vox--2020-05-27--Historic SpaceX launch gets scrubbed

Historic SpaceX launch gets scrubbed

Elon Musk is about to send humans into space .
The billionaire ’ s rocket ship company SpaceX is scheduled to launch its first crewed spaceflight this week .
If all goes as planned , Crew Dragon Demo-2 will be the first time humans have taken off for space from American soil since the NASA Space Shuttle program ’ s final mission in 2011 .
It will also be the first crewed spaceflight from a private company , ever .
The launch was scheduled for Wednesday , May 27 , at 4:33 pm ET , but about 15 minutes before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to weather .
According to NASA , the issue was the “ strength of electric fields in the atmosphere.
” The new launch is set for Saturday at 3:22 pm ET .
Whenever the launch does end up happening , the stakes will be high .
A successful mission may begin a new era of space exploration , taking it out of the hands of governments and the public sector and into the hands of private businesses .
If Demo-2 fails , it could be a long time before crewed spaceflights return to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million of his PayPal payout , Musk founded SpaceX back in 2002 , predating his Tesla car company by more than a year .
As the story goes , Musk wanted to put plants on Mars , but it was too expensive to acquire the rockets to do so .
So he started his own company , SpaceX , to see if he couldn ’ t get those costs down .
In early years , the venture seemed destined for failure : Between 2006 and 2008 , the first three launches of its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But the fourth SpaceX rocket succeeded later in 2008 , and the fifth carried a satellite into orbit in 2009 .
After this — and with some funding from NASA — SpaceX accelerated development of the Falcon 9 which first took flight in 2010 .
This two-stage rocket powered by nine Merlin engines has now launched 83 times , carrying cargo including satellites into orbit and supplies to the International Space Station ( ISS ) .
It ’ s failed just twice : once in flight in 2015 and once on the launch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the first and only orbital rocket that ’ s partially reusable , which significantly cuts down on operating costs .
There ’ s also the Falcon Heavy , a heavy-lift launch vehicle that looks like a Falcon 9 rocket with two Falcon 9 boosters strapped to the sides .
On its 2018 maiden voyage , it sent a Tesla into space , complete with a dummy driver clad in a spacesuit .
It ’ s still up there somewhere .
On the second Falcon Heavy launch , all three rockets returned safely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent launch , the Falcon Heavy earned certification from the National Security Space Launch ( NSSL ) program , which is part of the United States Space Force .
Impressive and unexpected as the success of SpaceX has been , Elon Musk still has his sights set on greater things .
The company ’ s most ambitious project yet , the SpaceX Starship , is currently underway .
Intended to be a fully reusable , stainless steel , heavy-lift launch vehicle that would tower over the iconic Saturn V rocket developed for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supposed to go to the Moon , Mars , “ and beyond.
” In fact , NASA has already included the Starship on its list of commercial launch systems for the Artemis missions which are scheduled to land a man and a woman on the moon by 2024 .
The next step toward its more ambitious goals begins with the plan to launch the first private crewed space flight .
Two NASA astronauts , Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley , will ride to the launch site at Florida ’ s Kennedy Space Center @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NASA logos .
Wearing custom SpaceX pressure suits , the two astronauts will get in the Crew Dragon capsule which will sit on top of a Falcon 9 rocket .
If all goes as planned , it will be a relatively uneventful trip .
After takeoff , the spacecraft will reach Earth orbit in 12 minutes , when the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule separate .
The Falcon 9 rocket will return to Earth , where it ’ s supposed to land on a drone ship .
The Crew Dragon capsule @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before docking with the International Space Station ( ISS ) .
The astronauts will stay on the ISS for one to four months , then head back to Earth on the same Crew Dragon capsule that took them to space .
SpaceX obviously wants everything to go exactly as planned .
Stormy weather off the coast of Florida delayed the launch on May 27 .
If the May 30 date is also cancelled , the next possibility would be Sunday , May 31 .
If it ’ s successful , its first crewed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even brighter future .
The company has become NASA ’ s preferred launch partner and now handles about two-thirds of the agency ’ s launches under government contracts worth billions .
SpaceX also offers a “ rideshare ” option that will carry smaller payloads to orbit for as little as $ 1 million .
The company also just raised over $ 500 million in fresh funding to keep developing its Crew Dragon capsule , Starship program , and Starlink satellite business .
