Be the Chappell Roan of Your Own Life
  August 27, 2024 Greetings, Meteor readers, Inexplicably, we are in the final week of August, and on my drive this morning, I saw children in school uniforms making their way up the street. Why does it feel like autumn is creeping up on me like the villain in an M. Night Shyamalan film? In today’s newsletter, we’re sipping some coffee and reflecting on Chappell Roan’s reminder about workplace boundaries. Plus frightening updates out of Afghanistan, and how anti-trans legislators are also killing period poverty bills. No attachments, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONBoundaries: Last week, Chappell Roan hit the internet like rompompapom with a simple request: “Please stop touching me. Please stop being weird to my family and friends.” The ask was part of a longer statement Roan released on Instagram laying out her personal boundaries, making it very clear that when she’s not at work, she is fully clocked out and doesn’t want to be harassed by “superfans” or touched in public. “There is a part of myself that is just for me, and I don’t want that taken away from me.” And as is the case when a woman in public dares to establish a boundary, it was not well received by some. Disgruntled fans posted response videos online (Roan wisely turned off commenting on the original post) and wrote things like, “We made you” and “It’s the cost of being famous.”  THE FACE OF A WOMAN WHO WILL NOT BE BOTHERED. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) But Roan hits on the larger, darker problem behind the abusive “superfan” behavior that we’ve come to accept as a part of the fame package. There are numerous documentaries about famous people who were sexualized, stalked, harassed, and in some cases attacked by people who professed to be true fans and as we collectively look at those stories in hindsight, it’s easy to say, wow someone should have done something back then. What Roan is telling us in her post is that this is the “back then” moment where something can be done so that a decade from now, we’re not watching the documentary that explains how her career ruined her life. Her pushback against always-on expectations also reflects a social shift that even those of us without fans are feeling. A new report found that workers between the ages of 25-34 are taking 29 percent more sick days than their older colleagues. “People are missing work because they're overwhelmed or burned out, or they just need a day to reset,” researchers found. And when they are at work, more and more people are taking their cut-off times seriously. Just yesterday in Australia a law went into effect designed to protect employees who “refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working hours.” Unsurprisingly, no such law exists in the U.S. (although an attempt is being made in San Francisco), which explains why even after a global pandemic changed the way we look at work, we’re still trying to figure out how to look at boundaries. So let this be your friendly reminder that you can be the Chappell Roan of your own life and tell your boss that super graphic ultra modern girls need to be fully clocked out after hours. AND:
 SCREENSHOT VIA GENERAL MILLS
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What We Learned at the DNC
  August 22, 2024 Greetings, Meteor readers, I’ve been near tears all week and it’s not just because of this guy. But it’s college move-in week for lots of youngsters, including the eldest Gen-Zer in my family, and for anyone else out there trying not to weep in the doorway of a dorm room, we send hugs. In today’s newsletter, we’re looking at another reason you might be tearing up: the emotion on display at the Democratic National Convention—heading into its final night tonight and a Big Speech from the candidate. Also, an alarming new study about LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, and, of course, your weekend reading list. Congrats to all the new freshmen, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONWhat we saw at the DNC: The final night of the Democratic National Convention is upon us, and it’s been a rousing few days. There was Michelle Obama temporarily abandoning “we go high” to dunk on Trump the way only Michelle Obama can: “Who’s gonna tell him the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?” There was the queen of the mic Oprah Winfrey reminding us that when a house is on fire, we try to save everyone—and if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, we try to get the cat out, too.” And there was Tim Walz stepping up to be America’s Ted Lasso, using what writer Jessica Bennett calls his “jock insurance” to show a warmer side of political manhood. Basically, the Party has never felt so in step with the actual people (sort of; we’ll get to that in a second). As incredible as the energy was on the main stage, it felt doubly charged at The Meteor and Emerge’s Power Lounge, where we heard from brilliant women, men, and non-binary people about the issues they care about. Deja Foxx and other Gen Z political players highlighted the economy as a Gen-Z issue; we hung out with Wonder Woman; we got inside the “White Dudes for Harris” movement; and, in what was really a breathtaking moment, several of the fierce and determined women who have testified about their experiences under abortion bans came together onstage to tell Busy Philipps why this issue matters so much. Of course, the Harris candidacy was a prime topic. As San Francisco Mayor London Breed said, in reference to the media’s usual handwringing about whether America is ready for a Black woman president, “They’re not ready? They better get ready.” One of the most powerful moments of the talk series came during a conversation with Rep. Jasmine Crockett. “We have to win this election because there is danger lurking around the corner,” she said. “I don’t think people should be convinced their freedoms can’t be cut. So if you think that you’re safe, I promise you, you are not. This isn’t about whether you agree with abortion or not. This is about whether you think we should live in the land of the free.” You can view all of the Power Lounge panels here, but we highly suggest starting with the video below.  However, while the goal of the DNC was inclusion, not quite everyone got an invite to the main stage. Missing from the grand narrative of the DNC’s success have been Palestinian voices. While protests continue inside and outside the convention center, with activists and delegates applying pressure on the Democratic party to put their full force behind an “immediate and permanent” ceasefire, on-stage speakers have either chosen silence or shared vague statements about ceasefires. Meanwhile, the Uncommitted Movement spent the week making their presence felt and spoke to whoever was willing to listen, including our favorite OB-GYN, Dr. Heather Irobunda. That issue won’t be going away any time soon: Once the confetti is swept away and the celebrities, speakers, and delegates go their own way, the Harris campaign will still have to, as Rep. Crockett said on her panel, “connect with people on a deeper level.” They will still have to show voters that all of this hope and enthusiasm will convert to action and a presidency that reflects the needs of all Americans. And that would be truly historic. AND:
