hostages and transport of aid into Gaza, the first positive thing that’s happened in weeks. While Israeli children have been accurately described as “child hostages,” Palestinian children captured by the IDF and held for years without trial are being referred to as “detainees,” “minors,” or “prisoners under the age of 18,” which is a lot of words to avoid saying “children.” (Keep in mind that many of the people Israel released have not been tried or convicted of any crimes and include teenagers who were arrested years ago without formal charges.) As the Gazan activist Bisan asked in a social media post last week, “Are our children less children than theirs?”  A 17-YEAR-OLD RELEASED FROM ISRAELI JAIL REUNITES WITH HIS FAMILY. (PHOTO BY SAEED QAQ/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES) The choice to use such varying descriptors for children is not unique to the current news cycle. We can see it in the way Black boys routinely face “adultification” in the media: Michael Brown wasn’t just a teenager shot by a cop; he was “no angel.” Children captured at the U.S. southern borders aren’t innocents held and transported against their will; they’re “detained migrant minors.” White children and teens, on the other hand, are often described in terms that elevate their youth and victimhood—sometimes even if they’re the ones committing the crimes. They’re not terrorists; they’re troubled; they’re mentally ill; they’re “volunteers.” It should not need saying: Both Israeli and Palestinian children are victims of horrific violence. No child asks to be born in an oppressed territory or to live under an oppressive government. And all children deserve accurate, thoughtful, and fair reporting from our news institutions. As James Baldwin famously wrote in The Nation in 1980: "The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality." AND:
 TELL ME SOMETHIN’ GOOD
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The women keeping femicide on the front page
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No images? Click here  November 16, 2023 Darling Meteor readers, A group of Swifties in Brazil, where Taylor Swift is scheduled to perform on the next leg of the never-ending Eras tour, wants to project her “Junior Jewels” t-shirt onto Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue. If I were a Christian, I would absolutely jump at this opportunity to have Taylor Swift put Jesus on the map. I mean if she can do it for the NFL…  In today’s newsletter, Mariane Pearl writes about the network of citizen journalists tracking the staggering number of femicides across the globe. Plus more news out of Ohio, a very strange blast from the past, and a special Red Cup Day “celebration.” Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ON
 Femicide on the Front PageMeet the global network of activists and citizen journalists determined to document violenceBY MARIANE PEARL PORTRAIT OF ACTIVIST AND RESEARCHER HELENA SUÁREZ VAL. (IMAGE BY SOLEDAD MORAGA) On a sunny, crisp, fall weekend, Dawn Wilcox sits in front of a computer in her suburban Dallas home with her cat perched on her lap, building her database. She scours news reports and police records for details about Ashli Ehrhardt Wonder, a 29-year-old woman allegedly killed by her estranged husband in Kansas City, Missouri, on September 22, 2023. The details are horrific, down to the fact that the assailant wrote his last name in blood on Wonder's leg. Wilcox, 60, marks Wonder as the 729th known femicide in the United States this year. A couple rows below, #731 is 26-year-old tech founder Pava LaPere, a beloved Baltimore CEO who was named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list earlier this year. A man followed her home and strangled her in late September. And LePere and Wonder were far from alone; femicide—the killing of women and girls because of their gender— increased by 24% in the U.S. between 2014 and 2020, according to a 2022 report by the Violence Policy Center. In the United States, often “people think femicide only occurs in Afghanistan and other so-called ‘developing’ countries, but this is happening right here on an unimaginable level,” Wilcox says. “Each death isn’t a cold number or a statistic, but a human being…a woman with hopes and dreams.” A few hundred miles away, north of Little Rock, Arkansas, 52-year-old Rosalind Page is adding an entry to her own grim database. On October 3, Sian Cartagena, an 18-year-old woman whose mother described her as “victim to a domestic abusive relationship” died two days after being shot in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “At least five Black women and girls are killed each day in the U.S.,” says Page, noting that Black women are disproportionately impacted by intimate partner violence and femicide. “This is an epidemic and it’s only getting worse.” Wilcox and Page aren’t professional journalists. They’re both full-time nurses who, driven by passion and frustration, have become investigative reporters in their spare time. Wilcox, a domestic violence survivor, has spent the last seven years building Women Count USA: Femicide Accountability Project, a database that has recorded 12,500 women murdered since 1950. Page, who has spent the last three decades working at a hospital, launched her database, The Black Femicide Prevention Coalition, after she noticed a pattern: More than half of the Black women she treated were victims of male-perpetrated violence. Wilcox and Page are part of an unlinked but growing global army of activists