So it ’ s safe to say that SpaceX has a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SpaceX , now valued at about $ 36 billion , rose to prominence after NASA fell from grace .
The federal space agency has to rely on private companies to launch its astronauts into space because its own crewed spaceflight program ended when NASA ended the Space Shuttle program in 2011 .
At that time , NASA shifted its attention to Mars and Earth science and away from space shuttles and a return trip to the Moon .
More recently , President Trump has shifted NASA ’ s attention yet again and pushed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ missions , which some say won ’ t happen on time .
Suffice it to say , there ’ s been some shifting of priorities at NASA .
In the years since the Space Shuttle program ended , American astronauts have had to hitch rides on Russian rockets to get to and from the ISS at a cost of $ 86 million each and an unquantifiable amount of national pride .
( SpaceX , by contrast , is estimated to charge $ 55 million per astronaut for these round-trip flights . )
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last forever .
In the past decade , NASA ’ s Commercial Crew Program awarded billions to a handful of private companies to develop crewed space vehicles to carry NASA astronauts to and from the ISS .
Rather than use private companies as contractors that fulfill government orders , as it did in the past , NASA gave private companies funding to develop their own commercial efforts , which NASA could then use for its own ends .
That means space exploration is now a business , and many of its biggest innovations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which is partially subsidized by public money .
And NASA is just fine with this , as the new partnerships shifts some of the cost of developing and constructing spacecraft onto private industry .
Through these arrangements , Boeing has developed its Starliner capsule , which has no launch date yet , and SpaceX built the Crew Dragon capsule , which is set to be the star of this week ’ s crewed launch .
Success is by no means guaranteed .
Boeing has been beset by problems , failures , and delays @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dragon capsule blew up during an engine test in 2019 .
We need to talk about Elon No discussion of SpaceX would be complete with some hand-wringing over its controversial founder and CEO — Musk himself has made sure of that .
His biographer Ashlee Vance interviewed Musk for Bloomberg as the Demo-2 launch approached .
Vance highlighted how Musk has recently made himself a lightning rod of criticism for suggesting that Covid-19 is fake and generally being awful on Twitter .
Yet , the SpaceX founder is the man of the hour @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Musk ’ s “ business tactics and behavior can oscillate between infuriating and appalling.
” Indeed .
Musk ’ s Twitter account has 34.5 million followers , and the material that issues forth tends to alternate between self-promotional businessman and angsty teenager .
Musk ’ s tweets alone have gotten him sued by a cave diver and the Securities and Exchange Commission .
( He won the first case and settled the second , with an agreement that personally cost him $ 20 million and his chairmanship of Tesla ’ s board .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ keep in mind , is even half over — Musk has vowed in a tweet to sell his possessions , after which he tweeted , “ My gf … is mad at me.
” Musk also said the price of his own company ’ s stock was “ too high , ” named his new child X Æ A-Xii , repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus pandemic , and forced his Tesla employees to work through it — even defying government orders to reopen a factory early .
SpaceX , which is considered critical infrastructure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seem to take the pandemic seriously , it was to offer his companies ’ assistance in manufacturing ventilators .
But that help never really came — although in fairness , neither did the feared nationwide ventilator shortage that prompted those tweets .
Musk ’ s recent tweet urging followers to “ take the red pill , ” a term that has well-known far-right and men ’ s rights activist connections , got a response from Ivanka Trump , who simply said , “ Taken !
” Yet while his bizarre , attention-seeking behavior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his businesses make enough money and are cool enough to investors that SpaceX and Tesla seem to be succeeding in spite of Musk ’ s increasingly controversial public image .
The US government , however , is not a business , and it has not taken well to Musk ’ s antics .
Along with the SEC ’ s $ 20 million fine , NASA investigated and scolded him after he smoked pot while appearing on a podcast in 2018 .
Still , SpaceX is undeniably an accomplishment , and a successful launch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s plans for the moon or Mars or wherever he ultimately decides to go .
It ’ s hard to know how a failure , even one that results in the loss of human life , could affect the company ’ s grandest ambitions .
If it causes NASA to rethink its public-private partnership , it could be a more significant detour .
But at this point , it ’ s hard to imagine the future of space travel without SpaceX and without Musk .
Correction , May 26 : An earlier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amount of a recent round of investment in SpaceX .