 THIS MAN JUST WANTS TO GO HOME TO HIS DUNKIES AND CIGARETTES.  WEEKEND READING 📚On 📠: Who fact-checks the fact-checkers? (Popular Information) Sobre El Amor es Ciego: Netflix recently wrapped up its first season of Love Is Blind: Mexico which, like its American predecessor, had a little bit of everything, including unabashed colorism. (De Los) On a good tax: What could a carbon tax do for the economy? For starters, it could fund universal basic income. (Atmos)  FOLLOW THE METEOR     Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Subscribe using their share code or sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays. |
The Real Stars of the DNC
  August 20, 2024 Greetings, Meteor readers, I hope you’ve recovered and hydrated and are ready to take on night two of the Democratic National Convention (I am neither of those things, be better than me). Obviously, we are digging into night one in today’s letter, but as usual, we are asking the real question other outlets seem to be ignoring: What time is Beyoncé getting there? Also in today’s newsletter, the world outside the DNC, including some head-scratching sports news and a moment of trans joy in Colombia. I hope she plays Single (cat) Ladies, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ON VIA GETTY IMAGES WHAT'S GOING ONThe Real Stars of the DNC: It was opening night in Chicago last night, with celebrities, advocates, and politicians coming together to rally behind Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris herself spoke briefly at the top (and then beamed and hugged for the rest of the evening), but we found ourselves perhaps uncharacteristically choked up by the touching sunrise/sunset moment between President Biden and the woman he may soon be calling Madame President. Biden’s speech was an important and much-needed unifying moment for the Democrats, who still have their work cut out for them in swaying the uncommitted vote and inspiring voter turnout, especially in swing states. But if we’re being entirely frank, it was just kind of nice to see a white guy admit to being not quite perfect for the job anymore. “I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you for 50 years,” he said. We love a vulnerable moment. But it wasn’t all Joe and Kamala; the night was made truly special by the extent to which abortion was unapologetically front and center (even Biden himself said it). Most significantly, Amanda Zurawski, Katilyn Joshua, and Hadley Duvall all shared their stories: Zurawski and Joshua of being denied abortion care under Dobbs, and Duvall of her own pre-Dobbs abortion after having been raped by her stepfather at age 12 (an abortion, she notes, that young victims today might be denied). As our friends at The 19th note, this is the first post-Roe DNC and abortion is no longer a hush-hush issue. It’s an election winner, and the DNC programmed it as such. There was another interesting thing happening last night: Perhaps inspired bythe Republican party’s attempt to be the party of the working man, Democrats embraced working-family policies and people, and put them on the stage. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the poster child of working-class Democrats, gave a rousing speech about Harris’ dedication to workers, as compared to Trump’s love of union-busting. (Before her, UAW president Shawn Fain had the whole crowd chanting “Trump’s a scab!”) AOC was her usual electrifying self and even made mention of Harris’s work towards solidifying a ceasefire. All in all, as they say in job reviews, it feels as if the Democrats have heard the feedback and taken some productive and necessary steps. They’re operating with an invigorated sense of urgency and what at least looks like a real embrace of what changes Americans want to see. Let’s hope they keep their foot on the gas. And in case you forgot, The Meteor is at the DNC this week, at the Power Lounge at McCormick Place, in partnership with Emerge. You can get all the details and find out how to watch the livestream starting tomorrow morning here. AND:
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A Visual Celebration of Muslim Women Athletes
Because their wins matter as much as their challenges
BY EMAN MOHAMMED AND SHANNON MELERO
As the fanfare of the 2024 Olympics winds down and athletes make their way back from Paris, we all settle into reality. No more marathon rugby matches, no more Snoop Dogg talking about horses, and no more eyes of the world peering at France and discussing the country’s Islamophobic ban on French competitors wearing hijab.
But for hijabi athletes and Muslims the world over, this is not a once-every-four-years conversation, it’s everyday life. There are an estimated three million Muslim people living in France, for instance, and the country’s total ban on headscarves in “secular”—including but not limited to athletic—settings is a reminder of the limited space that Muslim women are allowed to occupy in sports.
And yet, they are there, not on the edges as inspirational stories of marginalized people beating the odds, but in the center. In the gym, on the track, in the weight room. Competitors, athletes, whole beings who only come to our notice when the global spotlight points at them, as when fencer Ibtihaj Mohammed won big in the 2016 Olympics. “But there’s more than just Ibtihaj out there,” Eman Mohammed says. Eman is a Palestinian photojournalist who has spent the last two years traveling the U.S. on and off to photograph Muslim women athletes in their day to day lives.
