Dear Meteor readers,

How many times are we going to write to you with, “It’s been a tough week,” or “We’re totally out of words,” or “What else is there left to say?” But here we are, again. We’re in the unfortunate business of expressing ourselves with words, and yet we have run out of them.

When the news hit over the weekend that an armed gunman had walked into a grocery store in Buffalo, NY, and opened fire on the patrons, shooting 13 of them and killing 10, I’m sure, you, like us, were wordless too. What is there to say when you hear that Andre Mackniel was shot dead while picking up a birthday cake for his young son? Or that long-time community activist 72-year-old Katherine Massey—who had written an editorial just last year urging more federal firearms legislation—was among the victims?

And before we could even process it—there was another shooting. And then another. Since the start of this year, there have been 200 mass shootings.

Disgust. Anger. Despair. Fear. These were all the feelings—especially after it was reported that the Buffalo shooter had written a manifesto and had intentionally targeted Black people. White supremacy—not just hatred, but an organized strategy, rooted in the myth of the Great Replacement Theory—is revealed over and over again.

We are so far from a solution to gun violence and to a solution to white supremacy. But as Meteor founding member Treasure Brooks put it in her beautiful monologue, “it ain't going to go away unless we make it go away.”

Now back to that other ongoing disaster, in today’s newsletter, Sarah Leonard, writer and founder of Marxist feminist publication Lux, considers another possible strategy in the fight to defend our abortion rights.

But first, some news.

Trying to keep it together,

Samhita and Shannon

WHAT'S GOING ON

#WeAreBG: WNBA star Britney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Russia since February—for allegedly possessing hashish oil. The consensus among sportswriters and athletes has been to not make much noise about the arrest in the United States in the hopes that silence would somehow keep her safe. The choice to remain silent was also an economic one, many WNBA players travel overseas during their off-season to make additional money. Speaking out against BG’s detainment could put their second jobs on the line and even WNBA leadership encouraged discretion. But now it’s been months—and keeping quiet hasn’t done jack. On Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver explained that his league is now working in concert with the WNBA to bring BG home. Silver told ESPN. “Our No. 1 priority is her health and safety and making sure that she gets out of Russia.” Say it louder.

USWNT: Hey! It’s something good! The U.S. Women’s National Team has achieved equal pay for the first time in its history. Earlier this year, players came to a settlement with their employers over a longstanding pay discrimination suit; that was a victory but didn’t quite make it to the back of the net if you will. The money promised to the players in the settlement earlier this spring was contingent on the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement that would provide a structure for equal pay and equal treatment between the men’s and women’s teams. Well, now, that agreement has been reached, and to quote one of my favorite announcers we’ve got ourselves a GOOLLLAAZZOOOOOO! Going forward, the two teams will be receiving equal pay for games, equal accommodation, and the one thing everyone thought was impossible: equal World Cup Prize money. Which certainly the men’s team must be extra excited about considering they haven’t been serious contenders for the World Cup since *checks calendar* 2002. Now at least we can really mean it when we say, One nation, one team.

AND:

• An unprecedented investigative report was published this week, looking into the previously obscured deaths of Native children in boarding schools. The Federal Indian Boarding School Program took Native children from their homes, and in some cases caused their deaths—but the extent of the atrocities had not been documented to date.

• If you ever wondered how people fed babies before the invention of formula, a food historian has the answer.

• A town in France voted to allow women to wear burkini (a full coverage bathing suit)—but the French government is scheduling a new vote to shoot that decision down.

BLAST FROM THE PAST 

Could the ERA Get Us Out of the Abortion Rights Disaster?

It's complicated.

BY SARAH LEONARD

Y'ALL REALLY BEEN FIGHTING OVER THE ERA LONGER THAN SOME OF US HAVE BEEN ALIVE (PHOTO BY PATRICIA SULLIVAN VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

You know the deal—the looming overturn of Roe v. Wade means that trigger laws restricting abortion are likely to go into effect across the country, and a nation already suffering from a dearth of abortion clinics and radically unequal access—will become a much more dangerous place for anyone who can get pregnant.

The release of a draft SCOTUS opinion has sent us into a terrifying scramble for new tools to protect abortion rights. But some legal scholars argue that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)—the constitutional amendment guaranteeing sex equality—could be a powerful one.

I remember, shortly after the 2016 election, being approached by an ERA activist at an event and finding myself a bit baffled. What was the likelihood of Americans getting really jazzed around a long-ignored legal reform when women were taking to the streets, organizers were standing in front of deportation buses, and the newly named alt-right was holding rallies with openly carried firearms? And doesn’t the 14th amendment guarantee equal protection under the law anyway?

After the leaked opinion, I was moved to dig deeper when I heard that scholars were developing an argument to use the ERA to protect our rights. What if an old idea could offer the key to undoing new abortion restrictions?

First, some context. If you watched FX’s miniseries Mrs. America, you may have gotten a snapshot of how the ERA looked poised for an easy victory in the mid-1970s before careening off a cliff by the end of the decade. (If you haven’t, I highly recommend it as a tutorial–it shows the strategic fights within the women’s movement and the rise of Phyllis Schlafly–plus it’s got Cate Blanchett and a trippy hazy sequence at the 1977 National Women’s Conference!) The ERA had been first proposed in the 1920s, but gained momentum during the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s. It read, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

NATIONAL ERA MARCH, 1978. (PHOTO BY ANNE E. ZELLE VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

The amendment quickly became a bipartisan cause—with support that spanned the political spectrum from Gloria Steinem to Richard Nixon. By 1972, it had passed both houses of Congress. (Mrs. America features a charming scene in which supporters like Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and feminist Betty Friedan lift champagne in paper cups to celebrate). It was then sent to the states for ratification; 35 out of the necessary 38 states passed it by 1977.

But the fight wasn’t over. Conservative cold warrior Phyllis Schlafly made her contribution to a rising right-wing movement by turning the ERA into a subject of high partisan drama, rallying overwhelmingly white housewives to denounce the amendment and defend the privileges it would supposedly strip from them, like exemption from the draft. States began rescinding their support and progress halted. The unbeatable amendment looked dead, and the champagne went flat. The ERA went from bipartisan to no-partisan, and its remains were swept into the dustbin of 1970s history by the Reagan revolution. A deadline, imposed by Congress and the president, for the amendment to be ratified came and went in 1982—although it was never clear if that time limit was legal to begin with.

The nearly-passed amendment moldered in limbo for nearly forty years. It took another conservative revolution to revive interest in it: Donald Trump’s presidency.

This time, it had legs, and between 2017 and 2020, the remaining three states ratified the ERA, meaning that, if one viewed the deadline as illegitimate, the amendment should now be the law of the land and be certified by the Archivist of the United States. But the Department of Justice under Trump advised the archivist to reject the amendment in deference to the deadline and the result has been another extended limbo.

As two legal scholars explained in detail in the Washington Post, the passage of constitutional amendments has always been messy, and today, experts disagree on whether the ERA is already part of the Constitution (and if not, what to do about it). You can be mad at the Trump DOJ, at the archivist, or at the ghost of Schlafly—any of whom bear some responsibility for our current position. But the murky legality of the ERA makes it especially hard to know how to fight for it.

MRS. PHYLLIS STOP THE ERA SCHLAFLY (PHOTO BY BETTMANN ARCHIVE VIA GETTY IMAGES)

To figure this mess out, I called Katherine Franke, a Professor of Law at Columbia University, and Director of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law, where she launched the ERA Project to study and develop policy in relation to the amendment. You must be busy, I told her. “We’re all busy!” she responded. I got down to business.

In short, Franke believes that the ERA has the potential to protect abortion on grounds of sex equality, instead of on privacy grounds, as put forward in Roe v. Wade. SCOTUS’s draft opinion rejects the notion that any existing Constitutional provision protects abortion, including the 14th amendment from which the notion of a right to privacy emerges. (It should be noted that the grounds on which Roe was decided have long been controversial even among liberals; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg believed that privacy was a weak basis for protecting abortion.)

The ERA Project has laid out a number of arguments about how the ERA’s more explicit language about sex equality could render abortion restrictions unconstitutional, including that such restrictions “single out abortions for more onerous treatment than other medical procedures that carry similar or greater risks.” At the moment, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is hearing a case about whether the state’s ban on Medicaid funding for abortion violates the state’s ERA (they instituted their own in 1971). The ERA Project has submitted an amicus brief arguing that it does; the outcome has the potential to demonstrate that an equal rights amendment would render abortion restrictions unconstitutional.

Franke notes that with SCOTUS now including several justices who emphasize adherence to the literal text of the Constitution, having an explicit requirement for sex equality could prove decisive. So while the ERA wouldn’t literally insert the word “abortion” into the nation’s governing document, one could argue it does the next best thing.

Some have cautioned that the ERA runs the risk of being interpreted by SCOTUS as a requirement for “sex-blindness,” thereby blocking measures that single out women–even to help them. Franke argues the opposite, saying that adding sex explicitly to the Constitution would make quite clear the type of discrimination that needs to be eliminated.

She also points out that the amendment wouldn’t just affect abortion. The ERA, Franke says, would require that “federal, state, and local government take measures to eradicate structural sex discrimination from their policies and laws.” The Center is developing a slate of policy options for local and state officials touching on everything from pregnancy provisions to employment law. The amendment could also have important anti-discrimination benefits for queer and trans people.

So: how do we get an ERA victory?

Franke says there are a couple of paths. A case is currently working its way through the DC Circuit Court challenging the archivist’s decision. At the same time, the Senate is about to vote on lifting the time limit (the House has already voted to do so). Should that measure win bipartisan support, even if it fails to pass due to a filibuster, Franke argues that this offers sensible grounds for Biden to declare the ERA valid.

There’s no one simple trick to undoing abortion restrictions, and fighting back will require a mass movement of folks who protect clinics, help pregnant people get the health care they need (legally or not), and fight for measures like court reform and an end to the filibuster. But one thing is clear—the work that second-wave feminists did to get the ERA passed hasn’t been in vain. Building a movement around a constitutional amendment privy to judicial interpretation may not feel exciting—but I’m starting to think it should.

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Dear Meteor readers,

This week one of the world’s most respected Palestinian American journalists, Shireen Abu Akleh, was killed while reporting on an Israeli military raid in the Palestinian city of Jenin. Shireen was wearing a  bulletproof vest clearly marked “PRESS” and helmet when she was struck precisely in the head by an Israeli sniper.

Over the last three days, millions of Palestinians—myself included—have been holding vigils, organizing protests, and sharing our love and our demands for justice for Shireen. As we mourn the collective loss of someone who was a “big sister” to all of us, I was taken back to the first time I remember seeing Shireen on TV.

In 2000, my brothers and I were sitting on the floor of my grandparents’ living room in New Jersey playing dominos and eating freshly cut apples. My Sidi (Arabic for grandfather) was sitting in his chair in the back right corner of the room glued to the TV, as usual. At the time, I truly believed Al Jazeera was the only channel my grandparents had in their home because it was the only thing ever on their TV. I hated it, mainly because I couldn’t understand a word being spoken.