The company raised just over $ 500 million .
This article has also been updated to reflect a launch delay .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Elon Musk’s SpaceX just launched the first operational crewed flight into orbital space, following up on its successful test flight several months ago and bringing us one step closer to private commercial space travel.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Crew-1 capsule, seated on top of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, took off on Sunday night with four astronauts on board — three from NASA and one from Japan’s JAXA — for a return flight to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch follows its crewed test flight last May, for which two astronauts successfully launched, docked at ISS for two months, then safely returned to Earth with its crew.
Sunday’s flight was the first operational one — that is, the first flight since NASA certified the capsule for spaceflight, following its successful crewed test — in SpaceX’s contract with NASA to send astronauts to and from ISS, which both the company and the government agency hope will be a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship.
Falcon 9 launches Crew Dragon on its first operational flight with astronauts on board, beginning regular crew flights to the @space_station from the U.S. pic.twitter.com/C8oBqMcAuj — SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 16, 2020
"It is not over. This was a beautiful launch... but remember, this is a six-month mission, and it's the first of many."
Administrator @JimBridenstine looking toward the future of the Crew-1 mission and the @Commercial_Crew program. #LaunchAmerica pic.twitter.com/7cKcu5mM1J — NASA (@NASA) November 16, 2020
But it’s also a relationship born out of necessity. The United States retired its own Space Shuttle program in 2011, and has had to rely on Russian rockets to travel to the ISS ever since. Rather than building its own spacecraft, NASA decided to invest billions in private companies like SpaceX to develop vehicles that would escort its supplies and crews instead.
SpaceX’s rise
Using $100 million of his PayPal payout, Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, predating his Tesla car company by more than a year. As the story goes, Musk wanted to put plants on Mars, but it was too expensive to acquire the rockets to do so. So he started his own company, SpaceX, to see if he couldn’t get those costs down. In early years, the venture seemed destined for failure: Between 2006 and 2008, the first three launches of its Falcon 1 rocket failed. But the fourth rocket succeeded later in 2008, and the fifth carried a satellite into orbit in 2009.
After this, and with some funding from NASA, SpaceX accelerated development of the Falcon 9 rocket, which first took flight in 2010. This two-stage rocket powered by nine Merlin engines has now launched nearly 100 times, carrying satellites into orbit and supplies to ISS; now, it’s brought people to ISS as well. It’s failed just twice: once in flight in 2015 and once on the launch pad in 2016. It’s also the first and only orbital rocket that’s partially reusable — the booster section lands itself back on Earth after launch — which significantly cuts down on operating costs.
There’s also the Falcon Heavy, a heavy-lift launch vehicle that looks like a Falcon 9 rocket with two Falcon 9 boosters strapped to the sides. On its 2018 maiden voyage, it sent a Tesla into space, complete with a dummy driver clad in a spacesuit. It’s still up there somewhere. On the second Falcon Heavy launch, all three rockets returned safely to Earth. After the third and most recent launch, the Falcon Heavy earned certification from the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, which is part of the United States Space Force.
SpaceX then became the first private company to send a crew into orbital space with the Crew Dragon Demo-2 test flight, which was operated by NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley.
With the successful test flight under its belt, SpaceX and NASA had the green light to begin operational flights to and from ISS. The first of those was Sunday’s launch, with a crew of NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Michael S. Hopkins, and Shannon Walker, and JAXA’s Soichi Noguchi. SpaceX astronauts in both the test and operational missions have been escorted to their launches in Tesla cars, both giving Musk’s electric car company some nice cross-promotion and demonstrating just how commercial our new era of space travel has become.
Impressive as the success of SpaceX has been, Elon Musk still has his sights set on greater things. The company’s most ambitious project yet, the SpaceX Starship, is underway. Intended to be a fully reusable, stainless steel, heavy-lift launch vehicle that would tower over the iconic Saturn V rocket developed for the NASA Apollo missions, the Starship is supposed to go to the moon, Mars, “and beyond.” In fact, NASA has already included the Starship on its list of commercial launch systems for the Artemis missions, which are scheduled to land a man and a woman on the moon by 2024.