Mohammed’s work captures the joy and tenacity of these sportswomen. “It’s uncanny that those who often speak at length about the oppression of Muslim women are not as quick to celebrate their accomplishments and victories in the sports arena,” she notes. “True advocacy for Muslim women athletes means recognizing and celebrating their successes with the same vigor with which we discuss their obstacles.”
Her collection of photos, a gorgeous and caring glimpse into the lives of women training to be the best in their field, is a moving reminder of what we miss when we fail to look beyond what someone does (or doesn’t) wear on their head.
Aya Elsekhely - Track and Field
Aya Elsekhely grew up in predominantly white Clark Township NJ. "Running reaffirms my strength and place in this world," she says. A track athlete in college, where she ran the 400 meter hurdles, 800 meter, and the heptathlon, Elsekhely had a baby eighteen months ago. She’s now returned to marathon running.
Noor Kabbani - Powerlifting
Noor Kabbani is a competitive powerlifter and a boxing coach in Virginia. Kabbani’s journey in powerlifting turned professional during the pandemic, where she competed in statewide competitions and ranked among the top ten competitors. Noor says she plans to continue competing in weightlifting until she’s 70 and is working toward qualifying for world competitions.
Subreen Dari, weightlifting
Subreen Dari, a full-time nurse and mom in Ohio, is also a weightlifter and was the first woman to represent Palestine at an international weightlifting competition in 2022. She currently has her sights set on qualifying for the 2028 Olympics.
Zahra Khan, climbing
Zahra Khan, a nurse in Seattle, balances her professional commitments with her passion for rock climbing, a sport that serves as both a physical outlet and a mental respite from her demanding healthcare career. Her recent V9 climb—a grade that marks high difficulty—stands as a testament to her skill and tenacity. “Climbing is more than reaching the top; it’s about the journey of overcoming,” she says. “I climb to challenge myself and to inspire others who might doubt their place in this sport.”
Sana Abubaker, basketball
Sana Abubaker discovered her passion for basketball in middle school and now coaches young athletes. She emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive environment, and says the encouragement from her own team and coach made a significant difference: “Seeing a crowd cheer for you is uplifting, but having a team and a coach who support you no matter what is transformative.”
Aprar Hassan, karate
Aprar Hassan, 22, has been mastering the art of karate since the age of three and has gone on to become a national karate champion, winning a gold medal in Florida. “Karate is not just a sport to me; it's a platform to affirm my identity and capabilities,” Hassan says.
ABOUT EMAN MOHAMMED
Eman Mohammed is an award-winning Palestinian photojournalist from Gaza and Senior TED fellow. Her work has been featured in Le Monde, VICE, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and more.
Three Years of Taliban Rule
  August 15, 2024 Howdy, Meteor readers, We’re going on a road trip and we’d love it if y'all joined us—specifically, in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention next week! We’ll be hosting the Power Lounge at McCormick Place, in partnership with Emerge—an organization that trains women to run for office— on August 21st-22nd. We’ll be hosting conversations with trailblazers like Rep. Jasmine Crockett, State Rep. Gloria Johnson (of the Tennessee Three), Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Connie Britton and lots more. You can register for this event by clicking the image below. See you in Chicago!  But before we hit the road, let’s hit this newsletter. Today marked the three-year anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan. We spoke with Sahar Halaimzai, the director for the Afghanistan Initiative at the Malala Fund, about what life has been like for Afghan women ever since. Plus, your weekend reading list. DNCya later, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ON
 Three Questions About...Gender ApartheidOn the anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power, an advocate explains what life has been like for women in Afghanistan OLYMPIC RUNNER KIMIA YOUSOFI OF TEAM AFGHANISTAN HOLDS A SIGN THAT READS, "EDUCATION" AND "OUR RIGHTS" AFTER RUNNING THE WOMEN'S 100 METER. POLITICAL AND PROTEST SIGNAGE WAS BANNED DURING THE 2024 OLYMPICS IN PARIS. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) Three years ago today, Taliban forces seized Kabul and restored an oppressive theocratic regime to power. You probably remember the images: people attempting to flee, clinging to airplanes, parents handing babies over fences to strangers. And yet, as quickly as those images came across our screens, they vanished. Over the last three years, women in Afghanistan have lost their ability to work, and girls have been barred from higher education, but in the West, their plight has largely been pushed from the front pages. The Malala Fund, founded by Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzi and her father, Ziauddin, is working to change that. We asked the Fund’s Afghanistan director, Sahar Halaimzai, three questions. What has been the most significant change in the everyday lives of Afghan women since 2021? Women and girls have experienced a total rollback of their basic rights. The Taliban have banned girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade and women from most forms of employment. There are also severe restrictions on women’s freedom of movement and access to public spaces. They cannot enjoy a stroll in a park or go to the salon to get a haircut. This oppression is systemic, institutionalized, and a core part of the Taliban’s governance model; it’s a system of gender apartheid. But as of now, the international community does not legally recognize gender apartheid as a crime despite support from Afghan activists and many global experts, including prominent feminists and legal scholars. Daily life is fraught with danger. [But] there are many brave women and girls who continue to protest, run or attend underground schools, and organize advocacy efforts to fight for their rights. If caught, these women have been subjected to violence and harassment, arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearances. The Taliban have also targeted their families, using