But on this particular day, I vividly remember my Sidi watching the television and crying. I glanced at the screen and saw the horrific live news coverage of what I’d later learn was the Second Intifada, being narrated by a beautifully brave woman with the most eloquent Arabic accent I had ever heard.

Shireen was a calming voice of reason in the face of endless traumas: settler-colonialism, illegal military occupation, generational displacement, and the apathy of the global community. She took an inconvenient and dangerous truth—one that has been suppressed and distorted for the last seven decades—and reported it as clearly and as honestly as any journalist could ever hope to, even in the face of unyielding violence. She did it for nearly 25 years. And she did it for us. The calculated executions she once covered with unwavering conviction became the very story that claimed her life.

It is a painful coincidence that the week we lost a powerful voice for Palestine is the same week we commemorate the 74th anniversary of Al-Nakba, on May 15th. In today’s newsletter, psychologist Dr. Shirin Zarqa-Lederman writes about the “catastrophe” that altered the course of world history and changed her own family’s life forever.

But first, a little bit of news.

In Shireen’s honor,

Jenan A. Matari

WHAT'S GOING ON

Lady Liberty gets it right: On Thursday, an anonymous group dropped a 30-foot green banner at the Statue of Liberty with the words “ABORTION = LIBERTY” emblazoned on it. This is, of course, in response to the leaked SCOTUS opinion warning that the justices intend to overturn Roe.  The organizers told the Meteor they, “refuse to stand idly by as one of our most fundamental rights is stripped away from us.” The green is a reference to the fight for reproductive rights in Latin America, dubbed the Green Wave—now coming to the United States. Join the movement: abortion rights protests are planned across the country today. If you want to find one near you, check here. #AbortionEqualsLiberty.

About those trigger laws…: As of now, pregnant people in Louisiana will not be charged with murder for having abortions. The state house has thankfully rejected a particularly terrifying anti-abortion bill—HB 813—that would have categorized life as beginning at conception and could have opened up the possibility of criminal prosecution for women who choose abortion. For now, the bill is dead, but there are 13 states that have already passed trigger laws. Here is a list of things you can do to protect abortion rights in these states and beyond.

AND: 

• Is Musk going to buy Twitter or what? This plot needs to die.

• Britney Griner will be detained in Russia for another month. It’s already been 86 days. Bring BG home.

• The defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard carries on, and throughout it,  Heard has been memed, mocked, and called a fraud. So as The Cut asks, what happened to 'Believe women'?

PALESTINIAN HISTORY

The Lasting Trauma of Al-Nakba 

Seventy-four years after the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland, we're still here. 

BY DR. SHIRIN ZARQA-LEDERMAN

A DEMONSTRATION COMMEMORATING AL-NAKBA IN GERMANY, 2021 (PHOTO BY CARSTEN COALL VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

“At some point in every Palestinian’s life, we realize that Al-Nakba is far from over.”—Mohammad Al-Kurd, Palestinian poet and activist

In 1948, when my father was just shy of 13 years old, he and his family were forcibly exiled from their village of Ein Karem in Jerusalem, Palestine, along with 750,000 other Indigenous Palestinians. Every year on May 15th, we commemorate this violent displacement known as Al-Nakba, which translates to “the catastrophe.” Al-Nakba was the colonial campaign that forcibly removed Palestinians from their homes beginning in 1947 in order to create the state of Israel—a displacement that continues to this day.

Now 86, my father often regaled us with stories of a pre-Nakba Palestine. He would talk about the kazoz (Arabic for soda) factory that my grandfather would take him to after a day at their olive orchard in Jabil Al Rawas. He would tell us about sitting Sukkot with his Jewish friends until the rain drenched the earth. During Easter, he dyed eggs using onion peels and red currants with his Christian neighbors.  And during Ramadan, his Jewish and Christian friends would fast right alongside him. While pre-Nakba Palestine, of course, had its fair share of societal issues, many Palestinians who were there recall a land that was a religious haven for the three Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). My dad lights up when he tells those stories—but you can see the light dimming as his mind ultimately always leads his thoughts back to Al-Nakba and to the trauma he and our family endured.

The fate of Palestine had actually been decided long before my father’s time. In 1897, at the first World Zionist Congress, Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl declared that Palestine would be the Jewish homeland, and the theft of Palestine was later negotiated by Herzl and Lord Balfour of England in an agreement known as the Balfour Declaration—which stated that Palestine would be the “national home for the Jewish people.” This declaration did not officially establish the state of Israel, but was further supported by the British Mandate over Palestine, issued by the newly formed League of Nations in 1923, which “gave Britain the responsibility for creating a Jewish national homeland in the region.”

Zionists began encouraging more members of the Jewish faith from Eastern Europe to migrate to Palestine, falsely describing the territory as “a land without a people, for a people without a land.” Antisemitism in Europe had long existed and the Jewish communities of Europe were already seeking refuge in Palestine. Palestinians welcomed them, even hosting Jewish refugees in their homes.

Imagine two white men—and the international community—deciding to train armed guards to remove you from your home with the support of multiple governments. That's what happened to my dad.

Recently, I asked my father how much he remembers of the massacre of Deir Yassin in April of 1948, a village only three miles from his home. The survivors of the Deir Yassin massacre fled to my father’s village for protection from Zionist paramilitary groups. After a long pause, he said, “I remember most, [that] women and children were running towards us crying, so many of them were bloody,” and then he quickly reverted back to the political failures of the era.

THE AUTHOR'S FATHER (CENTER) WITH HIS SIBLINGS IN PALESTINE IN THE 1940s. (PHOTO COURTESY OF SHIRIN ZARQA-LEDERMAN) 

By the time Al-Nakba formally ended in 1949, 13,000 Palestinians had been killed, some 530 villages had been decimated, and Israel had occupied 78% of historic Palestine. My father, his parents, and his siblings fled to Jordan, where a refugee camp had been established; my grandfather farmed in the Jordan Valley until he could afford to buy a piece of property and eventually built a home for his family.

In December of 1949, the United Nations passed Resolution 194, which declared that the 750,000 Palestinians who were expelled during Al-Nakba had a right to return to their property or be compensated for their losses. (Palestinians who remained in occupied territory were given residency as “Arab-Israelis.”) In 1952, Israel did allow members of the Jewish communities of Palestine to return to their lands where they were welcomed as Israelis. However, many Christian and Muslim Palestinians were not allowed to return to their homes and were never given any compensation.

As a Palestinian in the United States being denied the right to return to my ancestral homeland is just one dimension of the generational trauma my family and I experience. A key thing I’ve learned about trauma is that a person cannot begin to heal from it until the traumatic experience ends. But nearly every day, even in 2022, there is footage of some violent act being inflicted on the people of Palestine. Children are shot and arrested, held without charge on the same streets where my father once roamed freely as a child. Thousands of homes are demolished, creating more Palestinian refugees and ensuring that healing can never truly begin. Yet in spite of it all, we remain. In our homeland and across the diaspora we fight, and rally, and shout, and above all we remember. We remember and we hold the pain of our elders so that the Indigenous people of Palestine—no matter their religion—are not forgotten.

That is the burden, the trauma, that follows countless generations who may never experience the peace my father once did, walking to a soda factory from an olive orchard. It is the legacy of Al-Nakba. But so is our steadfastness.

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Dear Meteor readers,

If you’re feeling like I’m feeling, then you are probably worried, confused, exhausted, and maybe a little hopeful. Why hopeful? Because people are righteously pissed off about the possibility of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and that anger gives me hope.

It’s currently Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and I’ve been reflecting a lot about what it means to be an Asian American feminist—about how I can’t separate being a woman from being a person of color. And about how having access to reproductive health care has allowed me to live a full and self-determined life—despite the many obstacles my family had to overcome to survive in this country.

One month is never enough time but for AAPIHM, I take the opportunity to reflect on the incredible leaders, thinkers, and members of our community who push us to figure out how to be a collective despite our complicated and diverging lives.

I think of the inimitable Grace Lee Boggs, who taught us about intersectional organizing through her commitment to the American civil rights movement. I think about the great Yuri Kochiyama, who was radicalized after her father was detained at a Japanese internment camp and dedicated her life to social justice. I think about the legends we live amongst today, leaders of my generation like Ai-jen Poo and Vanita Gupta.

I also think about the many, many workers, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, nail technicians, housekeepers, caretakers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, and accountants—the people who keep our country moving and our lives running.

And, most personally, I think about the people who taught me that my voice matters—our culture-makers and creators—Padma Lakshmi, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amy Tan, Alexander Chee, Celeste Ng, Ocean Vuong and so many more. They’ve expanded public consciousness about the multifaceted experiences and identities of Asian people, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders.

In today’s newsletter, in honor of AAPIHM, we are excited to share with you a conversation with the award-winning author of Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, Min Jin Lee. In light of high rates of AAPI violence, she talks to Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actor, author, and director Amber Tamblyn.

Their conversation made me think of a quote from Grace Lee Boggs that I often come back to: “Love isn't about what we did yesterday; it's about what we do today and tomorrow and the day after.”

But before we get to the goods, first—the news.

In love and solidarity,

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

WHAT'S GOING ON

Schumer is right??? I rarely type these words, but Senator Chuck Schumer is giving me hope. Today the U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on a bill that would codify the right to abortion, a move that could render the upcoming SCOTUS decision on Dobbs v Mississippi Women’s Health Center toothless. In discussing the bill Schumer stated the obvious, for those who haven’t gotten the memo, “It's a woman's right. Plain and simple.” Yas, Chuck! The prediction is that the vote is doomed, so why the big push now? With the mid-terms around the corner—seems like a *great* time for voters to see exactly who is and isn't willing to stand up for abortion rights. So if you don’t like what’s happening in your state, here’s a handy calendar of all the upcoming primaries.

Sweet Home Alabama (but only if you’re cis and straight): As of May 8th, providing gender-affirming care to trans youth is a felony in Alabama. The newly created Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act prevents doctors from prescribing hormones and puberty blockers to patients under 19. Doctors found violating the law could face up to 10 years in prison. So let’s all just stop dancing around this issue and call it by its name: this is a war on trans youth—the Alabama state legislature would rather deny them their right to exist than allow trans youth to make decisions about their own bodies.

The ladies doth protest too much: In the days since The Leak, protestors have gathered outside the homes of Justices Kavanaugh, Roberts, and Alito to alert these clueless men about what’s at stake if they move forward with overturning Roe. Kavanaugh and Roberts complained that their private spaces had been violated, and in response, the Senate approved extra security for the Justices. You know what else is a private space? My uterus. Would be a shame if a bunch of people in robes who never met me just showed up out of nowhere and told me I couldn't decide how things go in my private space. Oh, wait…

A PEACEFUL VISIT TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF AN APPOINTED GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL (PHOTO BY KEVIN DIETSCH VIA GETTY IMAGES)

AND:

• If you haven’t heard already, there is a BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE IN THE UNITED STATES! I feel like we need to be panicking more about this.

• BLM leader Patrisse Cullors has some regrets about how the organization was run, but still claims that there was no mishandling of donations by leadership.