The successful crewed flights set up SpaceX for an even brighter future. The company has become NASA’s preferred launch partner and now handles about two-thirds of the agency’s launches under government contracts worth billions. SpaceX also offers a “rideshare” option that will carry smaller payloads to orbit for as little as $1 million. The company also just raised more than $1.9 billion in fresh funding to keep developing its Crew Dragon capsule, Starship program, and Starlink satellite business. A second operational crewed flight to ISS is already planned for spring 2021. SpaceX also hopes to sell seats to (presumably wealthy) space tourists someday.
NASA’s fall
SpaceX, now valued at about $46 billion, rose to prominence after NASA fell from grace. The federal space agency has to rely on private companies to send its astronauts into space after NASA ended the Space Shuttle program in 2011. At that time, NASA shifted its attention to Mars and Earth science and away from space shuttles and a return trip to the moon. Under President Trump, however, NASA has turned back again to putting astronauts back on the moon with the launch of its Artemis program in 2017. The incoming Biden administration may change things up once again.
Suffice it to say, there’s been some shifting of priorities at NASA. In the years since the Space Shuttle program ended, American astronauts have had to hitch rides on Russian rockets to get to and from the ISS at a cost of $86 million each and an unquantifiable amount of national pride. (SpaceX, by contrast, is estimated to charge $55 million per astronaut for these round-trip flights.) This arrangement with Russia is not supposed to last forever.
Over the past decade, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has awarded billions to a handful of private companies to develop crewed space vehicles to carry NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. Rather than use private companies as contractors that fulfill government orders, as it did in the past, NASA gave private companies funding to develop their own commercial efforts, which NASA could then use for its own ends.
That means space exploration is now a business, and many of its biggest innovations are coming from the private sector, which is partially subsidized by public money. Through these arrangements, Boeing has developed its Starliner capsule, which has no launch date yet and has been beset with difficulties, and SpaceX built the Crew Dragon capsule. And NASA is just fine with this, as the new partnerships shifts some of the cost of developing and constructing spacecraft onto private industry. And it’s not just companies that make spaceships; NASA recently awarded Nokia the right to build a 4G mobile network on the moon as part of its effort to establish a more permanent presence there.
We need to talk about Elon
No discussion of SpaceX would be complete with some hand-wringing over its controversial founder and CEO — Musk himself has made sure of that.
His biographer Ashlee Vance interviewed Musk for Bloomberg as the Demo-2 launch approached. Vance highlighted how Musk has recently made himself a lightning rod of criticism for suggesting that Covid-19 is fake and generally being awful on Twitter.
Vance writes:
Even the most fervent Musk hater, of whom there are plenty in the US, has to feel some twinge of pride. At a moment when the American Empire can seem to be in decline, here’s a clear sign that great things remain possible and that humans have much left to achieve. “America is still the land of opportunity more than any other place, for sure,” Musk says, waxing patriotic. “There is definitely no other country where I could have done this—immigrant or not.” That it’s a multibillionaire, Covid-19-truthing, entrepreneurial huckster/hero delivering this message is pretty much perfect for America in 2020.
Vance added that Musk’s “business tactics and behavior can oscillate between infuriating and appalling.”
Indeed. Musk’s Twitter account has 40 million followers, and the tone of his tweets tends to alternate between that of a self-promotional businessman and an angsty teenager. Musk’s tweets alone have gotten him sued by a cave diver and the Securities and Exchange Commission. (He won the first case and settled the second, with an agreement that personally cost him $20 million and his chairmanship of Tesla’s board.)
Just this year, Musk has vowed in a tweet to sell his possessions, after which he tweeted, “My gf … is mad at me.” He also said the price of his own company’s stock was “too high,” named his new child X Æ A-Xii, repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, and forced his Tesla employees to work through it — even defying government orders to reopen a factory early. SpaceX, which is considered critical infrastructure, never stopped.
When Musk did seem to take the pandemic seriously, it was to offer his companies’ assistance in manufacturing ventilators. But that help never really came — although in fairness, neither did the feared nationwide ventilator shortage that prompted those tweets. Musk’s May tweet urging followers to “take the red pill,” a term that has well-known far-right and men’s rights activist connections, got a response from Ivanka Trump, who simply said, “Taken!”