coercion and violence to suppress any form of resistance. Despite these risks, Afghan women remain resilient. Has the lack of Western media focus on the plight of Afghan women impacted the movement? Absolutely. Without sustained media attention, it is difficult to maintain the pressure needed to hold the Taliban accountable or support Afghan women and girls. Instead, what we are seeing is a creeping normalization of the Taliban’s atrocities, making it easier to sideline women’s and girls’ rights in favor of other interests. If we could get more media outlets to cover what’s happening in Afghanistan as gender apartheid, it could reignite global solidarity for Afghan women and pressure leaders to take action. What needs to happen to protect the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan—and is there anything the average person can do to help? The international community must recognize gender apartheid as a crime under international law. This recognition would open legal avenues to hold the Taliban accountable for their atrocities. There's a real opportunity to do this: the United Nations General Assembly's Sixth Committee is currently debating the draft language of the Crimes against Humanity treaty. In October 2024, the Committee will resume discussions and vote on whether to advance the treaty to the next stage—a pivotal moment that could solidify international legal frameworks to address and prevent such egregious human rights violations. Everyone can contribute to this push by supporting organizations like [ours] that advocate for Afghan women’s rights, amplifying their stories, and by pressuring their governments to take decisive action during this critical period, first by naming what is happening in Afghanistan as gender apartheid. The situation in Afghanistan is not just a localized issue but a global human rights crisis. The Taliban’s gender apartheid…sets a dangerous precedent. If our elected representatives are happy to engage with a governance system that, at its core, is about enforcing gender apartheid, it signals that women’s rights are negotiable and can be easily sacrificed.  WEEKEND READING 📚On boy things: Are big loud podcast voices like Joe Rogan moving more young men to the right? (The Guardian) On lingering questions: Who is this woman and how did she make it to the Olympics? (The Root) On health: Routine pap smears have been unpleasant and uncomfortable since the dawn of time, but a less intrusive new alternative is right on the horizon. (New York Times)  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Subscribe using their share code or sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays. |
An abortion victory in Arizona
 August 13, 2024 Salutations, Meteor readers, I have returned from my sojourn to the Hudson River Valley region, where my life was changed by a cow named Rosie. Anything interesting happen while I was gone? Rhetorical question; I read this newsletter just like you do, so I know. Today we’ve got a lot to cover—including a discrimination lawsuit, Olympic withdrawal, and three questions for an insider who helped get abortion on the ballot in Arizona. Walking back into the office like this, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONContinued fallout: In the 26 months since the Dobbs decision, hundreds of women have shared their horror stories of trying to seek reproductive care from doctors and hospitals operating in mass confusion and fear. Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz and Kyleigh Thurman are two more names to add to the list. Last week, both Norris-De La Cruz and Thurman filed federal complaints against two different hospitals in Texas that they claim refused to perform abortions in order to treat their ectopic pregnancies. (If you’re just joining us, ectopic pregnancies occur when a fetus develops outside of a uterus, and are almost never viable.) In both women’s cases, their fetuses implanted in their fallopian tubes. The hospitals they went to, Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital and Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital respectively, sent both of them home. Norris-De La Cruz sought a second opinion and was scheduled for surgery elsewhere. Thurman returned to Ascension several days later. But as Shefali Luthra of The 19th reported yesterday, it was too late: “By the time both could receive abortions, their pregnancies had ruptured. Both women had to have their affected fallopian tube removed.”  A DEMONSTRATOR AT A REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS RALLY. (PHOTO BY MONTINIQUE MONROE/GETTY IMAGES) Abortion is banned in Texas but, at least on paper, there is a carve out for extreme cases where the life of the mother is at risk. Ectopic pregnancies fall under the category. And yet this isn’t the first time the state has been sued for how the language in the abortion ban has hamstrung doctors in cases where they would normally be quick to act. That’s because if a doctor in Texas were to perform an abortion, they would have to prove in court that their decision was protected by law, and should a court disagree, they could face jail time. It is an impossible decision, and yet it’s still one that states like Texas, Idaho, and Tennessee are forcing doctors to make. It’s also worth noting that a big part of this lawsuit is the hospitals’ failure to comply with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) which states that a hospital receiving federal Medicare dollars must provide emergency abortions when necessary even if its against state law. Perhaps if SCOTUS hadn’t dismissed the Idaho EMTALA case in June, and actually made a full-throated ruling doctors would have a clearer understanding of what they’re allowed to do without having to consult a bevy of lawyers. To learn how you can help those seeking reproductive care in Texas, visit Fund Texas Choice. AND:
 WINNING IS NICE