• “Bitch wasn’t just a publication—it was an identity marker.”

• Naomi Osaka is starting her own sports agency!!

LOVE AND WAR 

Min Jin Lee on Justice for Asian Americans

The author talks to Amber Tamblyn about survival, joy, and the old stereotypes that still linger. 

MIN JIN LEE AT THE JUSTICE FOR ASIAN WOMEN RALLY IN NEW YORK (PHOTO BY TAYFUN COSKUN VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

Min Jin Lee has been sounding the alarm on the startling rise of anti-Asian violence for the last few years. And the award-winning author has been unapologetically “extra Asian” lately. In March of this year, on the one-year anniversary of the tragic shooting at a spa in Atlanta where eight people (six of them Asian women) were killed, Lee helped organize a nationwide #BreaktheSilence action demanding justice for Asian women. Through tears, she addressed the rally in Times Square: ”We have read the data, but I want to know how you are doing in light of such dismal and terrifying hate?”

The data paints a grim picture: the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that anti-Asian hate crimes were up 339% in 2021. In light of these startling statistics, actor, writer, activist, and Meteor founding member Amber Tamblyn wanted to hear from Lee—and understand how non-Asians can be allies. They sat down to talk about anti-Asian violence, movement-building, and what it means to create a culture of “grace.”

Amber: I've seen [the work] you’re doing to expose racism and violence—which is permeating both our culture and literally our streets, against Asian American elders. And I wonder if you would just talk a little bit about that and your experience fighting to bring more awareness to the violence that is happening in your community right now?

Min Jin: I think that is one of the reasons why I am speaking so consistently about the insult and the assault and the murders of Asians and Asian Americans in this country right now. There's been an upsurge of such violence in the past several years, especially in light of the Trump administration. However, this kind of discrimination and exclusion has been happening, even by the state, ever since Asians and Asian Americans have been in this country.

Amber: I’ve read that the Asian American community in the US is one of the least likely communities to report violence and to report these assaults. And I was shocked by that statistic, but I [realize] it's not so simple, [because] of the complicated relationship our country has with its police force.

Min Jin: There are so many, many poor immigrants in this country who are terrified of speaking up for fear of affecting their immigration status, for fear of affecting their jobs. And [many] even think that they don't have the right to complain. They come from countries in which political persecution is so commonplace. [So] very often the victims won't come forward for fear of persecution—and the persecution may not exist, but in their minds, it's quite present.

One of the things I'm trying to do is to bring greater awareness [and] talk about it when I can. I'm asking the media to please pay attention to this situation. Part of it is representation, and part of it is telling the truth about how the economic disparity in our community is so, so wide. We have the poorest people in America, and we have some of the wealthiest people in America. So the idea [that] all Asian Americans are wealthy and educated is so completely, statistically, factually untrue. And if I could bring that to bear, then maybe I've done a little bit of truth-telling.

PROTESTORS IN GEORGIA SHORTLY AFTER EIGHT PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN ATTACKS ON SPAS IN ATLANTA. (PHOTO BY MEGAN VARNER VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

Amber: Watching the work that you have created in the last couple of years—both as a writer and a researcher, at the nexus of thrilling storytelling and unearthing these really hard truths—has been pretty profound. This is where, in my mind, for women, it’s not really a luxury to write about these things: This is not a hobby; this is an act of survival. How do you feel about that statement?

Min Jin: I think the word “survival” is so important because right now we are seeing girls and women under threat—especially poor girls and poor women, and that cuts across race, and it cuts across boundaries, and regions. We're seeing political actors trying so hard to destroy the lives of girls and women. And I guess that's the reason why I feel rather impassioned to make sure that our alliances get stronger, not [made] weaker by minor differences that we can definitely talk out.

Amber: I love that so much. And I needed to hear that because it has been a hard couple of years, as it has been for everybody. Obviously, I've dealt with my own feelings about the movement-building process and activist spaces that feel like we're just ripping each other apart without the context of nuance and how difficult this work is. There is a world out there that just wants us not to exist and not to thrive. And also on a deeper, sadder level, not to love each other.

What you just said reminded me of this episode [of the On Being podcast] I just listened to [featuring] my friends Tarana Burke and Ai-jen Poo. And there's a thing that Tarana said: “I don't think we can have movements that have liberation politics that don't have a politic of grace.”

Min Jin: Amen. It should be exactly as Tarana Burke said, a “liberation ethic,” because it's not just me getting whatever men get. It's actually for all of us to be free to be who we're supposed to be. And that's a very revolutionary point of view.

PROTEST IN NEW YORK CITY AFTER THE MURDER OF CHRISTINA YUNA LEE. (PHOTO BY MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

Amber Tamblyn: What I've learned is, in any [movement] work, there's a very delicate balance between honoring the wisdom and experience of your elders, and also breaking free of that to find what is important and needed in the current culture and climate.

Min Jin: Well, it's funny, I'm 53 years old. I'm the middle girl of three girls in my family. My mother always worked and she earned money for our family, which was important. But then also I felt that our father really supported our full capacity as young women. So very often people talk about the patriarchy of East Asian Confucian cultures, and obviously, true. But my father— because he has three girls—I think he ended up feeling like, yes, I want you to be able to cook well. Which is obviously sexist. And yet, he also felt like you should be able to do whatever you want to do because my girls are the best.

He used to say, “Oh, if a boy doesn't want to marry you or date you because you're smart and you're educated, know this: He will have dumb children.”

Amber: Oh shit. That's amazing.

Min Jin: Right? But my dad said that! I grew up in a very feminist household. So I'm always surprised when people say things about Asians and Asian Americans being sexist, because I'm like, “Well, that wasn't my experience.”

Amber: That brings me to my [last] question that I wanted to ask you personally, but also for anyone reading this interview who's also upset and outraged by [the rise of anti-Asian violence]. What is a very simple way to be more involved, to be more engaged?

Min Jin: The Alliance is an organization that supports victims [of anti-Asian violence] who wish to come forward. If they don't have money for a lawyer, they have all these pro bono lawyers who are willing to do it. But very often the victims will not come forward. I think that you understand this very well as somebody who cares about the Me Too movement, [but] very often Asians and Asian-Americans are not believed. So, first of all, can you believe it when someone tells you, I'm afraid to take the subway, I'm afraid to walk down the street because somebody might attack me in a poor neighborhood? Secondly, find the [political] candidates who care about the core of your community.

The third thing is really simple: Sometimes, if you feel like it, you could offer to walk your friend somewhere. Sometimes it is a matter of reaching out, talking to the person who feels deeply ignored, [and] making him, or her, or them visible in your life. There are moments in recognition that we can give to each other, which can build a world and counteract all that cruelty.

Amber: I love that. What gives you hope about the future?

Min Jin: Well, I'm a mother and I'm a professor of young people, so the next generation obviously gives me hope. And what also gives me hope is that I come from a long history of women who are fighting for good things. And it's so important to understand that we're not alone in this. For me, I keep thinking about how many beautiful friendships I have found in the movement, [and] how many people I really adore, whose laughter I speak to when I'm having a hard time. Having a shared, common purpose is a wonderful way to build friendships. So that gives me a lot of hope.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

THERE'S STILL TIME! 

Did you miss the live stream of 22 for '22: Visions For a Feminist Future? We've got you covered! The full show is still available to watch whenever you need an energetic boost of hope or if you just want to bask in the glory that was Chris Smalls' stunning pink outfit. You can watch the whole show here!

Queridx Meteor reader,

We want to wish a Happy Early Mother’s Day to all the moms, mamis, muthas, mxms, fur-moms, step-moms, and angel-moms out there today. Whether you’re getting a dozen roses or a macaroni necklace, or the very cool gift that I got my mom (which is still a surprise because I love psychological warfare, and she does read this newsletter), we hope you feel loved and appreciated every day. And if today isn’t a day you care to acknowledge for whatever reason, then may it be a day you direct all that love and appreciation to yourself cause everyone can use a little extra boost. 

In today’s newsletter, author and mother Angela Garbes talks about parenting through a pandemic and how the entire U.S. economy hinges on the unpaid work of care. It’s a moving and sobering reminder that parents of all kinds are absolute heroes.

Speaking of heroes, I saw Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness this week, and I won’t spoil it, but it is literally a fantasy film about parenting, and Elizabeth Olsen’s performance was surprisingly moving in a way that had nothing to do with superpowers and stuff blowing up.

But before I lose you to multiversal travel, let’s take a quick news cruise.

Love,

Shannon Melero

ESSENTIAL READING FOR THE ROE-POCALYPSE

It’s been a ridiculously difficult week. Between protests, clearing out your bank account to donate to abortion funds, and figuring out who to blame—there’s a lot to keep on top of. So here are a few pieces from the week that are keeping us informed and infuriated.

• Jill Filipovic has three steps on how we all need to fight for abortion rights: get to work, get informed, get brave.

• Some Republicans are drafting legislation to stop people in their states from leaving to acquire legal, safe, out-of-state abortions.

• Abortion in the U.S. is a tale as old as time; Peggy Cooper Davis explains how enslaved women terminated their pregnancies, how the cruelty of the past shaped the constitution and how present cruelty can help us change it again.

• “An Abortion Provider Confronts the End of Roe”

• No time for a long read? Here’s a great podcast on how Ireland repealed a constitutional abortion ban and what that might mean for the U.S.

AND:

• Later this month, Karine Jean-Pierre will become the first Black (and first openly gay) White House press secretary ever.

• As if Summer 2022 wasn’t already shaping up to be crappy, bread is going to be super expensive.

• Louisiana is looking to criminalize IUDs. What episode of Black Mirror are we living in right now?

TOUGHEST JOB EVER

The Essential Work of Mothering

Angela Garbes on the unpaid domestic labor that keeps the world turning 

BY SHANNON MELERO

THE DELIGHTFUL ANGELA GARBES (PHOTO BY ELIZABETH RUDGE) 

Every Mother’s Day, I find myself asking the same question many children of single mothers do: How did my mom do it all on her own? It’s a silly question to still be pondering at my age. (The answer is so obviously witchcraft; I mean how else?) But, as I’ve come to understand more about parenting, the question has evolved: How does anyone do it? 

Even in two-parent households, the work of parenting and caregiving is accomplished without much structural support. Parental leave is a luxury, childcare costs about as much as a year of college, and despite the fact that caring for someone is a 24/7 endeavor, none of it is considered “real” work. You’re just expected to do it and do it well, and the stakes are even higher than in your actual job: Should you fail there are entire institutions built to judge you rather than one overzealous regional manager.

Author and mother Angela Garbes wrestles with these questions and more in her new book Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change. If her words don’t change how you see the caregivers in your own life, then I can’t imagine what else will.

Shannon Melero: You mention in your book that you went through a lot of emotional changes when the pandemic started, which impacted how you were doing your work as a writer and as a mother. Now that we’re two years plus into it, what changes have you seen in how you think about care? 

Angela Garbes: I think that becoming a mother radicalized me in a way. You know, once I had a child, I was like, Why don't we have leave again? Why is my health care, which I believe is a human right, tied to paid work outside of the home? 