and journalists, from Uruguay to Algeria, who are taking it upon themselves to track femicide, one of the most extreme forms of gender-based violence. Exasperated by what they see as government inaction and inadequate media coverage, they are committed to honoring victims, pushing the news industry to do better, and providing the kind of vital data that can actually catalyze change. “We’re doing this work hoping that it becomes obsolete,” said Helena Suárez Val, who in 2014 started Feminicidio Uruguay, a public database tracking femicide in her country, where gender-based violence is the second most reported crime behind theft. Val has since collaborated with similar women-led data efforts throughout South America through a collective she co-founded called Data Against Femicide. As she describes it: “Our data is our activism…one of the tools that will hopefully bring down the misogynist master’s house.”  This series is a collaboration between the Gender, Ethic, and Racial Justice - International program at the Ford Foundation and The Meteor.  MEET US AT THE THEATERWe are thrilled to announce that In Love and Struggle Vol. 3: The Future is Around Us will be live at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York December 14-16. Come enjoy live performances from Cree Summer, Zainab Johnson, Mahogany L Browne, Amanda Seales, Nona Hendryx and more. Each night promises to be a magical experience with storytelling, music, and comedy.   FOLLOW THE METEOR    Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Subscribe using their unique share code or snag your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays. |
Love, Actually is bad, actually
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No images? Click here  November 14, 2023 Dear Meteor readers, This past weekend, we had the pleasure of hosting our annual event, Meet the Moment, at the Brooklyn Museum. As we sit in the middle of global crises—regular attacks on our rights, rising antisemitism and Islamophobia, war and conflict—the whole idea of meeting the moment has never felt more crucial. Amidst all this grief, we focused on hope. As Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson said in conversation with Ilana Glazer, “I wake up every day and think, ‘How can I be useful?’… and pace myself with bad news, because it doesn’t change what I need to do.” A lesson to us all. In today’s newsletter, we offer a bit of that bad news, some not-so-bad news, and writer Scarlett Harris’s unsentimental thoughts about the 20th anniversary of Love, Actually. Ready to meet the moment with you, Samhita Mukhopadhyay  WHAT'S GOING ON
 MORE ON “MEET THE MOMENT”At the intersection of advocacy, representation, culture, and politics, we heard from leaders like:  ALLIE PHILLIPS ADDRESSES THE CROWD (PHOTO BY MONNELLE BRITT)
 12-YEAROLD SPORTS JOURNALIST PEPPER PERSLEY (PHOTO BY MONNELLE BRITT)
Our final conversation, between Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Ilana Glazer, brought a levity I’ve taken with me, including this tidbit:   ROM-COMS OF CHRISTMAS PASTLove, Actually is Bad, ActuallyTwentieth-anniversary thoughts about the much-memed rom-comBY SCARLETT HARRIS Love, Actually, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary this month, became a classic for its star-studded cast, British sentiment, and Christmas vibes. Over the years, it has inspired endless memes and spoofs. But the bloom has been off the rose for some time now. Sure, plenty of rom-coms don’t hold up when revisited in the stark light of the 2020s—the catfisher’s playbook You’ve Got Mail and the statutory-rapey Never Been Kissed come to mind—and even modern takes like Happiest Season, Sierra Burgess is a Loser, and Marry Me sometimes rely on lazy stereotypes and outdated tropes. Still, when it comes to gender roles and relationship dynamics, Love, Actually is in a cringeworthy class of its own.  The 2003 British anthology rom-com, directed by Richard Curtis, follows an assortment of lovelorn Brits making the worst relationship decisions imaginable. Everyone, take a deep breath: Harry (Alan Rickman) is cheating on his perfectly nice wife Karen (Emma Thompson) with his vampy assistant, Mia (Heike Makatsch). Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is in love with Juliet (Kiera Knightly), the new bride of his best friend Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor, one of only two people of color in the entire cast). The recently-jilted Jamie (Colin Firth) falls in love with his Portuguese housekeeper Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz), with whom he can’t communicate due to their language barrier. And the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) engages in sexual misconduct at his workplace when he pursues his young, naive aide, Natalie (Martine McCutcheon). This behavior looks saintly compared to his professional rival, the United States President (Billy Bob Thornton, doing his best Bill Clinton), who sexually assaults Natalie later in the movie. To quote the Black Eyed Peas: Where is the love? Many of these supposedly romantic scenarios occur in the workplace, but even if they don’t, little airtime is given to the power dynamics involved. Whoever decided it was dreamy for Mark to show up at Peter’s house to accost his wife with placards spelling out his true feelings was seriously disturbed. Ditto to Jamie proposing to a domestic worker he employs without ever having exchanged a word. The least problematic relationship could have been cold, rigid Harry cheating on