Three Questions About Arizona's Abortion Ballot InitiativeWith an insider who helped make it happenBY SAMHITA MUKHOPADHYAY  A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO WEATHERED THE ARIZONA SUN TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. (PHOTO BY REBECCA NOBLE/GETTY IMAGES) Yesterday, the Arizona secretary of state’s office confirmed that over half a million people had signed to certify a ballot initiative that would enshrine access to abortion into the state constitution. According to NPR, that number represents the most signatures for a ballot measure in the history of the state. And getting abortion into the constitution is crucial. Arizona’s abortion laws have been in the spotlight because of its 160-year-old “zombie” law, which briefly banned abortion throughout the state this spring. Thanks to (mostly female) legislator pressure, the law goes off the books next month, but “without a constitutional amendment another group of politicians can come right back in January and pass another extreme ban or continue to put onerous restrictions on access,” says Arizona for Abortion Access’ communications director Dawn Penich, whose coalition mobilized 7,000 volunteers to collect signatures. We asked Penich three questions about this huge win, and what comes next.  WE LOVE A WIN! (PHOTO BY REBECCA NOBLE/GETTY IMAGES) Samhita Mukhopadhyay: First of all, congratulations and thank you. You surpassed the numbers needed for certification by a lot. What was the process for getting there? And what was the hardest part? Dawn Penich: We've been working toward this for over a year at this point. It was last summer that we formed a coalition, started writing the language for this measure and forming a campaign and then spent more than nine months collecting signatures all over the state. And if you know anything about Arizona, that means that we were collecting in snowstorms, but also collecting in 115-degree weather. So I would say that was the hardest part, just asking our 7,000 volunteers to be out there day after day. But I have to tell you, it wasn't hard because people are so driven and passionate about this issue that they said, yeah, it's hot, but I don't care. I need to be part of a solution. I need to be part of righting this wrong. And so getting the news yesterday that our signatures were certified and we are on the ballot just felt amazing and was a huge validation for the amount of work that we've been putting in and we'll continue to put in for the next 90 days. It just really proves the point that even in Arizona, which is considered a more conservative state on some issues, most voters support access to abortion. That's right. We totally saw that when we would be in…the red parts of town. More conservative people do come to this issue from a different perspective: They look at it as small government and keeping the government out of their private lives, whereas other people come to it through a women's rights or a reproductive freedom lens. So people have different ways of coming to support access to abortion, and that's why we were able to collect so many signatures. We also think we're going to be the latest in the long line of reproductive freedom wins this November. Were there any major efforts to push back on the initiative? There were some feeble attempts throughout the course of collecting our signatures. Folks would show up holding stop signs or try to lie about what our measure does and pass off misinformation. But I got to hand it to 'em: Arizona voters are smarter than that. It did nothing but backfire. They would kind of get the attention of people walking by, and then those people would say, Oh, is that the abortion access petition? Let me hurry up and sign that. We don't take it lightly, but we do know that we are the majority, and that majority will turn out in November as well.  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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What to know about Cori Bush’s ouster
 August 8, 2024 Dearest Meteor readers, Let’s be honest: this week has been emotional. From all the Olympics history being made to a running-mate announcement that led to a reclaimed viral camo hat—we’ve been in our feelings. In today’s newsletter we look at the forces that led to Congresswoman Cori Bush’s defeat, the Vice President’s tense moment with Gaza protesters, and Usha Vance’s attempt to deal with that “cat lady” comment. Plus, a podcast starring Laverne Cox for you! Respectfully, Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Julianne Escobedo Shepherd  WHAT'S GOING ONA loss: On Tuesday, Rep. Cori Bush lost her primary race to Wesley Bell, a St. Louis prosecutor who once “gotta hear both sides”-ed the police officer who killed Michael Brown. Her defeat came thanks to the vast amount of cash the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC poured into defeating her. The group put $8 million in, making the race one of the most expensive primaries in history, close behind the $15 million AIPAC spent defeating Rep. Jamaal Bowman in June, and the organization used some of that money to send out mailers with Bush’s face altered into a racist caricature. Bush, a nurse and Ferguson activist who was formerly unhoused, was one of the most energizing, effective members of Congress. In 2021, she slept on the steps of the Capitol to get a federal eviction moratorium extended; she also testified about being sexually assaulted and having an abortion during a hearing on Texas' anti-abortion laws, and introduced the first ceasefire resolution in Congress, calling for a de-escalation of fighting and the facilitation of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, back in October.  CORI BUSH WITH MAXIMUS FEDERAL CALL CENTER WORKERS ADVOCATING FOR HIGHER WAGES AND BETTER FEDERAL JOBS IN 2023. (VIA PAUL MORIGI/GETTY) That energy was still in evidence after her defeat Tuesday. In an impassioned concession speech, she pointed out AIPAC’s interference and said it had renewed her commitment: “All you did was take some of the strings off,” she said, in a style that recalled her work as a pastor. “As much as I love my job, all they did was radicalize me, and so now they should be afraid…AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down.” Far-right media like Fox and the National Review, as well as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, tried to frame her comments as “divisive” and even “pathological”—charged words to use about a Black woman legislator—but it was clear what she was actually addressing: the idea that no one group should be able to buy political influence based on a single issue— particularly when that group is advocating on behalf of a foreign country. I don’t know about you, but it seems like a perfect time for campaign finance reform to me! AND:
 HARRIS CAMPAIGNING IN DETROIT (VIA ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY)
 YOU'RE A WINNER, BABY! (VIA RICHARD PELHAM/GETTY)
 WEEKEND READS 📚
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Vice Presidential pick or Disney prince?