And in 2020 when everything shut down, I had two children at the time that were five and under, and I could do nothing but take care of them. That was the only job I could perform. I didn’t have time or space to write. I felt like my ability to do any kind of professional work was slipping away. But at the same time, it was so clear that the only important work in front of me was making sure that my family, my children, and my community were safe and healthy. And so I was kind of wrestling with those two things for a long time.

Essentially, I’ve come around to thinking that the only work, the only real work human beings have, is to survive and that that’s done through care work—through care of the body. That’s what we need to be prioritizing. It's great that people have professional interests. And you can enjoy doing it. But work in the United States is coercive. When your health care and your basic needs are on the line—and not having a job takes away all of those things—[then] work becomes a condition of survival. That’s not how it should be.  

You also mention how care is perceived very uniquely in America in comparison to other parts of the world—can you break that down for me a little bit? 

In American capitalism, we ignore domestic labor. We really just fail to acknowledge that American capitalism needs free labor in the home in order to function.

If you look at other countries like the Netherlands, they have capitalism as well. But they have things such as paid family leave, [and] subsidized or universal health care. They have education that is affordable, and accessible child care and pre-K, and this is the number one difference I see.

The book is also very much rooted in my experience being Filipino American. And, you know, I see [how domestic labor looks] in the Philippines, which is obviously the legacy of American colonialism. But I’ve always been struck by how domestic labor in the Philippines, even though it’s problematic…there’s something very honest about it.

Everybody has nannies, everybody has maids, everybody has cooks and they are part of the home. You see them. They’re not invisible. And while it’s complicated, it’s a huge part of the workforce. And so you see the care work. It’s impossible to ignore it because it’s happening right in front of you and it involves people outside of the nuclear family.

Do you think that that’s something that could ever translate in the U.S.? Care work being visible instead of something we try to hide? Because I know you mentioned in the book that, going back decades, women of color are responsible for raising all of these white children, but they’re never in the family photos because they’re “holding the camera,” as it were.  

I have to believe we can get there. But I just think that people in a lot of ways haven't seriously considered domestic labor. I think about the representations of motherhood and mothering—you know there are these influencers and for them part of the work of mothering is to create an Instagram or a TikTok with cleaning videos and things like that. And I’m not trying to diminish that at all because again, mothering is unpaid labor and you need money to survive.

But at the same time, there’s not a lot of prominent influencers who are featuring their nanny or their cleaning lady. No one’s saying, Here’s who is helping me. We’re still trapped in this deeply conditioned state of hiding that stuff away and thinking that the labor happening in the home is private. That it’s outside the sphere of capitalism or outside of the “real” world. Obviously, that idea is starting to shift but the way I see it, the domestic space is now a place where content is created and consumed but we’re still not really talking about it as work.

Is there anything that’s come out of the pandemic and the public’s understanding of caring and motherhood that makes you feel hopeful? 

I wrote this book from a deeply hopeful place, which is that things can be different.

A lot of Americans support paid family leave, even though our government is failing to deliver that. But there’s cultural momentum right now which [I believe] is a result of so many people being in dire financial straits.

I always hear stories about women raising the issue of paid leave in their workplace and it’s other women who are like, Well, not having it worked for us! That’s capitalist patriarchy, and it really breaks my heart. Because it was hard for you then it has to be hard for somebody else? The way I see it, I don’t want what was hard for me to be hard for anyone else.

The other thing that makes me hopeful was that during the early days of the pandemic we really saw that caring was this deeply human urge. It’s human nature to care for other people and I think we all really saw that our institutions are not set up to care for us, but we did it for each other.

No matter who you are, everyone is familiar with care on some level. You’ve been cared for at some point in your life and maybe now you care for someone, whether as a mother, auntie, nanny, mentor, etc. So I think about all of us getting back in touch with that urge to care and I feel really hopeful when I see evidence of that every day.

WILL WE SEE YOU MONDAY NIGHT? 

Darling Meteor readers,

Recently I saw someone post, it’s getting really exhausting living through a historic event every six minutes. Never has that been more relatable than this week when an anonymous hero leaked a draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—the case that could overturn Roe v. Wade.

I want to say that this has thrown us into a state of crisis but that would imply that we’ve not been enduring crises for the last few years. So I’ll call it what it is: another problem that no one wanted.

I’m angry. You’re angry. Entire pockets of the country are angry. And outside of donating to abortion funds and primal screaming in the streets (yes to both), it feels like there is nothing we can do to stop SCOTUS from rolling us toward a dangerous and uncertain future for people who want to have control over their own bodies.

So it was only suitable that for this newsletter, author and Meteor editor-at-large Rebecca Carroll asked journalist Rebecca Traister the question on everyone’s mind. Where do we go from here?

We go forward.

In quiet rage,

Shannon Melero

(P.S. We know what day it is. May the fourth be with you all. We’re gonna need it!)

WTF

DR. AYANA ELIZABETH JOHNSON IN NEW YORK CITY (PHOTO BY GINNY SUSS)

• There’s a leak in this boat: Here’s the quick and dirty on the week’s big story: SCOTUS has confirmed that there will be an investigation into who leaked the draft opinion, a breach which Chief Justice John Roberts called a “betrayal.” Sir, Theresa Giudice spreading rumors about her friends’ marriages is a betrayal. Someone warning the country that we’re about to lose our reproductive rights? That’s God’s work. Give the leaker a medal.

• Rights Watch: If you’re not freaking out about this leak because you don’t have feelings about abortion (first of all, how?) then here’s something else to freak out about: birth control and same-sex marriages aren’t safe either. In one of the week’s best roundups, VICE interviewed several legal experts on what the imminent Roe rollback could mean for other basic rights, and the responses are bleak. One professor told the outlet, “If your rights have not been understood as automatic for the last 200 years, or if your rights are not explicitly stated in the Constitution, this court is basically saying you do not have those rights.”

AND OTHER THINGS GOING ON: 

• I didn’t really get the Met Gala theme this year but it’s nice to take a mental break and just look at some nice gowns. Blake Lively understood the assignment.

• An Apple store in Maryland is trying to unionize. Hell yeah!

• The U.S. has finally acknowledged that Brittney Griner is being wrongfully detained in Russia.

• It’s time for Joe Biden to decide once and for all if he’s the president of just the Catholics or if he’s the president of the entire United States. (More on that from Rebecca Traister below.)

• “Meet the Reddit ‘Aunties’ covertly helping people get abortions”

• California is looking to add abortion protection to its state constitution.

ABORTION AT RISK

“We Are Living In Minority Rule” 

Rebecca Traister on the future of abortion rights and what Democrats need to do now.

BY REBECCA CARROLL

THANK GOD FOR ABORTION! (PHOTO BY GINNY SUSS) 

You mad? I am. So when Politico published the leaked draft opinion on Monday, indicating that the Supreme Court was primed to overturn Roe V. Wade, rather than beat my head against the wall, I reached out to political writer and author Rebecca Traister, whose concise and provocative columns have covered this terrain and predicted this outcome for decades. Her 2019 bestselling book Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger, documents the historical arc of women’s rage and since there’s never been a better time for that—we zoomed about it.

Rebecca Carroll: When the news broke last night about the SCOTUS leak, you tweeted: “Intellectually I am unsurprised, mentally knew this was coming, have been writing about it for years, understand Roe has been insufficient for millions, etc etc. And yet: my teeth have been chattering uncontrollably for an hour. Bodies/minds are so weird.”

I felt that too—can you say more?

Rebecca Traister: I certainly understood that night that this was coming. But there have been all these distinct moments that I remember knocking the breath out of me, each and every one of them, but in which it was abundantly clear that this was what was going to happen. Like when I read the headline that Anthony Kennedy was retiring, the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, the night that Justice Ginsburg died, the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.

I was ready for the breath to be knocked out of me at the end of June [when the SCOTUS opinion is expected to be officially delivered]. I certainly was not ready for the text message I got Monday night at 8:40. My eldest daughter was like, "Mom, are you okay?" She tried to put a blanket over me. And it was a visceral, physiological reaction. I guess it was like a shock, a physical shock reaction.

Part of the shock is that this is happening now. We won the 2020 election largely because of the women's vote and, specifically, women of color. And yet even with Democrats in power because of us, here we are. How do we reconcile that? Or do we reconcile that?

Well, I don't think there's a neat reconciliation that's possible. I think we have to hold multiple things in our heads at one time. One is elections do matter, actually. And the other is that Democrats have to be better and fight far more forcefully. And this is a critique that I've had for a long time. I hear a lot of resistance to that: Like, this is not the Democrats’ fault, this is right-wing. And, absolutely, this is decades' worth of right-wing strategizing to exacerbate gendered, racial, and class inequalities.

But this has been the right-wing for 40 years. And it's also about Democrats who have not effectively fought that party. Roe is about to be overturned. Voting rights were gutted in 2013. Labor protections have been gutted and environmental protections have been gutted and there's a lot more that's on the table coming up.

So lots of these things can exist at the same time. It is absolutely crucial that we elect Democrats. Sure. Yes. It is also crucial that Democrats themselves get better at waging this battle.

IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS (PHOTO BY GINNY SUSS)

I want to understand better for myself, for the folks around me, for all of us: What is a right? What is a human right if it can be so freely stripped?

We are talking about everything [fought for] by early abolitionists and suffrage movements through emancipation, through labor movements often spearheaded by immigrants—to the 19th amendment, through the Voting Rights Act, through the Civil Rights Act, through Griswold and Loving. These rights have been pulled from the guts and marrow of this system that was designed to impede them. And here is where I see a failure over the past generation or two: to understand that once those rights were extracted, that didn't mean we just got to relax our grip on them.

Politically, in terms of our leadership, there have always been people on the ground, at the grassroots who have been talking about how easily these things could be stripped from us, and those people have been called hysterics. That's something [U.S. Sen.] Ben Sasse said specifically about abortion during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. He said, I've seen these hearings and people are always yelling hysterically about how abortion's going to be overturned and it's never happened. It's all [accusations of] hysteria, but it's also the tacit message coming from Democrats who over my lifetime have fought for a big tent and said, We shouldn't have litmus tests on things like abortion and have repeatedly called those who talked about abortion as single-issue voters who were impeding a broader progressive project.

The people who understood the intensity that this battle required even after having won were written off as radical, infantile, or overdramatic. Reproductive justice advocates have been pointing out over decades that [using] the language of “choice” never worked as morally compelling. It's the “choose your choice” feminism where any choice that a woman makes then becomes feminist, which is not the case.

What reproductive justice advocates were correctly pointing out always is that the right to abortion goes hand in hand with the right to competent, accessible, affordable, and high-quality healthcare for all people— [and] as we know, Black maternal mortality rates are through the roof in this country and healthcare more broadly is unavailable. It goes hand in hand with affordable housing, quality education, safer gun laws, and things that better enable people, not just to be able to choose to end pregnancies but also to have children and to be able to raise them safely and with some economic stability.