long-suffering Karen were it not for Harry’s sketchy workplace romance. When the female characters aren’t getting fat-shamed, they’re being objectified. Most of their storylines center on how hot they are, or aren’t. Jamie falls for Aurelia based on physicality alone. There’s not much to Mia besides luring Harry to cheat through her feminine wiles. Since Mark spends the movie avoiding Juliet, one must conclude that he’s primarily drawn to her looks. The same goes for elementary school student Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), who’s apparently had so little interaction with his crush that he’s surprised she knows his name. Sam’s stepfather, Daniel (Liam Neeson), is dating his own crush, played by thee Claudia Schiffer. (Why wouldn’t he be, when every over-50 and/or schlubby guy in Love, Actually gets the girl?) Laura Linney’s Sarah pining after Rodrigo Santoro’s Karl is one of the only connections that gives a woman agency and a sense of desire—though, it must be said, they’re still colleagues. The movie’s most egalitarian relationship is that of two body doubles filming a sex scene, John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page). I’m guessing their scenes are an excuse to incorporate some nudity and sex gags amidst a cast with the least sexual chemistry in rom-com history. Still, the actors’ meet-cute is surprisingly effective. Even while naked in front of the cameras, they talk to each other like respectful, normal human beings. If only the rest of the movie could have taken a cue from their dynamic. Watching Love, Actually now seems particularly jarring given the evolution of the romantic comedy over the last 20 years, both in its depiction of relationships and its stars. There’s still a long way to go, but rom-coms like Rye Lane; Red, White & Royal Blue; and Good Luck To You, Leo Grande are paving the way Love, Actually wishes it could have. If you’re itching for some simple Christmance spirit this year, throw on a Lifetime or Netflix movie instead of Love, Actually. It might be just as problematic, but at least it won’t be pretending to be something it’s not.  Scarlett Harris is a culture critic, author of A Diva Was a Female Version of a Wrestler: An Abbreviated Herstory of World Wrestling Entertainment, and editor of The Women Of Jenji Kohan.  FOLLOW THE METEOR  Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Subscribe using their unique share code or sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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When pregnancy is criminalized
 November 9, 2023 Dear Meteor readers, We're coming to you today with a remarkable story. Lauren Smith is a mother of three in South Carolina now facing up to ten years in prison—for having smoked marijuana to alleviate her symptoms while pregnant with her youngest child. Smith's case sounds nightmarish, but it's not uncommon in post-Roe America, where fetal personhood laws have enabled prosecutors to more easily penalize pregnant people for their actions. Over the last five months, journalist Neda Toloui-Semnani has investigated this new legal environment, its implications, and Smith’s fight to keep her family together.  UNITED STATES OF ABORTION“I Didn’t Feel Like a Mother. I Felt Like a Criminal.”BY NEDA TOLOUI-SEMNANI  GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA Lauren Smith thought she knew what to expect as she was rushed into the operating room. At 26, it was her third cesarean section. “I don’t remember much before or after because everything moved so fast,” she says. “I remember crying. I remember being cold and being wheeled in there, and then, laying back, and then, I remember looking at the clock. It was at an angle.” The surgeon cut her open and pulled out a squirming infant, a baby girl Smith would name Audrey. Delivered a month early, she was a strong, healthy, kicking-screaming, six-pound, five-ounce newborn. Smith thought she knew what would come next. But like a character in a Kafka tale, her world had shifted while she slept. The same day she delivered—February 18, 2019—a urine drug screen confirmed that she had used marijuana during her pregnancy. The next morning, Audrey’s meconium, the first stools voided by an infant, tested positive for THC, a compound found in marijuana. Three nights later, as Smith, who is Black, prepared to leave the hospital, a case worker and a lawyer from the Department of Social Services told her that because she had tested positive for THC, she could not take her new baby home. That’s when she started to scream. She was alone in the hospital room, the phone to her ear, sutures across her abdomen. She kept asking for someone—anyone—to explain what was happening. “I just remember nobody was there to speak for me,” Smith recalls. “I couldn’t even really speak for myself.” “I didn’t feel like a mother,” she says, “or a person who just had a baby. I didn’t feel like a victim. I felt like a criminal.” She said goodbye to her baby that night. Six months later, Smith would be arrested and charged with felony child neglect for using marijuana while she was pregnant with Audrey—a crime that, in South Carolina, carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Through a complex sequence of events, the charge also led to her losing custody of her second child, Aiden, for two years. Smith’s trial has been pushed back again and again; as of publication, it is set for February 19, 2024.  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays. |
Why Do Men Love Telling Women to Have Babies?