 August 6, 2024 ’ello, Meteor readers, Shannon is out this week, so the illustrious Julianne Escobedo Shepherd and I are here in her stead. Today is a big day in politics: Vice President Kamala Harris announced her heavily anticipated pick of vice presidential running mate, and, as we’re sure you’ve heard, the rose went to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. Walz recently went viral for calling Donald Trump and J.D. Vance “weird,” but in today’s newsletter we dig into his progressive bonafides and…it’s giving extremely decent human being. I mean, I don’t know what moves the needle in your household—but the man created a National Beyoncé Day. But first, the news. Donchya know, Samhita Mukhopadhyay  WHAT'S GOING ON
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 EXTREMELY DECENTWelcome to WalzworldWhat to know about Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' pick for VPBY JULIANNE ESCOBEDO SHEPHERD  IT'S GIVING MIDWESTERN (GLEN STUBBE/STAR TRIBUNE VIA GETTY) After a few short weeks of social media superstardom and the kind of maneuvering on the Hill that’d make Game of Thrones look like Dr. Seuss, Tim Walz, the charismatic 60-year-old governor of Minnesota who made calling the MAGA ticket “weird” the liberal lingua franca, has been chosen by Vice President Kamala Harris as her running mate for the Democratic ticket. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Harris would choose between either Walz or Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania. While Walz became an internet sensation for his straight-shooting TV appearances, Shapiro received scrutiny for the way he handled sexual harassment complaints about one of his top advisors, a racist column he wrote in college, and his statements comparing pro-Palestine protesters to the KKK. Meanwhile, Walz struck a middle-of-the-road approach regarding Palestine. When asked in April by Twin Cities PBS about the protests, Walz called for a “two-state solution with self-determination. We can criticize if Israel is overstepping where their authority is, and we can also criticize where antisemitism is speaking into this discussion and make sure we keep it in a place to find a solution.” A Nebraska native who served in the Army National Guard, Walz later became a social studies teacher and football coach before being elected six times to the House of Representatives. (His former colleague Nancy Pelosi calls him a “heartland-of-America Democrat.”) More to the point, he has been a major advocate for reproductive rights, signing abortion access and paid family leave into Minnesota law, and a longtime advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights: In Minnesota, he codified the right to gender-affirming care and banned conversion therapy, and as a Congressman, he helped pass the 2009 law which made anti-LGBTQIA hate crimes prosecutable at the federal level. (And as a high school teacher in 1999, he was the adviser for his school’s first Gay-Straight Alliance.)  GOV. WALZ IN 2023 AFTER SIGNING BILLS TO PROTECT ABORTION RIGHTS AND GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE AND BAN CONVERSION THERAPY. (GLEN STUBBE/STAR TRIBUNE VIA GETTY) Additionally, at a time in which Republicans like J.D. Vance want to make IVF even harder to access, Walz has publicly spoken about using IVF with his wife, Gwen, to have their daughter Hope. He also signed into law a highly successful program that ensures Minnesota’s children receive free school meals—and one that provides free tuition for low-income students who want to attend college. He’s also pretty good on things like affordable housing, climate change, gun control, and tax cuts for low-income families. Meanwhile, Gwen Walz, Tim’s wife, has influenced policy in Minnesota as well: In her capacity as an educator and first lady, she created a program for incarcerated people to access education, including college. She’s also advocated for prison reform and spearheaded programs to help formerly incarcerated people succeed. In an Instagram post announcing her decision, Harris wrote that her choice was influenced by the way Walz’s “convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep. It’s personal… We are going to build a great partnership. We are going to build a great team. We are going to win this election.” Harris officially became the Democratic nominee for President on Monday night after she received 99% of the votes on a virtual roll call of participating delegates. It was a historic moment—Harris is the first Black and South Asian woman to be the official nominee—and should Walz step down from his role as governor for any reason, there will be another first: Walz’s lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan, of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, will become the first woman Native American governor ever in U.S. history. Harris and Walz will spend the next five days making campaign stops and holding rallies in swing states across the country—including their first stop tonight in Philadelphia, PA. This decision is, as always, a political calculation as much as anything else, and it is not without risk. As writer Rebecca Traister said on X, “I have never seen them do the thing that is obviously the smart and exciting thing but which is also not the most careful thing designed to please the strategists and numbers guys.” But Gov. Walz’s record certainly makes him feel like the most progressive choice among her rumored contenders for VP. He also seems like a reasonable human being who cares about improving the lives of everyday Americans. There’s nothing weird about that.  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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Another Country Fights for Democracy