But I would also say that 70% of Americans don't think abortion should be illegal. The reason the right did its genius moves of taking over the judiciary is because they cannot win on this issue legislatively. The Electoral College overriding the will of the majority of voters has produced the majority of Supreme Court justices right now who are deciding against a majority of Americans.  What we're living in right now is minority rule.

CROWDS IN NEW YORK SHOUTING THEIR SUPPORT OF ABORTION IN THE STREET (PHOTO BY GINNY SUSS)

When we first got on the phone, you were listening to the clip of Elizabeth Warren fuming. Why is that video so important? Because there are a lot of ways that can also be dismissed.

Sure. There are a million ways it can be dismissed. Fuck those ways. That clip shows blood, it shows feeling, and it shows urgency. I feel like the president and the leaders of this party need to get out of bed the night that it happens and tell people who need care that they can go get their appointments tomorrow. To explain it, to treat it with a big siren emoji, to get on TV, to get on the internet—do what you have to do, speak to the people you claim you want to lead into battle.

At the end of the statement he released [Tuesday] morning was the idea that everybody can vote for us in November. Okay. Tell me why Joe? Tell me why. Because until that statement, he hadn't said the word abortion. He did include the word abortion in his statement this morning. Congratulations. It was like four paragraphs down. I'm glad.

What I keep trying to wrap my head around is it's so clear to me why abortion matters—but how do we keep a new generation caring?

What we have not done is successfully transmitted the stories of not just what life was like pre-Roe, but about the degree and difficulty of these fights. We tell very neat stories about how everything from the civil rights movement to the gay rights movement to the women's movement landed us with these sort of cheerful endpoints. And we don't linger on how long it took and we don't linger on how hard it was and we don't linger on how many people suffered and died during the course of these fights. And we do that because it's human to want to put that stuff behind us and to say, Look, we're moving forward.

People might not feel hopeful right now. Why should they? 

It's hard to feel hopeful. I can't point to something that's being like, well, the great thing is X. Nope. No great things. Okay? None. Zero great things. However, I have to say that as tempting as it is to give into despair or hopelessness, it is crucial to remember, again, that this is why it's important that we learn more and better about the generations that came before us. Let me tell you, generations of people with far fewer resources and living in spaces of far greater systemic violence and injustice, found a way to fight for a better world. And if we can't because we're bummed out, which we are, then we have a major problem. So it's not a question of, is there a reason to feel hope? Damn fucking straight there is because if we don't, we stop moving. And if we stop moving, then we permit the harm, and that's not possible.

ONE MORE THING

If this week's SCOTUS draft left you wondering, what now, then make sure to register for The Meteor's virtual event on May 9th, 22 for '22: Visions For a Feminist Future, presented in partnership with Gucci's CHIME FOR CHANGE.

You'll hear from Colombian human rights lawyer Paula Avilla-Guillen on the state of reproductive freedom and what comes next. You won't want to miss it! Click here and make sure to reserve the best seat on your couch for an emotional and inspiring evening.

FOLLOW THE METEOR

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[email protected]

Hey Meteor friends,

Do you know what I love, specifically, about the last day of April? That I can finally post a million “It’s gonna be May” memes. This is one of my top 10 favorite parts of being online, hands down, and I have not a shred of shame for loving it.

You know what isn’t making it into my Top 10? Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter a.k.a The Bad Place. While I’m personally not an avid Twitter gal, the news that Musk was spending the GDP of a small country to buy everyone’s bad takes incensed my timeline—and writer Shamira Ibrahim helps me understand why. She's blessed today’s newsletter with the ultimate explainer of the potential risks, not just for Twitter pros, but for everyone.

Also, Tuesday is Eid al-Fitr—the post-Ramadan holiday and start of a new month on the Islamic calendar. The Meteor’s Ayesha Johnson and her sister are bidding farewell to Ramadan in this issue too.

But before that, let’s check the news.

In love and memes,

Shannon (It’s Gonna be Me)lero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Shots for tots: On Thursday, Moderna put in a request to the FDA to approve a low-dose Covid vaccine for children under five years old; it’s the first of the Big Three U.S. vaccine providers (Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson) to do so. A study involving more than 6,000 children from six months to six years old found, “levels of antibodies equivalent to what has protected older children and adults,” NPR reports. Moderna’s chief medical officer told NPR, “You're going to reduce your chances of getting disease by about a half.” It’s time! 

NOklahoma: This week the governor of Oklahoma signed a bill banning non-binary gender markers on birth certificates. And last month, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit over an executive order from the governor prohibiting transgender Oklahomans from correcting the gender on their birth certificates. SOMEHOW IT MANAGES TO GET WORSE, THOUGH! On Friday, the legislature passed a 6-week abortion ban. Usually, I have something pithy to add but the disdain for bodily autonomy in that state warrants no pith. Why are you like this, Oklahoma?

What in the men's rights: Johnny Depp has taken ex-wife Amber Heard to court for a 2018 Washington Post op-ed she wrote referencing her history of domestic violence. In an effort to restore his reputation, he is suing her for $50 million—alleging her account of abuse is “demonstrably false.” The proceedings have been gut-wrenching to watch, with prosecutors pouring over every nasty detail and expert testimony of Heard’s mental health. The details of this case paint a very complex picture of an abusive relationship—but the extent to which defending Depp has become a clarion call for men’s rights activists is also concerning. (“He could have killed you, he had every right,” said one TikTok reported by Vice.) Look, the guy sent texts saying he wished his wife's corpse was decomposing in a trunk. You're really going to stan Captain Jack Sparrow after that?

  AND:

• “What young Starbucks union organizers want you to know.”

• Rats continue to flee sinking ship but will they just scurry back when it's convenient?

• This should win an award for wild headline of the week: “Record Levels of Meth Have Been Found in New Zealand’s Wastewater.”

• Imagine getting served custody papers at work. It can apparently happen to anyone.

RATIOED

Even If You Don't Want It To, the Sale of Twitter Means Something

Elon Musk paid $45 billion for your bad tweets, but what’s he going to do with them?

BY SHAMIRA IBRAHIM

TO TWEET OR NOT TO TWEET, THAT IS THE QUESTION (PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RAFAEL HENRIQUE VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

Unless you were on one of Jeff Bezos’ field trips to the outer rim of space this week, by now you have likely heard of hair transplant enthusiast Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.  Depending on your level of activity within the bird app, it might be hard to understand why it really matters that Twitter will soon be under the stewardship of a South African Bond villain who seems to be creating an apartheid state of his own within at least one of his existing companies.

Perhaps you are more of an Instagram or TikTok person or were driven off by Donald Trump’s reign as the trending topic of the day for 5 years. Maybe you found yourself in the crosshairs of stan Twitter one day, as I once did, pleading my case amongst the BTS Army, and lost interest after that. Or maybe you logged in, saw #couchguy trending, and realized you were entirely too old for frenetically-paced social media conversation.

It is a conversation that is more critical than ever

But whoever you are, and however little you care, ownership of Twitter may have a direct impact on your life. First, due to years of inattention and unregulated deference to Silicon Valley, companies such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google have a disproportionate amount of influence and control over media, information, and data—both our consumption of it and our personal details.

Second, despite Twitter being an important tool for raising awareness, there is tremendous potential for harm on the platform. Consider #endfathersday—a fake campaign created by Twitter trolls impersonating Black feminists, with the goal of making Black women the target of harassment. Black feminists responded with the hashtag #YourSlipIsShowing, but the damage was done. Or the misogynist hate campaign, #GamerGate, in 2014-2015 which used creative freedom as an excuse to viciously target women on multiple social media platforms, and which helped feed the rise of the online right.

Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist” who defines free speech with elementary maxims like “someone you don’t like [is] allowed to say something you don’t like,” is probably not inclined to reconcile with any nuance how “free speech” could also lead to targeted harm of marginalized communities and genders.

THIS MAN IS REALLY IN CHARGE OF THINGS (SCREENSHOT VIA TWITTER)

And the legal impetus isn’t there to hold these companies accountable, either. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have testified before Congress on the future of existing laws such as Section 230, which protects free speech and online platforms from the liability of user content. It’s a complicated relationship–the same “free speech” protections that ostensibly allowed dialogue on the internet to flourish are now allowing these platforms to function as proxy news providers but without the editorial standards. Ultimately, Section 230 shields large platforms from taking accountability for the harm caused by misinformation and abusive campaigns.

It is a conversation that is more critical than ever, while the platform leaves many people open to harm, Twitter also empowers marginalized groups. In recent history alone, tweets in real-time prevented the plight of African immigrants in Ukraine from being pushed into obscurity in the nascent days of the ongoing conflict with Russia; mobilized national solidarity for ongoing unionization efforts for essential workers during the pandemic; and made visible the Black women working to eradicate the existing biases found in algorithms that make many social media platforms inherently anti-Black.

Reverting Twitter back to a privately owned company leaves many uneasy about their sense of safety and community on the platform. Will “Black Twitter” be given the same free rein to mobilize, entertain, mourn, and advocate as in years prior? Will conversations there be weaponized against demographics seeking safety and camaraderie—bucketing the entire usage history of everyone who has used a particular hashtag into a data extraction point, free to be solicited by a nefarious third party?

The legal impetus isn’t there to hold these companies accountable...

There’s also the question of what lengths Musk will go to earn back his investment. The easiest way for Musk to shore up revenue will be by revving up advertising or increasingly licensing data out to brokers. Given that Musk himself has used his cult of personality to influence cryptocurrency markets via social media with Dogecoin, selling demographic information–even if short-sighted–may hold high appeal. With even less regulatory oversight and monitoring from shareholders, there’s never been so much incentive to engage in surveillance capitalism.

This is the world we are facing: where billionaires can choose to control the flow of information by doubling down on a fabulist rendering of free speech.

But on today’s internet—free speech always comes with a price.

AN EARLY EID MUBARAK!

A Farewell to the Month of Ramadan

BY AYESHA JOHNSON

(FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) ANEESA AND AYESHA JOHNSON AT SHEIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE, ABU DHABI (PHOTO COURTESY OF AYESHA JOHNSON)

In just a few days, Ramadan will come to a close and nearly two billion Muslims worldwide will first chug several gallons of water, and then celebrate the holiday of Eid al-Fitr. At the start of this month, The Meteor’s Shannon Melero asked why this widely celebrated holiday is still so misunderstood—or even forgotten. And now, for the end of Ramadan, The Meteor’s Ayesha Johnson speaks with her sister Aneesa about community, work stress and the spiritual significance of the last 30 days.

Ayesha: Hey Neesee, how are you feeling? How’s the month been for you?

Aneesa: Even better than I expected. Ramadan is kind of bittersweet when it ends. The solidarity of all of us doing the same thing, together, for a shared purpose, it's very unique.

Ayesha: It’s very powerful. We're all feeling these hunger pains, we're all tired. A part of Ramadan that we’ve never really chatted about is how much it’s about community. Iftar [the sunset meal to break fast] is meant to be not just with your family, but also your community. This Ramadan, I’ve been mostly breaking my fast alone. But it’s such a different experience when you’re with other people. I’m curious, how has your understanding of Ramadan changed over the years?