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No images? Click here  November 2, 2023 Hey, Meteor readers, Next Tuesday is Election Day! If you haven’t already, make sure you know your polling place and have a plan to vote, even if the lines are massive. We cannot say it enough: Local elections matter. In today’s newsletter we’re talking about babies, mourning two feminist leaders, and sharing some weekend reading. Researching school board candidates, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONThe birth economy: During the opening of China’s National Women’s Congress last month, President Xi Jinping laid out a comprehensive and innovative plan for reviving China’s economy: Women, please get married and have babies. “We should actively foster a new type of marriage and childbearing culture,” he said, making no mention of women who work outside the home (and, presumably, have something to contribute to the economy themselves). In the face of economic decline and a slowly shrinking population, Xi has turned to a well-worn reactionary directive currently enjoying a revival in the U.S., too: ask women to stay home and raise the next generation of workers rather than find those women jobs and childcare. Despite its name, the Women’s Congress is not a legislative body but an event that occurs every five years to discuss women’s issues. And who gets invited to this prestigious event? China’s predominantly male National People’s Congress, comprised of delegates from various regions. (Their gender ratio is better than the Politboro, Xi’s executive policymaking body, where there are exactly zero women.) During his speech, Xi urged his audience to “tell good stories about family traditions and guide women to play their unique role in carrying forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation.” What a poetic way to tell half the population to shut up about their careers and reproduce.  PRESIDENT XI JINPING AT THE OPENING OF THE 13TH NATIONAL WOMEN'S CONGRESS. (IMAGE BY XIE HUANCHI VIA GETTY IMAGES) Speaking of babies: Meanwhile, over in America, conservatives who are badgering women to have babies are coming across more tone-deaf than usual, considering that those babies are dying at a higher rate than they have in 20 years. In the United States, which has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of any high-income country in the world, deaths before a child’s first birthday have significantly increased this year, per a new report by the National Center for Health Statistics. For every 1,000 births in America last year, 5.6 babies died within their first months of life. While Black infants still have the highest mortality rate in the country, the year-over-year increase was sharpest for Native and white communities. Experts can’t agree on what’s contributing to the rise in deaths, but two possible factors are the COVID pandemic and the fall of Roe, both of which fundamentally changed how Americans sought out and received medical care. Dr. Tracey Wilkinson, an associate professor of pediatrics in Indiana, told NBC News, “Anybody who’s in the reproductive health space could and did warn that this is the type of data we were going to start seeing when we took away the federal protections to abortion access.” AND:
MAY THEIR MEMORY BE A BLESSING
 WE'RE GIVING AWAY SOMETHING EXTRA SPECIAL THIS MONTH! FOR EVERY FRIEND THAT SIGNS UP FOR THIS NEWSLETTER USING YOUR ▶️ UNIQUE SHARE CODE ◀️ YOU'LL BE ENTERED INTO A DRAWING TO WIN TWO FREE TICKETS TO MEET THE MOMENT AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM DON'T HAVE A CODE? GET ONE HERE!  WEEKEND READING 📚On grief: The videos and photos of the carnage in Gaza are crushing to look at. But as my former colleague Samer Kalaf writes, “Sharing these videos feels like the only way to acknowledge these killings in a moment where many perceive them only as numbers in a news article.” (Defector) On hindsight: Rep. Barbara Lee famously voted against what would later become the ‘00s’ endless war on terror. She offers her thoughts on the value of restraint in the face of devastating violence. (Washington Post) On the happiest place on Earth: Writer Alana Levinson spends a spooky, surreal day at Disneyland with former Playboy bunny-turned-author and TikTok star Holly Madison. (Bustle)  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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A purge in Ohio
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No images? Click here  October 31, 2023 Happy Halloween, Meteor readers, I’ve never been much of a costume girlie. I prefer Dia de los Muertos, which is celebrated in the days after Halloween. I love the idea of making the veil between the living and those who’ve crossed over a bit thinner. So remember to put out a candle and a little treat for your loved ones or any other spirits you’re welcoming. And if there are some ghosts you’re trying to avoid? Burn a little sage, name the ghost, and say aloud that they aren’t welcome. You can thank me later.  