On ringing doorbells while Black

April 18, 2023

Plus: The beef with “Beef” ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

April 18, 2023

Good evening, Meteor readers,

I’ve started watching “Beef” on Netflix and let me tell you: I get it. Like, am I planning a fiery road rage incident that sparks an over-the-top rivalry with a complete stranger? No. But the way my fellow Houston drivers behave… I’m just saying, if you see me on the news, just pretend you never read this.

In today’s newsletter, we also look at the shooting of Missouri teenager Ralph Yarl and the way Black people are viewed as threats, even when they’re bleeding out on a doorstep.

And as a reminder, The Meteor has been nominated for the 27th Annual Webby Awards People’s Voice in both the News & Politics and Public Service & Activism categories. Voting closes this Thursday—let’s make this happen!

Revving my engine,

Bailey Wayne Hundl

PHOTO CREDIT: FAITH SPOONMORE VIA GOFUNDME

WHAT’S GOING ON

Knocks at the door: Ralph Yarl is a 16-year-old Black boy. He plays bass clarinet as a section leader for his Kansas City high school band. And on April 13, after being sent to pick up his younger twin brothers, the teenager rang the doorbell at the wrong house and was shot in the head through a closed glass door by Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white man.

As you probably know by now, Yarl was supposed to pick up his brothers from 1100 NE 115th Terrace, but mistakenly went to Lester’s home at 1100 NE 115th Street—one block north. In a statement given to the police from the hospital, Yarl said he rang the doorbell; Lester opened the interior door, said, “Don’t come back around here,” and shot Yarl through the glass exterior door. Then, while Yarl was still on the ground, Lester came outside and shot him a second time in the arm.

Thankfully, Yarl survived the attack, but he was left with a cracked skull, a traumatic brain injury, and an injured arm. In Lester’s police statement, he claimed to believe he was protecting himself from a physical confrontation with an intruder. And his neighbors may have seen Yarl the same way; according to a GoFundMe page made by Yarl’s aunt, the bleeding teenager had to go to three separate homes after being shot before someone finally agreed to help him.

Lester currently faces two felony charges, as he should. And while Missouri does not have an explicit “stand your ground” law (like Florida did in the trial of George Zimmerman), it does have the “castle doctrine,” which allows for violent action to defend yourself in your home. As Kansas City attorney Kevin Jamison told The Washington Post, ringing a doorbell is not a legally justifiable threat of violence.

It’s easy for non-Black people to hear about violence like this and view it as something both horrible and distant. But, as The Meteor’s Treasure Brooks points out, white liberals are not exempt from a culture that views Black people as “inherently intrusive.” The same anti-Black culture that drove Lester to fire his gun is “the same culture that throws out job applications with ‘black sounding names,’ the same culture that perceives Black students more deserving of expulsion, and the same culture that blocks Black owned businesses from receiving investment.”

AND:

At a New York protest against anti-abortion laws on Tuesday, one group brought a large sign reading “FUCK TEXAS.” As a Texan myself, I get it: Our legislature and our courts have indeed been churning out the bullshit lately. But people who write off entire (usually Southern or rural) states like this ignore the tireless political work by progressives in these states—and the relentless voter suppression and gerrymandering that infects our legislatures. As one comment on our Instagram post yesterday points out, “Us Texans have started from a line much further back and the fact that we’re neck-in-neck in some races, shows the grit & the progress we’ve made.”

The Iowa Senate has joined the fight about child labor—and they’re for it. Early Tuesday morning, the Republican-led legislature approved a bill that would allow 14-year-olds to work six-hour night shifts, 15-year-olds to work on assembly lines, and 16-year-olds to serve alcohol. (Meanwhile, the same body also outlawed gender-affirming care for trans youth…so yeah, kids aren’t old enough to know their own minds, but they’re plenty old enough to sell their labor at under-paying jobs.)

Over in Oklahoma: Four McCurtain County officials, including the county sheriff, were asked to step down after being caught on tape lamenting that they could no longer hang Black people with a “damned rope.”

The A24 dark comedy “Beef” on Netflix is truly so good. It’s unfortunate, then, that the show cast David Choe, who has come under fire for a resurfaced clip from 2014 in which he graphically describes sexually assaulting a Black massage therapist. Choe has denied raping anyone, saying it was all a joke. About rape. ‘Cause those are…funny?

The National Women’s Law Center filed a lawsuit against health insurance giant Aetna on Monday, charging that the company’s fertility-treatment policies discriminate against LGBTQ+ couples by forcing them to wait longer to be approved and pay more out-of-pocket. The plaintiff, Mara Berton, alleges that the fertility treatments covered by her health plan were “considered ‘not medically necessary,’ as if I could become pregnant by simply choosing to have heterosexual intercourse outside of my relationship, as if being gay were a choice.”

Iranian parents and students gathered together outside the education department of the city of Shahin-Shahr on Saturday to protest the mass poisonings of up to 7,000 schoolgirls, believed to be a coordinated attack from the Iranian government. Many of the women attended the protests unveiled in defiance of the regime’s strictly-enforced hijab laws.

Fox News reached a settlement of over $787 million with Dominion Voting Systems today for the network’s false claims that the company interfered with the 2020 election. Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said in a press conference that this settlement represents “vindication and accountability,” two words I rarely associate with Fox News. But I’m happy to see them here!

Make sure not to miss artist Marilyn Minter’s latest photography series, “Elder Sex,” which beautifully depicts intimate moments between models aged 70 years or older. You can catch it at her solo exhibit at LGDR through June 3 and you can buy the “Elder Sex” book here.