  July 30, 2024 Ahoy, Meteor readers, I have been watching Olympic rugby sevens since 9:30 this morning. I was initially watching to support social media sensation Ilona Maher—but I got hooked, kept watching, and friends, it was worth it: Today I got to see these women make history:  In today’s newsletter, we travel to Venezuela, where a hotly contested election has drawn hundreds of protestors. Plus, a new abortion ban goes into effect—and, of course, there’s more Olympics. I love sports, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONVenezuela fights for a fair election: Yesterday, thousands of Venezuelans flooded the streets to protest the results of Sunday’s election, in which officials had declared incumbent President Nicolas Maduro the winner. The opposing candidate Edmundo González and government opposition leader Maria Corina Machado are saying they have undeniable proof that the election—which had the highest turnout in years—was actually won by González. Their claims have some backing: Maduro’s government has yet to provide verification for the election results, and the opposition has paper tallies which they claim show they won by at least three million votes. Several countries in the region have denounced the election results. The high voter turnout was motivated largely by González and Machado, who have been harnessing Venezuela’s young voters in an effort to overturn 25 years of authoritarian rule. Millions cannot afford food or medicine and polling showed that if Maduro remains in power, many plan to flee the country. But Maduro won’t go quietly into that long good night—sound familiar?—and the reverberations of that decision could be disastrous. As one expert points out, “[If] Maduro clings to power by fraud and other illegitimate means, Venezuela will have missed perhaps its last best chance at change for a long time. Instability will persist and perhaps deepen, and Latin America and the United States will have no choice but to absorb the consequence.” AND:
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How Shirley Chisholm Paved the Way for Kamala Harris
In a new oral history of the women’s movement, journalist Clara Bingham illuminates that and more
BY CINDI LEIVE
If, four weeks from now, Kamala Harris strides across a Chicago stage to become the Democratic nominee for president, it will be the first time a Black or South Asian woman has become a major party’s chosen candidate. But it will not be the first time a Black woman earned presidential delegates at the convention. That distinction belongs to former Congresswoman and 1972 presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm, who is one of the major players in Clara Bingham’s excellent and ridiculously well-timed new oral history, The Movement: How Women’s Liberation Transformed America, 1963-1973, out next week.
The Movement shatters the usual image of the Second Wave as being led solely by Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, and—through Bingham’s interviews with 100 veterans of the movement, along with archival material—introduces the reader to trailblazers like Martha Griffiths, who got Title IX passed, and Rita Mae Brown and the swashbuckling lesbians of the Lavender Menace, who stood up to Betty Friedan’s anti-gay stance by swarming the stage at a NOW convention. (If it all feels like a movie, it’s worth noting that one of Bingham’s previous books, Class Action, was made into the movie North Country, with Charlize Theron.)
In other words, there’s a lot in the book. But given the news of the week, we had to start with Shirley.
Cindi Leive: This book is landing in the middle of a wonderful burst of energy around Kamala Harris. How do you see this, having been immersed in all things early '70s, but specifically the candidacy of Shirley Chisholm?
Clara Bingham: When Kamala Harris gave her acceptance speech back in 2020—when she and Joe Biden won the presidential election—she very specifically harkened back to women like Shirley Chisholm, who, she said, “fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all…including the Black women who are often too often overlooked…but so often are the backbone of our democracy. I stand on their shoulders.” Those were the activists and intellectuals and organizers and leaders who paved the way for where we are today. And one of the most audacious of them was Shirley Chisholm.
Shirley Chisholm ran for Congress in 1968 from a newly created majority-Black district in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. And she defied the Democratic Party machine: The Black men who she'd worked with in the NAACP and different organizations in Brooklyn were upset with her for running and taking a seat from what would have been an African-American man. But because she rallied so many women voters and spoke fluent Spanish and basically knocked on every door in the district, she won. And she became the first Black woman member of Congress in January of 1969.
It's hard to imagine now the level of extreme misogyny and racism that Shirley Chisholm faced when she walked the halls of Congress in the first few months of her tenure. It was so horrific. In one incident, she was having lunch in the members’ dining room during her first days there. And she sat at an empty table. A Southern Congressman came up to her and said “You're sitting at the Georgia delegation table.” And he pointed to the New York delegation table across the room. She said, “I’m so sorry—I'll just finish here. You're welcome to join me.” But he refused, and she sat alone for the entire meal.
Another congressman from South Carolina, a pro-segregationist, would say “42,5,” every time she passed—meaning you're earning $42,500, the same amount that he was earning. It was an insult to this man that she was allowed to receive a paycheck that was the same number as his.
And there was another Southern congressman who would spit into his handkerchief every time she passed him. And so this is a classic Shirley Chisholm reaction: She brought a handkerchief, and when she passed him and he spat into his handkerchief, she turned to him and said, ‘Oh, you might need another one!’ And handed it to him.
She had this ability to face down the misogyny and the racism that she put up with. And I think that is a lesson for Kamala Harris because she's already the target of a barrage of misogynistic and racist attacks. We’re in a different place two generations later… except for one thing, we just lost our constitutional right to an abortion. And so that puts Kamala Harris right into the bullseye of what women need going forward.
Can you tell us a bit about Shirley Chisholm’s presidential run and the delegate votes that she received?
So Shirley Chisholm gets elected to Congress in 1968 and just four years later decides that she's going to run for president. She doesn't ask anybody for permission. She doesn’t ask anyone in the Democratic Party. She doesn't ask the Black Congressional Caucus. She doesn't ask the National Women's Political Caucus [which] she helped found.