In today’s newsletter, we take a look at GOP tomfoolery in Ohio, the arrest of an Iranian hero, and an engagement announcement. Summoning spirits, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONThe Purge: Nearly 27,000 people just lost the ability to vote in Ohio. How does that happen, exactly? It’s routine to maintain the list of registered voters by removing those who change their names or have moved. But in the last decade, since a 2013 Supreme Court case gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, irresponsible purges are on the rise—and often come with a political motivation. This Ohio purge is particularly suspect because of its timing and, more to the point, because of what's on the ballot next week. Before they’re removed, voters are required to receive notification about the pending risk. But since those notifications can easily slip under the radar, it’s customary not to carry out a purge so close to an election. The fact that Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose scheduled this purge less than a week before Election Day has raised suspicions among his colleagues—especially because, just this August, LaRose delayed a purge until after a special election that included a GOP-backed measure meant to make it tougher to pass constitutional amendments. Which brings us to the heart of the issue: What exactly is LaRose preventing some Ohioans from voting on next week? A few things, but the big fish on the ballot is Issue 1, a measure that would amend the state constitution and “prevent the state from banning access to abortion, contraception, miscarriage care and other reproductive decisions.” LaRose knows the odds are stacked against him. Similar elections putting abortion on the ballot have resulted in a spate of pro-choice victories, even in conservative states like Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana. The GOP is fully aware that the majority of Americans support abortion access, and voter suppression is the only way to get around that inconvenient fact. (For a party that claims to hate government overreach, they’re giving extreme reach.) If Issue 1 does go on to fail by less than 27,000 votes next Tuesday, the purge may have been successful, and LaRose will have laid out a blueprint for other anti-abortion Secretaries of State looking to change the outcome of elections. These kinds of tactics are a reminder of just how much extremists rely on sowing confusion and making voting as difficult as possible. Don’t let them. AND:
 Demonstrators rally outside the U.S. Capitol demanding a cease fire in Gaza on October 18. (Image by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images)
 WE'RE GIVING AWAY SOMETHING EXTRA SPECIAL THIS MONTH! FOR EVERY FRIEND THAT SIGNS UP FOR THIS NEWSLETTER USING YOUR UNIQUE SHARE CODE BELOW YOU'LL BE ENTERED INTO A DRAWING TO WIN TWO FREE TICKETS TO MEET THE MOMENT AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM DON'T HAVE A CODE? GET ONE HERE!   ICYMIDidn’t make it to Work Shift? We’ve got you covered! Enjoy this panel discussion featuring two HR execs who are letting us non-HR folk know what goes on behind the scenes—and how they're putting the “human” back into human resources.  SPONSORED BY:  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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"Why do people do this?"
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No images? Click here  October 26, 2023 Good evening, Meteor readers, As we amble our way towards November (it’s RIGHT there), I am thinking of entering a season of gratitude. With the news awash with tragedy—the mass shooting in Maine, the devastation of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, and the continuing crises in Gaza and Israel—I am more aware than ever of how often I take for granted life’s small pleasant surprises. Let’s all choose to be better about that. In today’s newsletter we look at the inadequate gun laws that made way for the Maine shooting, share our weekend reading, and hear from one of the women who first blew the whistle on AI’s biased ways. With love, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ON THE BAR WHERE PART OF WEDNESDAY'S MASS SHOOTING TOOK PLACE. (IMAGE BY SCOTT EISEN VIA GETTY IMAGES) Lewiston, Maine: It started in a bowling alley on Wednesday night. Officials say that around 7 p.m., a gunman entered Sparetime Recreation and started firing rounds from an “assault-style weapon.” He eventually fled the scene and drove to a local bar to continue the shooting spree. So far, 18 people have been confirmed dead, with 13 injured. One of the wounded, a 10-year-old named Zoey, who was there with her youth bowling league, told a local news station, “I had never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg. And it’s just like, why? Why do people do this?” The simplest answer to Zoey’s question is: because they can. The suspected gunman, Robert Card, is a firearms instructor and a U.S. Army Reservist. As early as this summer, military officials had “concerns” about Card, and later reported him for erratic behavior while supporting summer training for cadets at West Point. Card was later admitted to a mental health facility, where he claimed he’d been “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” West Point. Despite all of this, Card still had access to firearms. That’s because in Maine—where gun laws are some of the most obscenely lax in the country—just about anyone can legally acquire a firearm. There are weak background check laws, no waiting periods, and no red flag laws, which prohibit gun purchases or possession for anybody who shows signs of being a threat to themselves or others. (Hearing voices and threats to shoot up West Point would count.) Not only that, Maine has had a “permitless carry law” since 2015. This means that any person over the age of 21 “or at least 18 and active duty or honorably discharged military” who owns a gun can carry “loaded, concealed handguns in public without a permit or background checks.” It should not take a mass shooting to enact the most basic gun safety laws. It’s too late for the 18 victims and their families, but it isn’t too late for Zoey, or the rest of us. You can learn more about safety initiatives in Maine from The Maine Gun Safety Coalition and check the laws in your state at Everytown for Gun Safety. AND:
 “The Past Dwells in our Datasets”Can AI ever be unbiased? MIT scholar Dr. Joy Buolamwini has some answersBY REBECCA CARROLL  (IMAGE BY PARAS GRIFFIN VIA GETTY IMAGES) In the celebrated Steven Spielberg movie A.I., set in the 22nd century, scientists create an android boy capable of experiencing human emotions. The film (and its all-white cast) try hard to convince us that at its best, artificial intelligence can learn to love. That was 2001. More than 20 years later, we’re discovering that AI—which now mostly takes the form of computer programs rather than robots—often actually reflects real people’s worst biases. And those embedded prejudices are doing a lot of harm, argues computer scientist, digital activist, and “poet of code” Dr. Joy Buolamwini in her new book, Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What is Human in the World. Born in Edmonton, Canada, Dr. Buolamwini spent her early years in Ghana before moving with her artist mother and scientist father to Mississippi when she was four. Just five years later, she saw an MIT-made robot called Kismet on a PBS science program—and decided on the spot that she was going to attend MIT to study robotics. But, once at MIT, she quickly realized her calling was much bigger. As she learned about the ways racial, gender and ableist biases had crept into facial recognition technology, she launched the Algorithmic Justice League, an organization that uses art and policy to advocate for equitable AI systems. I talked to Dr. Buolamwini about not just the harm but the potential of AI. Rebecca Carroll: You write that AI developers promise that AI will “overcome human limitations”—what does that mean exactly? Dr. Joy Buolamwini: AI is presented as enabling humans to be more efficient, more productive, and help overcome human limitations. For example, some AI tools for hiring have been presented as an alternative to human decision-makers who we know can be biased. The problem is AI tools are often created with datasets that reflect past decisions. So AI tools trained on past hiring decisions will reflect the preference and prejudice of the past and make them into current technologies. Amazon found this out when it attempted to make a hiring tool that was shown to discriminate against women. They ended up getting rid of the tool because even after they tried to address the bias, it still favored men. I think it is easy to assume technology will be more neutral than human because technical systems are mathematically based, but it is important to remember that the past dwells in our datasets. You talk in the book about the “arbiters of ground truth”—the idea that data or statistics offered through empirical evidence is the only real truth. How does AI complicate that view? The more I do work on AI, the more I see the importance of storytelling. [One’s] lived experience matters. As a graduate student, I was reading about so many AI advances, yet I found myself coding in a white mask to have a computer see my face. I recorded that experience as something I call a counter-demo. Like a counter-narrative, a counter-demo captures an experience that challenges master narratives of who or what is considered normal or worthy, and in this case master narratives about technological advances. My spoken word poem, “AI, Ain’t I a Woman?”, which is also a test of various AI systems, contains many counter-demos of tech companies failing [to identify] the faces of iconic women of color. It challenges the narrative of tech superiority when we see AI failing [to recognize] the faces of Oprah Winfrey, Michele Obama, Serena Williams, and more.  I smiled when I read about your first meeting with Timnit Gebru, where you noted that you both wore your hair natural—itself the subject of centuries-long racial profiling and discrimination. Are there specific policies you’re seeking to put into place to help fight against “the coded gaze”? I dropped a few hair references throughout the book, and I am so glad you noticed! I think governments around the world can learn from the EU AI act, which puts a specific ban on the live use of facial recognition technologies in public places. We can also stop police from using facial recognition for investigative leads, as this dangerous use of AI has already led to false arrests, including the arrest of Porcha Woodruff. AI-powered facial recognition misidentification led to her false arrest for carjacking by the Detroit police department. She was eight months pregnant sitting in a holding cell and having contractions. Three years before Porcha’s arrest, Robert Williams was falsely arrested for theft in front of his two young daughters by the same Detroit police department. Despite ample evidence of racial bias in facial recognition technologies, we still live in a world where preventable AI discrimination is allowed. The excoded (those harmed by AI) include even more people falsely arrested due to AI, like Michael Oliver, Nijeer Parks, Randal Reid, and others whose names may never make headlines, but whose lives matter all the same. You call yourself “the poet of code”—is that a nod to the fact that you are, as you share in the book, the daughter of art and science? Absolutely. Growing up, I saw art and science as companions just like my parents. I also see the role of a poet as showing us perspectives that may be marginalized, ignored, or largely unseen. In my poetic work with evocative audits, I use the spoken and written word to humanize AI harms. Poetry takes me to places research papers cannot go. When you were at MIT, you took a class with the Harvard professor Karen Brennan, who posed the question to you and the other students: “What will you do with your privilege?” How would you answer that same question today? I answer it by using my platform to give voice to feelings and perspectives that might otherwise be suppressed. Here is a recent poem I wrote called Angels Awake, on recent man-made and natural disasters: Heart aching, tears breaking, cycles of pain continue. Spine snapped; hope broke... The earth trembling too. Geography and circumstance shaping the fate of precious souls. Today, I walked through beautiful gardens and sat in chairs of opportunity. My life blossoming as the petals of others fade. How can I not be compelled to use every privilege given to offer healing to deepening wounds? Yet, where do we start when the tsunami of history overwhelms? Seismic shifts are centuries in the making. As the night carries on, I remain awake and agitated, grateful to at least be alive to take another breath… A gift lost by many others far too soon. The aftershocks are coming. Where be our better angels now? This interview has been slightly edited and condensed for clarity.  