Aneesa:  When you're a child, you're doing it mostly because everyone around you is, and it feels like the adult thing to do. I think probably at some point in high school, I started to look into things. That was the first Ramadan that I started going to Taraweeh prayer [voluntary supplemental night prayers], and that's when my perception started to change. Yeah, I'm not eating all day, but what’s the other aspect of it? I am also paying attention to how I speak to people, my patience, my anger, and what I'm absorbing. This Ramadan, I’m asking myself what habits do I want to build, to carry me through the next one? [Ramadan] always reminds me of how much I actually have—to pause on wanting more if for only a month.

Ayesha:  I remember fasting at work for the first time—I was so scared that I was going to mess up my paralegal job or do something wrong because of fasting. I was terrified that I’d be a little loopy. Now, I’m more confident in my skills and I think I’m also just more comfortable with myself—if I do mess up and it’s because I’m fasting, it’s not the end of the world.

Aneesa: The hunger is intense but there's also the humility. Yes, we're depriving ourselves of something, but for a lot of us, we know we have food in the fridge that we can use to break our fast at the end of the day. And there are so many people on this planet that don't have that…They don't have that security.

Ayesha: That's a part that I've also always appreciated as well—an appreciation of [the fact that there’s] a whole lot to be grateful for in life.

This was fun...I'll talk to you soon.

While you're sharing that it's gonna be May with your friends, remember to also share this newsletter! 

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Dear Meteor readers,

I hope last night was as good for you as it was for me.

OMG, I don’t mean like that.

Last night was incredible because the Meteor team gathered a small group of friends to attend the first installment of our global summit: 22 For ‘22: Visions for a Feminist Future.

Hosted by The Moment Symone D. Sanders—we listened to brave, courageous stories from activists, journalists and artists: Filmmaker Janicza Bravo talked to #metoo leader Tarana Burke about the power of owning your own story; Amandla Stenberg chatted with Raquel Willis about making space for trans and non-binary voices in our movements; the great Dolores Huerta in conversation with Chris Smalls—a historic meeting between two generations of labor leaders—brought the crowd to their feet. I am still buzzing.

We laughed. We wow’d. We cried. We hugged. You literally cannot miss this. Register ASAP for our May 9th event—where we’ll go live with these conversations and more!

In today's newsletter journalist Rainesford Stauffer considers how the “best of luck to you” attitude of the new masking guidance might feel eerily familiar to many of us.

But first, the news.

Xoxo,

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

WHAT'S GOING ON

• Blue bird billionaire: The richest man in the world has struck a deal with Twitter to acquire the company for $44 billion. Elon Musk’s potential rule set off protests across the platform and raises several questions about the future of the tech giant. If he, as he has suggested in the interest of “protecting free speech,” pulls back many of the safeguards that have made Twitter a slightly better user experience than some other platforms—especially if you are a woman or a person of color—it could very well once again become a cesspool of hate speech. Twitter, I wish I knew how to quit you.

• La loser: French President Emmanuel Macron has won his reelection bid against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen—but it was, for many, too close for comfort. While world leaders celebrate this victory of a more democratic France, it’s worth reading up on how a nationalistic, anti-immigrant candidate garnered so much support and what the global community must learn from her rise.
• Burnt to a crisp: A survey released this week found there is a “burnout epidemic” among women, and it’s pushing some out of their jobs. “Fifty-three percent of women reported stress levels higher than they were a year ago, with mental health lagging and work-life balance nearly nonexistent,” NBC reports. It’s like the second round of The Great Resignation, but with more crying and less mental stability. Come on, folks, it’s been two years already, and workers are still SCREAMING for some sort of sign their employers care about their sanity. *Taps mic* Is this thing on!?

  AND:

• Marjorie Taylor Greene’s texts to Mark Meadows during the Jan. 6th insurrection are a wild ride.

• You NEED to read this extensive report on one private equity firm’s abuse of hundreds of disabled people under the guise of providing them quality care.

• We are literally obsessed with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

• In Texas, Melissa Lucio has been granted a stay of execution. Lucio was convicted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, but new evidence and testimony have cast doubt on her guilt.

• The Anti-Defamation League said reports of antisemitic “assaults, vandalism and harassment” in 2021 are the highest it has ever seen on record.

• What if motherhood is the hero's journey?

—SM

MASK ON MASK OFF

“Toxic Individualism Is Just Classic Americana” 

The confusing and downright unclear mask mandates are a reminder of how little America cares for its most vulnerable

BY RAINESFORD STAUFFER

STUDENTS IN NEVADA PROTESTING THEIR CAMPUS'S MASK POLICY (PHOTO BY TY O'NEIL VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

Last week, a video raced around social media feeds: Airline passengers, upon hearing that the mask mandate for planes and public transit had been lifted mid-flight, were seen waving their masks and cheering as if they were crossing a finish line. Those who had booked their flights under the impression that passengers and crew would be masked were trapped with no escape, the cheers drowning out the concerns of those who didn’t want to risk contracting COVID. It was a viral version of a common pandemic theme: You’re on your own, good luck!

Un-American selfishness? Hardly. It’s “classic Americana,” says  Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Vice President of Programs and Strategy at Insight Center for Community Economic Development. “The end of the mask mandate on public transportation is a perfect example of how toxic individualism has a stronghold on American society,” she said.

There are examples of extreme individualism everywhere: Teachers are resorting to pooling their own leave to “donate” to colleagues who have been denied paid time off or run out of sick days; parents and caregivers exiting the paid workforce with little support at home to manage childcare and work; millennials and Gen Xers having to care for their children and their aging parents with little support; high costs of health care; and unbearable student debt. Young people are regularly told to go vote when they are upset about their lived conditions, even when that vote doesn’t necessarily make their material lives much better.

Even before the mask mandate was lifted, the government was failing disabled, chronically ill, and immunocompromised people, systemically devaluing their lives and refusing to address accessibility and safety concerns. Kathryn, a disabled mother who works full-time from home and is the parent of a seven-year-old, doesn’t have faith in their daughter’s school’s ventilation–their daughter brought COVID home during her first week of in-person school. “Children can't decide for themselves not to go to school,” Kathryn said. “We can't say that a child's ‘personal choice’ had much to do with it.”

THIS SIGN MAY AS WELL BE A FOSSIL (PHOTO BY JUSTIN SULLIVAN VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Most of Kathryn's concern has to do with their long history with Epstein–Barr virus, which, reactivated, could cause long COVID symptoms. Additional debilitating fatigue and brain fog would likely take them out of the workforce permanently. They see the lack of attention to COVID safety as just another example of not prioritizing disabled people–similar to the lack of seating in public places, a “strong signal that the community doesn't want me out in public,” they said. Kathryn has mobility challenges, but the “solutions,” like hauling their own chair, put the weight on personal choices and removes the impetus on systems to make changes.

That’s the highly American tendency toward “individualizing responsibility,” says Justin Feldman, a social epidemiologist and Health and Human Rights Fellow at Harvard University. That’s the academic term for reframing a collective problem as an individual one to deflect blame from the state or corporations—similar to the way the disposable packaging industry proposed personal recycling as a solution to waste.

“The end of the mask mandate on public transportation is a perfect example of how toxic individualism has a stronghold on American society”

But the truth is, our government officials have acted as if masks are a burden—and issued contradictory guidance about them.  For example, even the CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, called masks a “scarlet letter”; politicians have been unwilling to continue implementing mask mandates; the CDC reported that N95 and KN95 masks are best for avoiding infection, especially in indoor settings, then shortly after, announced it was safe for most Americans to go without masks in indoor settings (despite lack of mandates rendering those spaces inaccessible to wide swaths of people).

Masking being framed as an individual choice–as opposed to a collective effort–disproportionately harms people who are most marginalized by a society rooted in systemic racism and ableism: disabled and immunocompromised people, working-class people of color who are more likely to be in “frontline” jobs that require in-person work and commuting, older people and families with children under five–for whom there is no vaccine.

Some transit systems, including New York’s MTA and public transit and airports in Los Angeles County, are still requiring masks. As writer and public health researcher Abdullah Shihipar wrote for Slate, “one-way masking exists on a continuum of risk mitigation, with universal masking—using masks that filter well—being the best case.” Just as you can’t bootstrap your way out of a pandemic, you can’t wish it away in pursuit of personal freedom, either; the risks are still real.

That’s what Bhattacharya asks us: “What if we framed masking as a way to eliminate a virus that then gives us all collective freedom to live our lives without threat? This kind of thinking is not available to us within the confines of toxic individualism.”

JOIN US! 

Don't forget to register for what we're sure is going to be the most invigorating virtual event of Taurus season, 22 For '22: Visions for a Feminist Future presented by The Meteor and Gucci's CHIME FOR CHANGE!

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G’day Meteor readers,

Happy belated Earth Day! Or as environmentalists like to call it, the one day a year that everyone collectively considers their impact on the environment even though the Earth tells us she has had enough of our nonsense literally every day.

Like everyone else worried about impeding climate doom, I dream of converting to a minimalist off-the-grid lifestyle every time Earth Day rolls around. But there’s a reason I’m a writer and not a survivalist tilling my own vegetable farm in the mountains like some of my relatives. Anywho! Thank heavens for these folks who are walking the walk and talking the talk for the planet.

In today’s newsletter reporter Esther Wang talks to labor journalist and Teen Vogue columnist Kim Kelly about her new book, Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor. They cover the hope springing from the current labor movement—along with what we can learn from the labor leaders of yore, namely the Black, brown, and Indigenous women who did all the dirty work and never got the Norma Rae treatment.

But first, let’s cruise through some news.

—Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

• A small Kentucky victory: Earlier this month Kentucy passed HB3, an anti-abortion bill that forced the only two providers in the entire state to shut down. On Thursday, a federal judge granted one of those providers a temporary restraining order on the law, pointing out that it “took effect immediately with no opportunity for clinics to comply.” The good news is that this ruling means the law cannot be enforced for the next 14 days. The bad news is that the Kentucky courts have yet to rule on what happens after that. This is the Kentucky state legislature’s last chance to be on the right side of history or else we will have to ask them to sashay away.
• Derechos de los discapacidadxs: This week, SCOTUS upheld a ruling that will allow the U.S. to exclude American citizens living in Puerto Rico from a Supplemental Security Income program for disabled people. This decision comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by Jose Luis Vaello Madero, a Puerto Rican-born New Yorker who received  SSI payments after becoming disabled. Not long after Madero returned to Puerto Rico the Social Security Administration sued him for the $28,000 he had received over four years. Two lower courts ruled in his favor, but SCOTUS reversed the rulings almost unanimously. The lone dissenter was Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
• Nassar aftermath: Thirteen women who were abused by Michigan State and USAG team doctor Larry Nassar are threatening to sue the FBI for $130 million. The women claim that the Bureau failed to fully investigate claims they were made aware of back in 2015. (Despite several local authorities having the accusations on file, Nassar continued to work as a sports doctor with young gymnasts for another 17 months.) According to ESPN, the women have to give the FBI six months to respond to their claim before they can fully sue. But if you ask me, these women have waited long enough for someone to take responsibility for this atrocity.