She and everyone else knew that she had no chance of winning. But it wasn't just a symbolic race—it was a motivational and inspirational race. She realized that the white male Democrats were not speaking to a huge swath of potential American voters. They were not speaking to the youth vote—and at the time, in 1972, 46,200 U.S. soldiers had died in Vietnam. We were at the height of the Vietnam antiwar movement. We were at the height of the Black Power movement. We were at the height of the hippie counterculture. And also at the early but heady euphoric moment of the women's liberation movement, which came out of all three of those other movements for social change. So she says, in her iconic speech at the Brooklyn Concord Baptist Church in January of 1972, these famous lines: “I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman and I'm equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political parties or fat cats or special interests. I stand here now without endorsements from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop….and my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history." And it did, because she engaged with people who had felt alienated from the mainstream political process. She held huge rallies all over the country, although she was only on the ballot in eight states.
In the end, at the convention in Miami, she got 152 delegates—which is not many, but it's some—and she became the first woman in the Democratic Party to have her name placed in nomination. That was such an important historical landmark. And when she then walked into the convention, she realized that even though she’d lost, she'd made a difference. She wrote, “I had felt that someday a Black person or a female person should run for the presidency of the United States, and now I was a catalyst of change.” That's what she was…and that's what Kamala Harris is now. In our new world.
You mentioned the other movements happening at the time—I'm not sure if it's fully appreciated how much the civil-rights movement helped the birth of the quote-unquote women's movement.
So many of the women—almost every single woman I interviewed—had been involved in the civil rights movement. And Black women who were on the forefront of the civil rights movement—women like Eleanor Holmes Norton, Pauli Murray, Florynce Kennedy, Frances Beal, the list goes on—were the legal architects and the moral architects of the second wave feminist movement. And that is something that I think people don't understand. The leaders of this movement were women who came right out of the civil rights movement, and they were women who understood racism and the connection between racism and sexism. It took a lot of white women longer to get it.
One example I love is that the white women who were at Newsweek were beginning to realize that the system at that organization was completely discriminatory of all women. When they started to realize that maybe it was illegal for the masthead at Newsweek to have all men at the top and women at the bottom, they went to the ACLU and met Eleanor Holmes Norton. She was fresh from Mississippi—she’d gone down to help get Fannie Lou Hamer out of jail. She had to teach the women at Newsweek what discrimination was! Because so many of them had gone to Seven Sister colleges and were privileged and educated, they thought discrimination was just a race issue. Eleanor realized their case was classic discrimination—she had to have seminars with so many of the white women who were working in Newsweek to explain to them, this is discrimination, and this is how it works.
You talked about the opposition that Shirley Chisholm was going up against, and it makes me think about what Kamala Harris is going up against in Trump, and his exaggerated white masculinity—the way he has embraced the Hulk Hogan of it all. Does the opposition now feel even fiercer than it did then?
Shirley Chisholm and a lot of the early feminists had to face a Neanderthal-like sexism that even today, in Trump MAGA world, is hard to imagine. …Now we have Trump, who has this toxic masculinity and is a strongman—and is such a throwback. But these guys were so afraid of change. When it came to the fight over the ERA in 1972, there was a North Carolina Senator, Sam Ervin, a Democrat, who was born in 1896. He was born before suffrage! He was 24 when women first got the vote! And in 1972, he gave this crazy speech, where he said, “I am also constrained to offer this amendment because of my realization that my life has been made happy by a wife who has stood beside me for many years and has faithfully performed all of the obligations devolving upon her as a wife and mother.” He quotes from Genesis. And he [and his peers] were the first men in the world who had to contend with women forcing them to give them their rights. They had to relinquish those rights: The ERA passed with flying colors in both the House and the Senate—it was a bipartisan victory, which is really hard to imagine today.
But it didn’t pass. That’s one of the heartbreaks of your book.
I stopped the book in 1973, which really was one of the high points of the movement. Roe v. Wade had happened. The National Black Feminist Organization had launched. Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes. Title IX had been passed, the ERA passed. After '73, Phyllis Schlafly came on to the scene. And of course we all know that in the end, in her demonic and brilliant way, she managed to stop the ERA from being ratified by the states. If the ERA [were] the law of the land…I think we would be able to use it legally to argue for abortion rights.…And we can't make that argument now, because we lost the ERA. It's devastating.
You’ve spent years immersed in this history. Are you encouraged or discouraged by it?
Oh, I’m so encouraged!…This movement changed so many really ingrained, deep-seated customs that for thousands of years had placed women in a position of being second-class citizens. And so if you think of it, these men like Sam Ervin who were having to witness this change—it was completely rocking their world.
Trump is a modern iteration of the same thing. But you can't put the genie back in the bottle. You know, he wants to—so do Brett Kavanaugh and JD Vance. They want to put women back, but that's just never going to happen. It's impossible.
Cindi Leive is the co-founder of The Meteor, the former editor-in-chief of Glamour and Self, and the author or producer of best-selling books.