Rebecca Carroll is a writer, cultural critic, and podcast creator/host. Her writing has been published widely, and she is the author of several books, including her recent memoir, Surviving the White Gaze. Rebecca is Editor at Large for The Meteor.  WEEKEND READS 📚On the river and the sea: A slogan of Palestinian freedom is once again under fire for potentially being antisemitic despite many, including this scholar in 2018, explaining its origins. (Forward) On romance: Who would have thought the savior of Bachelor Nation would be this guy? (Vulture) On TV: Not in the mood to read? It happens. The HBO documentary No Accident, which follows a lawsuit brought by those injured while counter-protesting the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, is both riveting and informative.  FOLLOW THE METEOR  Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Subscribe using their unique share code or sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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Learning from post-9/11 America
  October 24, 2023 Dear Meteor readers, Have you looked at the foliage lately? In my continuing effort to force everyone to take a moment for their mental health, I want to remind you that trees are great. Here are my favorite ones:  A SECTION OF WOODS I FREQUENT TO DO PRIMAL SCREAMING. In today’s newsletter, we take a look at the ways in which we are and aren’t allowed to talk about Palestine and Israel, marvel at the work of Icelandic people, and share some fun listening. Tree huggin’, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONSilent or silenced?: It’s been less than three weeks since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israeli civilians, which set off what has now turned into what UN human-rights experts have described as “crimes against humanity” in Gaza. The situation on the ground is devastating, and has triggered a crisis in the public conversation—a space that has long restricted how to talk about Israel and Palestine. And we’re already seeing what happens to those who choose to speak out about the crisis in Gaza. Yesterday, Michael Eisen was fired from his job as editor-in-chief of biomedical journal eLife after retweeting a headline from The Onion that read, “Dying Gazans Criticized For Not Using Dying Breaths To Condemn Hamas.” Eisen, a Jewish man with family in Israel, tweeted that he admired The Onion’s recognition of the imbalanced attention to the lives of Israeli and Palestinian victims. After much criticism, he wrote a follow-up tweet adding that he was horrified both by what Hamas did and the collective punishment of Gazans. Nonetheless, he’s now unemployed. This isn’t an isolated incident. Maha Dakhil, a talent agent at CAA, was forced to leave her leadership roles after she reshared an Instagram story that read in part, “What’s more heartbreaking than witnessing genocide? Witnessing the denial that genocide is happening.” Yesterday, 92NY, a storied Jewish cultural center in New York City, halted its prestigious literary series after the public outcry about their decision to cancel a reading by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen because of his criticism of Israel’s military action in Gaza. “I hope there is a moral consensus that killing civilians is wrong, whether Hamas does it or whether Israel does it,” he wrote on Instagram. If all of this sounds eerily familiar, then congratulations, you’ve lived long enough to remember what it was like in the weeks after 9/11. Then as now, Americans were compelled to take a stance: Either you were for revenge at any cost, or you were against America. Even as a sixth grader, I was so influenced by pro-war propaganda that I started to believe Muslims were scary warmongers trying to kill my mom, who worked in the sure-to-be-targeted Chrysler building. (Allah laughed hysterically when I converted to Islam some years later.) Such limited, binary thinking wasn’t just for sixth-graders, alas. Politicians, news outlets, and religious leaders demanded patriotism and support for the wars through strategic censorship and pressure. People who spoke out too early against the U.S.’s military response were swiftly condemned. Susan Sontag was labeled an “America-hater,” a “moral idiot,” and a “traitor” for pointing out America’s actions before the attacks in a brief essay in the New Yorker. Rep. Barbara Lee, who had the courage and the foresight to be the only member of Congress to vote against invading Afghanistan, received death threats and hate mail in response. On the day she cast her vote, she quoted a preacher who spoke at the National Cathedral three days after 9/11: “Let us also pray for divine wisdom…that as we act we not become the evil we deplore.” Twenty years later, the majority of the country agreed with her. Now, as a humanitarian crisis plays out before our eyes, we must look at it through the hard-earned lens of hindsight. As we all figure out how to publicly react and privately debate, we should take with us the words of Sontag in that prescient New Yorker piece: “Let’s by all means grieve together. But let’s not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and what may continue to happen.” AND:
 VOLUME ON HIGH 🎧
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Remember when we had a House Speaker?