• More mask mayhem: The Department of Justice says it’s definitely appealing Monday’s court ruling striking down the mask mandate on public transportation, but the situation remains confusing: The DOJ’s appeal would simply allow the mandate to stay active until May 3, as originally intended; after that, federal courts could still appeal the mask rule. For now, the mandate is (mostly) in effect. What I want to know is who is really in charge here and can I speak to their manager?

AND:

• Et tu, Bill Murray?

• The Obamas are peacing out on their podcast deal with Spotify.

• NeNe Leakes is suing Bravo for encouraging racism. I want to be shocked by this but, as an avid Bravo watcher, it was only a matter of time. I mean, for Christ’s sake nearly all of their big shows are entirely segregated.

• Zendaya talking about Tom Holland’s love and support makes me feel loved and supported.

• Something for my fellow history enthusiasts: there’s a heated ongoing struggle between James Madison’s plantation and the descendants of the people who were enslaved there.

• “Remember when Earth Day used to be cool?”

• Footage reveals that during an unprompted raid on the Al-Aqsa mosque, Israeli Special Forces targeted journalists as well as civilians.

HISTORY LESSON

The Rest of the Story Behind America’s Labor Movement

A new book looks to ensure women's place in union history is undisputed 

BY ESTHER WANG

KIM KELLY STUNTIN' ON THESE UNION HATING CORPORATIONS. (PHOTO BY ELIZABETH KRIETSCHMAN)

Labor journalist Kim Kelly’s new book, Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, comes at the perfect time, as enthusiasm for labor unions is at the highest point in decades, and workers from Amazon warehouses to Starbucks stores are demanding more—better pay, dignity on the job, and a say in their workplace. Her book goes beyond the simplified history we’re exposed to in textbooks (and that’s if we’re lucky) to tell a fuller, and therefore more true, story of the labor movement, as well as our country. Her message? “This is your history, too,” Kelly said. “And it’s also our future.”

Esther Wang: You started off your book by acknowledging the enormous debt the labor movement owes to women—immigrant women from countries all over the world, Black women, and queer and trans women. Why did it feel necessary and important to tell those stories?

Kim Kelly: I wanted to focus specifically on women just because we're so often left out of the equation when it comes to writing about labor and labor history and the idea of the working class and what a worker looks like in this country. There's this enduring avatar of the working class in this country that is the straight white guy and a hard hat. And he belongs here, he's done a lot of great work, too. My dad is that guy. But if you look at the actual composition of the labor movement, the most common face of a union member in this country is a Black woman who probably works in home health care or domestic work. It's not even a shift—it's kind of always been like that.

You include the stories of labor activists like Dorothy Bolden, Rosa Flores, and Ella May Wiggins. What would it mean for all of us if we looked to those women as labor leaders from the past? 

I think it would reframe a lot of the perceptions of what organized labor and collective power look like. Dorothy Lee Bolden started working as a domestic worker when she was nine years old. She's visually impaired. She grew up in the forties and fifties in the South as a Black woman. So she had every possible disadvantage, but she managed to overcome those obstacles that were unfairly thrown her way. She made history in a way that was so incredible, the way that she organized and worked and advocated for domestic workers [as the founder of the National Domestic Workers Union of America].  At its height, it had about 10,000 members. They organized to win fair wages and to professionalize household work. They were people that were seen as unorganizable. And they're like, well, we'll just organize ourselves.

Ella May Wiggins, who died on the picket line, who was this balladeer who was the heart and soul of a strike down in Gastonia, she's another Joe Hill. She's another Billy Bragg. Rosa Flores was this 18-year-old woman who ended up being the face of an entire massive strike for being this militant presence, for seeing what the world offered her as a young Chicana woman and was like, well, that's not good enough.

That is the kind of energy that we need to be bringing to the labor movement. That's the kind of energy that it always had, but it's been buried under white patriarchal bullshit.

You make it so clear and so apparent that labor issues, workers’ rights, and the fight for a union are intertwined with so many other issues—Black liberation, immigrant rights, feminist battles, disability rights. They’re not silos. 

One of the greatest truths that we have found to be evident over and over and over again throughout the history of labor and work in this country is that solidarity between workers is the greatest weapon that we have. And solidarity means obviously standing up for people that are on your side, but also people that maybe don't look like you or talk like you or come from the same background, but are also dealing with the ravages of capital, dealing with bad bosses, dealing with mistreatment.

I think every story is a labor story because wherever you're coming from, wherever you're going, whoever you are, you've probably either had a job or you have a job now, or you're going to have a job. And that common ground really is a uniting force.

There’s so much momentum and energy in labor right now, stemming from the successful Amazon unionization drive, the workers organizing Starbucks, the mining families on strike that you've been following for more than a year in Alabama at Warrior Met Coal. How are you thinking about what's happening?

History is being made right now, from Amazon to Starbucks, to Appalachian coal mines, and in North Hollywood strip clubs. There's momentum. And I think it's just been very inspiring for folks that maybe for a long time thought there wasn't any hope, or maybe thought that there wasn't any room for them in the labor movement. To go back to Amazon and Starbucks, those movements have been led predominantly by Black workers and workers of color, young queer workers, a lot of women, nonbinary people—the exact workers that common wisdom or whatever has told us are not organizable. They are organizing, and they're winning.

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Dear Meteor readers,

Welcome to the 4/20 issue! (Which you might be receiving at 4:20 PM, and yes, we do want a cookie for that.) Today we’re talking all things weed—or pot or reefer or cheeba or grass or ganja—whatever you call it. Specifically, we're talking to some of the women making the marijuana industry more accessible and raising awareness of how weed works in our bodies. Did you know estrogen levels can affect your reaction to THC? We didn’t. I guess you could say we are fans.

But before we do that, today’s news…

—Samhita Mukhopadhyay

WHAT'S GOING ON

• Mask Off: You know that scene from Euphoria of Fez and Cal Jacobs saying that they’re confused? That’s all of us right now trying to figure out what’s happening with mask mandates. On Monday Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle (of Florida, of course) decided to throw the CDC directive out the emergency exit windows—leading to several airlines chaotically announcing mid-flight that passengers can unmask. (Tell us you don’t give a fig about children or immunocompromised passengers without telling us you don’t give a fig.) The Biden administration is considering appealing the ruling but only if the CDC says there’s a reason to do so. Obviously, we've entered the sounds like a you problem era of this pandemic.

• Ongoing in Afghanistan: On Tuesday, two explosives were detonated outside of a school in Kabul, killing at least six and injuring more. According to the Washington Post, many of the victims were teenage boys who were students at the school. So far, it’s unknown who carried out the attack but one student who was injured said of the attackers, “[They don’t] want people in our community to be educated. They want us to give up hope. But I want to go back, as soon as I can walk.”

• Wimbledon’t: The performative cancellation of all things Russian persists. Wimbledon announced that Russian and Belarusian tennis players are banned from competing in the tournament this year and will also be banned from all “UK grass-court tournaments” this tennis season. How does this help the Ukrainian effort to liberate themselves from the deadly campaign to seize their country? Y'all tell me. It also doesn't function as a punishment for the Russian government in the way that soft-banning the country from the Olympics did for the Winter Games since the top two Russian and Belarusian players in the world are not state-sponsored athletes.

AND:

• Efforts to get Marjorie Taylor Greene off the ballot in North Carolina are underway on the grounds that she had a role in the insurrection. Though somehow not on the grounds that she once threatened violence against her co-workers.
  
• Brittney Griner's teammates are thinking of her as pre-season gets underway.
  
• More women in clean energy. Yes, please!  

—Shannon

FREE THE TREE

Marijuana Is For Everyone

One woman's very personal fight to make cannabis more inclusive 

BY SAMHITA MUKHOPADHYAY

GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GIRLS LOVE WEED (PHOTO COURTESY OF MARY PRYOR)

Cannabis has always played a part in American culture. But while some young people had the freedom to experiment with it, for Black and brown people it was demonized and regulated to the full extent of the law. That's continued despite the steady normalization of cannabis use; in a study from 2010 to 2018, the ACLU found that more than 6 million people were arrested for marijuana possession, with Black people arrested at higher rates than others, even in states where it is legalized.

So it's worth asking: Who will benefit most from this burgeoning industry? There are already efforts underway to democratize the distribution of licenses; for example, in March, it was announced that in New York State, the first 100 retail licenses would go to people that had prior marijuana convictions. But the cannabis industry is still male-dominated, so I was excited to sit down with Mary Pryor, the founder of Cannaclusive, an organization aimed at holding cannabis businesses accountable for their diversity commitments.

Samhita Mukhopadhyay: So, you have a very diverse career—you've worked in advertising, music, and tech. What got you interested in the cannabis industry?

Mary Pryor: I grew up a caretaker. My mom had multiple sclerosis and lupus. My grandmother had really, really severe arthritis. Around 2012, I got hit with what I did not know at the time was my first Crohn's flare. I was in [and out of] the hospital, and people were like, "We don't understand what's going on. Is it blood cancer? Is it ovarian cancer?" Nobody had a clue. In February of 2013, I fell into a coma, and I was put into ICU. They figured out that I had Crohn's.

I was miserable. I was on up to 20 medications a day. I was 119 pounds. For most of 2013, I didn't leave my house. I couldn't keep things down. A lot of medicines [for Crohn’s] are meant to either numb the pain of the issue, mask the issue, or stop your body from attacking itself, which may or may not solve the problem. Around 2014, and 2015, I started traveling out to Denver, Colorado, which was the second state [to make cannabis] legal. I’d had friends send me cannabis studies, focusing on people with ulcerative colitis, IBS, IBD, and Crohn’s. And in Colorado, I could get suppositories, and I could get sprays. And it allowed me to be able to get up and not be in pain, be able to eat, and be able to actually function.

But you felt conflicted about cannabis…

As a Black woman, the things I grew up with were seeing drug addiction, which took away my father, and seeing the war on drugs, which has beat the asses of Black and Brown people and is still winning. And the propaganda behind the war on drugs and the propaganda [against] the plant really was a targeted campaign against melanated people in the US.

And I literally was like, I need this to survive because without it I'm fucked. So, I wanted to raise awareness of the medicinal benefits, the need for affordability (which is key for businesses to thrive) and relaying this information in a digestible way.

So you founded Cannaclusive…

I needed people to be in this industry that look like me. So, I started screaming like Chicken Little like, "Yo, if you want to own a business, this game is different than what you know. People need to get in here." And so Cannaclusive was co-founded by myself and Tonya Rapley and Charlese Antoinette Jones. We are now a team of 13. And as of last week, I am now one of [only 50] current license holders to grow cannabis in New York State.

The predatory nature of this business mostly targets women. And as someone who has unfortunately been in that position—where I've had to learn hard mistakes from people that have taken advantage of me—[I want to create] successful ways to build while you climb. Melanated people need to work together.

And, there are a lot of ways to utilize the benefits of cannabis outside of smoking weed or CBD. The reality is that this is a plant that has a feminized origin. Only feminized [marijuana] seeds give birth to anything, period. And the recognition of the wellness that it provides for our bodies does need to be first and foremost.