  October 19, 2023 Hey Meteor readers, A core practice of my faith is something my mom calls “standing in the pit.” It’s the idea that if someone close to you is suffering, you must stand beside them in that moment. This week, I was in the pit with a dear friend and Palestinian activist who was berating herself for not carrying out her normal duties. “I haven't cooked dinner for my family,” she texted me. I offer you the same advice I offered her: It is okay to stop for a moment and take care of yourself. Simply sitting alone for five minutes, or even using the bathroom without your phone, can make a difference. You deserve that time. In today’s newsletter, we check in on what’s happening in the House, discover a frightening new domestic violence statistic, and share what we’ve been watching to quiet our minds. In the pit beside you, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONI bet you think about me (Nancy Pelosi’s version): The House of Representatives has now gone more than two weeks without a speaker, and it’s unclear at this point who will muster enough votes for the job. What is becoming clear is how much Nancy Pelosi’s coworkers miss serving under her—even the ones from across the aisle. In the wake of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ouster, Republican Rep. Tim Burchett told The Daily, “I catch a lot of hell for saying this, but she was an effective leader.” Rep. Pelosi, for her part, isn’t mincing words: “I feel sad for the institution,” she told reporters after Rep. Jim Jordan’s first failed vote. “I think it’s sad that they’re getting worse and worse.” While the House chaos might seem like a petty Washington squabble, we’re actually in the middle of a historic moment. This is the longest the House has ever been speakerless, and it couldn't be happening at a more inconvenient time. Without a speaker, the House is unable to vote on any legislation or funding measures—like this hospital pricing bill that was ready to be brought to the floor the same week McCarthy was voted out. It’s not the same: While the House twiddled its thumbs this week, protesters with Jewish Voices for Peace and IfNotNow were staging a sit-in at the Capitol calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Standing with the protesters was Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who told the crowd that most Americans “are against occupation. They are against human rights violations. If you just tell them the truth, they will be on our side. So we have to speak the truth.” The gathering was immediately mischaracterized by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called it an “insurrection.” (Point of clarity: They weren’t armed. And no one was threatening to hang the vice president.) But it wasn’t just conservatives who took aim at the activists. A statement released by the Anti-Defamation League labeled the protesters as “far-left radical organizations” and “anti-Zionists,” adding, “Let’s be clear: Anti-Zionism is antisemitism.” So let’s go over this one more time! A protest is not the same as an insurrection (MTG, of all people, would know). Anti-Zionism is not the same as antisemitism. And anti-Zionists are only a part of a huge, diverse coalition calling for ceasefire around the world. I know we’re all capable of understanding the difference between calling a government to account for its atrocities and hating a single ethno-religious group. Pretending that we’re not is an affront to people honoring complexities while finding moral clarity. AND:
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An escalating humanitarian crisis
  October 17, 2023 Beloved Meteor readers, It’s been hard to breathe these last few days. Like many of us, I’m struggling to carry on a normal day knowing there are people digging children out of rubble or wondering if their relatives taken hostage are alive. Over the weekend, I went into the woods in search of mental and literal silence, only to return to the news that a six-year-old boy in Chicago had been killed in his home in what investigators are calling an anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic attack. And I wept, not only for him and his mother but for the countless children who will inherit this world of violence. In today’s newsletter, we try to answer a question many have had over the last few days: How can we help? (It’s not simple.) And we bring you updates from the rest of the world. Clinging to hope, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONUnable to cross: The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is getting worse. As a result of Israel cutting off all utilities in the Gaza Strip in the wake of Hamas’s deadly attacks 10 days ago, the region is running out of clean water, food is scarce, and hospitals are overflowing. (Not to mention the 50,000 women who are pregnant in Gaza right now.) Today the UN issued a statement pleading for “safe passage for desperately needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza.” So where is the aid? There are more than 100 trucks sitting at the border between Gaza and Egypt carrying medical supplies, food, and other vital needs for people just a few yards away. But because the Israeli government has barred any aid from entering Gaza, those trucks cannot move. Were the Egyptian government to allow the trucks passage, the move would be received by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a move against his government. It would also open the door for Palestinian refugees, which Egypt has said it will not accept. But the Israeli and Egyptian governments are up against the will of the people. Calls for humanitarian aid have transcended religious and ethnic lines, with Jewish groups demanding action with the same fervor as their Muslim counterparts. As Michelle Goldberg wrote in the New York Times, Jews throughout the diaspora are feeling a “moment of great fear and vulnerability…. Nevertheless, as atrocities are piled on atrocities, I hope Jews will attend to what is being threatened in our name. And all Americans should pay attention, given how much our country underwrites Israel’s military.” What can you do? There are two paths forward. The first is, if you’re able to, continue donating to groups such as Doctors Without Borders, the UNCERF, Anera, Islamic Relief, or the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Money for these groups helps ensure that Gazans will get medicine, shelter, and food once safe passage is available.  Which brings us to the second thing you can do. Call your representatives, call their assistants—scream it in the streets if you have to—and demand that they pressure President Biden into living up to his word to pressure Israel to open the borders to humanitarian aid. The United States owes it to Palestinians to change course now rather than continue to aid our “ally” in carrying out a genocide. AND:
MORE FROM OUR COLLECTIVE MEMBERS ON ISRAEL AND PALESTINESarah Jones on being mixed-race and Jewish, and how the U.S. was founded on stolen land. Mona Chalabi on the biases about who deserves justice (with a little help from ChatGPT). Liz Plank on how “people get killed by war but also get used by it.”  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Subscribe using their unique share code or snag your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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