What advice do you have for young women who are interested in the space?

I'll say right now, ancillary businesses are a way less risky way to go about being in the space than growing cannabis. There is a value behind licensing, but it's a lot of hard work. Two: capital is a need—and if you're able to raise that, awesome. But if you're not able to, there are great resources out there (like Our Academy). Three, the self-investment piece is key. So if you need to go to conferences to figure out what's happening in the space, do it. Four, there's nothing wrong with wanting a job [in the industry] instead of being an entrepreneur. And five, understand the policies. Every state is different. And federally, cannabis is still illegal and placed as a schedule 1 drug. What’s allowable in one place may not be the same in other places, so make sure you understand all the regulations.

Learn more about women and people of color in the growing cannabis industry here.

THE DOCTOR IS IN

A Little Enlightenment Before You Next Light Up

BY SHANNON MELERO

Between CBD and THC, there are as many strands of cannabis as there are Kardashian offspring. So it’s no wonder that first-timers or even seasoned smokers can get a little confused when attempting to create a marijuana-as-medicine routine. At the height of the pandemic, I was smoking anything remotely green to keep my panic attacks at bay, and to no one’s surprise, it only worked half of the time. I was inconsistent, switching between different products, and didn’t bother consulting a doctor because YOLO, right?

But now that more folks are puffing and states are passing laws to allow for recreational use, it’s time to be more of a Serious Weed Consumer. So I asked integrative cannabis physician and co-author of Cannabis for CBD and Health and Wellness Dr. June Chin for some guidance on getting started on the ganga as safely as possible.

Here are the best hits (weed humor) from our conversation.

• “Because of the hormone estrogen, women are more sensitive to the effects of THC. But unfortunately, many women do not know this, so they think the cannabis is too strong or they are having a bad reaction. This sensitivity, however, can give cannabis significant pain-relieving effects.”
• That said, Dr. Chin notes, “While women may be more sensitive to the herb, they also develop more tolerance to THC than men.”(So tell all your guy friends that you can smoke them under the table any day.)
• Did you know that your menstrual cycle can influence your high? Researchers at Washington State University found that women experience the most effects of THC when estrogen has peaked and is beginning to fall.
• Looking to give pot a try? Dr. Chin advises, “Look for clear labeling, lab tested (COA - Certificate of Analysis), dosing on the bottle, stability, extraction methods, tests for solvents, pesticides, heavy metals, fillers.” Remember that cannabis is not regulated by the FDA so this information isn't always clearly stated. If you can't remember everything you're supposed to look for on the hunt for medicinal marijuana here's a helpful phrase to keep in mind: no COA no blow-a.

Please consider puff puff passing this newsletter to a friend or two. 

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Hey Meteor friends,

Happy Easter and Passover to those celebrating this weekend!

Easter was a huge deal when I was a kid, and as a teen, I attended a church that took it so seriously, we cast a live snake as Satan in the Easter play one year. She was a real diva.

But most of all, Easter reminds me of my mother.  My mom's voice is exceptional, and the weeks leading up to Easter were always marked by sitting in my mom's show rehearsals listening to her belt out, harmonize, and perfect various gospel songs. Listening to her sing always made me feel like I was a part of something special.

I'd almost forgotten that sensation until earlier this week when I listened to the most recent episode of UNDISTRACTED. Brittany Packnett Cunningham and her husband, Reginald, talk about their son, Baby M, who came into the world after only 24 weeks of gestation and spent the start of his life in the NICU. While they were unable to make physical contact with their newborn, Brittany found another way to connect—she sang to her baby.

“I just wanted him to feel safe,” she said. “And I wanted him to know that he was held, and I wanted him to know that he is loved.”

I was beside myself. Brittany's singing brought me back to all the times my mom's voice gave me a sense of certainty and even a sense of identity. Before I was anyone, I was lucky enough to be Cindy's daughter.

And congratulations to the Packnett Cunninghams. We’re so happy Baby M is home safe and sound for his first Easter season.

Today's newsletter is a musical lovefest: Culture writer Shamira Ibrahim talks to prolific music critic, journalist, and podcast host Danyel Smith about her latest book Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop.

Sing on,

Shannon Melero

IT'S MS. ROSS TO YOU 

The Real Story of Black Women in Pop

Author Danyel Smith is on a mission to give these legends their roses

BY SHAMIRA IBRAHIM

DANYEL SMITH (PHOTO BY DREW ALLYN)

It’s impossible to discuss the last 25 years of  Black popular music criticism without invoking the name Danyel Smith—the first woman to serve as Vibe magazine’s editor in chief. Between her career as a writer, helping capture and document the musical soundscapes that reflect different facets of Black life, to her personal journey, anchored by the ebbs and flows of Black popular culture—Smith’s frame of reference is deeply informed by an innate understanding of the transformative power of music history and its integral role in the definition of cultural identity and belonging. Now, with Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop,  Smith expertly places herself in the canon of Black writers and de facto archivists such as Greg Tate, Cheryl Wall, and Saidiya Hartman. It’s part history, part memoir, and along the way, it also reclaims Black women’s rightful place in pop music.

Shamira Ibrahim: One thing I've always liked about your writing is the way you make these intricate connections. You start with connecting “Queen of Disco” Donna Summer to the 18th-century poet Phyllis Wheatley. How have you honed the ability to draw these connections for people who may not immediately see the through-lines that go from antebellum slavery through generations of pop music?

Danyel Smith: I appreciate the close attention to the text—that always matters to me very much. At this point in my career, it's just the way I think, and frankly, I decided to stop fighting it. I have training as a journalist – years of on-the-job training, some training from school, some me training myself, and a lot of that has to do with getting things right. Getting the dates right, getting the moments right, getting the details right. For me, a big part of my work is resisting summary; I feel like so often, Black women's lives are written about in summary. It is a privilege to have the time, honestly, to just actually think.

I really do adore and admire and often engage with Phyllis Wheatley and her work; the same for Donna Summer. I don't know that I thought about them both being Boston girls until I was getting close to maybe the midpoint of this book. You’re just writing Boston a million times, and you're checking your spelling of Massachusetts a million times, and something shakes out; you hear the Boston inflection again in Donna Summers’ voice. It came to me because I had time to think and then had the confidence to stop fighting that negative voice in my head that says, “does that really matter?”

Not only do you interrogate commonly held narratives in white contemporary thought around Black pop culture, you also work to reconcile narratives within Black cultural thought. Particularly, the section around Elvis, where you tease out that it might be a little bit more complicated than people realize; there were Black fans of Elvis. What prompted you to want to interrogate it in that way?

I didn't think it was truthful of me to write a whole book about Black women in pop and not write about my mother's love for Elvis, my enjoyment of Elvis, and my great grandmother's enjoyment. And [of] Johnny Cash, who comes from the Black gospel tradition. How was I going to write a book about myself and Black women in pop without addressing that? [Or] the way that Elvis slipped into Blackness to save himself after falling upon hard professional times.

But I'm on a constant mission to try to find a way to get Black women in music the credit that they are due. I think the Sweet Inspirations, led by Cissy Houston–Whitney  Houston's mother–have had more impact on rock, pop, soul, and R&B than they're ever going to be given credit for. I really tried to back that up with example upon example, especially with “Brown Eyed Girl” [the Van Morrison track on which the Sweet Inspirations sang the famed chorus]. 

And I want Cissy and her cohorts to be known—I don't like it when Black women are called upon to save white men and not receive the credit for it. It had to be spoken upon, though, because it's not enough for me to just say, ‘I don't like it, I think it's a mess, Elvis is so racist, etc.’ I refuse to participate in making our work and our fanship, and our music simple.

A question I have is about contemporary times—you make a cogent argument that “there's a laziness” in positing that crossover success is somehow devaluing Black work as cheesy or selling out. Now that we’re seeing more women in rap, there's been increased attention to the ability for women to crossover into pop success. Do you still see that judgment today? 

Do I think that people are saying that  Black girls’ rap is less than good rap because it's popular amongst the whites? Well, that's convenient, isn't it? Pop is the people's choice. [In the 1980s and '90s] Pop became a bad word when Black artists like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Lionel Richie began to take it over. If we have people like Nicki Minaj and Cardi B winning and owning the top of the charts and then all of a sudden pop is again being referred to as less than, I would ask where that energy was when people like The Weeknd–who does beautiful work–was sitting at the top of the charts. Was there a lot of talk then? What about Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak? Is there talk there about how they’re selling out, or is it just that they're making great, popular, and critically acclaimed music? I don’t know why that same grace isn't extended to Nicki Minaj and Cardi B and their cohort.

A section that stuck out was about Diana Ross and the rumors of her being a “diva,” in part because she asked to be called Ms. Ross. That also persisted with Lauryn Hill for a very long time when she broke out solo from the Fugees–“she must only be addressed by Ms. Hill.” Now it's part of [Ross’s] Instagram bio, and the idea of a diva is something that is embraced as part of the formation of a pop icon.

It’s so difficult for people to just hold Black women in esteem. Black women are on a continuous journey of trying to make it clear – I am who I am, and I said what I said – and the naming thing is a big part of it. I hate to take everything back to slavery and reconstruction, but Black women were rarely, if ever, called by their true honorific. They were called whatever anybody felt like calling them. My grandmother's name is Lottie. A lot of times, people just called somebody Lottie, and they would call the next Black woman Lottie again. A lot of times, people just call people Auntie. White people just called every Black woman over a certain age Auntie. Hey, Auntie, bring me a lemonade. 

So pardon me If Diana Ross wants to be called Ms. Ross. Pardon me if Lauryn Hill wants to be called Ms. Hill.  I understand why people are resistant to it. But it's time to stop. Hip-hop is problematic in a lot of ways, but it is wonderful in that it was a big huge renaming. I'm Dana Owens, but I am Queen Latifah. I am Nicki Minaj, I am Cardi B, I am Yo-Yo, I am J.J. Fad, I am Doja, I am whomever.

I find it preposterous that people are offended by that, but I know what it is. It's because it's a Black woman claiming herself.

Do you have any guidance for people who have a passion for music but want to also have a more studied perspective on it? 

Listen without fear, and listen widely. Don't try to listen to it with your whole intellect but with your body and soul. Ask your older relatives–because they have them, believe me–for their back issues of Vibe, Ebony, Essence. Get your fingers dirty and read. Read about what was said about the music in the time that the music was actually being listened to.

In my early days of writing about rap, I literally would stop talking to people about it because I always felt like it was some kind of knowledge contest. I like to know obscure things; I think Shine Bright is a collection of obscure things. [But] I'm not into it for like the contest of I know that Gladys Knight's “Midnight Train to Georgia” came out in 1973 on Buddha records, and not, in fact, Motown like people think. I just want to talk about music, and I want to see other people talking about music. When you're with your friends at brunch or whatever, and you're talking about music, just treasure that. That, to me, is the thing that makes life wonderful.

In the mood to jam? Well then check out this playlist curated by Danyel Smith and don't forget to pass along the good grooves (and this newsletter) to a friend!  

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