Most recently, Musk appears to have contracted the coronavirus himself, tweeting that he “most likely” had the virus. He complained of “symptoms of a minor cold,” which were apparently treated with DayQuil. But after taking four rapid Covid antigen tests, two of which were positive and two of which were negative, Musk said “something extremely bogus is going on.” He was forced to miss Sunday’s launch and a Twitter user dubbed him “Space Karen” for his multiple complaints about the accuracy of coronavirus tests. “#SpaceKaren” and “Space Karen” trended on the platform afterward. (“Karen” has become a term for entitled white people who become outraged when they don’t get their way in various aspects of life.)
Yet while Musk’s bizarre, attention-seeking behavior may be a turnoff for many, his businesses make enough money and are cool enough to investors that SpaceX and Tesla seem to be succeeding in spite of Musk’s increasingly controversial public image. The US government, however, is not a business, and it has not taken well to Musk’s antics. Along with the SEC’s $20 million fine, NASA investigated and scolded him after he smoked pot while appearing on a podcast in 2018.
Still, SpaceX is undeniably an accomplishment, and its successful crewed launches will be an essential step toward Musk’s plans for the moon or Mars or wherever he ultimately decides to go. At this point, it’s hard to imagine the future of space travel without SpaceX and without Musk.


vox--2020-05-27--Are coronavirus cases in the US actually going down? Here’s what we know.

While it ’ s always tempting to think of the coronavirus pandemic in terms of numbers endlessly piling up — especially as the United States passes the 100,000 death mark , an unfathomable toll that is likely still an undercount — it ’ s important to remember that the outbreak is also constantly changing and evolving .
We should be updating our understanding of the situation on the ground at all times , because it is never stable .
With that in mind , I thought it would be worthwhile to answer a very simple question : What is actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Because I think that even for people who are closely following the news about the pandemic , myself and my colleagues included , it is easy to lose sight of the big picture .
I looked at the data and talked to several public health experts , hoping to synthesize what I saw in the numbers .
Here are three takeaways , my situation report on coronavirus here at the end of May .
1 ) Nationally , new Covid-19 cases are on a gradual decline If we zoom all the way out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a whole , the number of new Covid-19 cases reported each day has gradually fallen over the last month , from a peak of nearly 37,000 new cases on April 24 to about 19,000 new cases on May 26 , according to data compiled by the New York Times .
As you ’ ll see in the chart below , there is a lot of noise in this metric .
Sometimes , there are lags in government agencies reporting new cases and the number of daily new cases reported is partly dependent on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a given time .
But this should give you a general sense of the trendlines : the rapid growth in new cases in March and into April , before the rate starts to level off and then declines through May .
The higher number of daily cases reflects both the coronavirus ’ s spread throughout the United States and the increased testing , which improves our surveillance of how widespread the disease actually is .
There is no one ideal number of tests to be performed , but experts have said the percentage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be at least below 10 percent and even lower ( 5 percent or less ) if countries are going to relax social distancing .
On May 26 , the positive test rate in the US was 5.4 percent — a significant improvement from the days when 20 percent of tests were positive , but still not quite down to the 3 percent or so that South Korea , the global model of early and widespread testing , achieved weeks ago .
Still , there has generally speaking been a decline in new cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent research indicates is a reflection of the social distancing policies put in place by states and cities .
But the national picture can be a bit misleading depending on where you live .
There is a lot of variation across the states .
“ Some areas , like NYC , are slowing .
As big as their outbreak was , that alone makes for a marked decline in new cases nationwide that we ’ re seeing , ” Tara Smith , a Kent State University professor who studies infectious diseases , told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be better than they were in March as far as rate of new cases.
” “ But even if the epidemic has slowed , it ’ s not gone , and some places are picking up.
” 2 ) Some states are seeing declines in new cases , but in others , cases are flat or increasing The New York Times continually updates this reference page that has some handy charts showing where coronavirus outbreaks seem to be tailing off and where they may be intensifying .
The Times breaks the states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new Covid-19 cases are increasing , states where new cases are mostly the same , and the states where the number of new cases is declining .
Let ’ s run through the two extremes quickly ; if your state isn ’ t on the lists below , that means the situation appears stable , not worsening but not improving .
States where daily new coronavirus cases are increasing , as of May 27 : States where daily new coronavirus cases are decreasing , as of May 27 : It ’ s important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from different places , though .
New Jersey ’ s daily counts have been going down , but it has to date seen far more cumulative Covid-19 cases ( about 155,000 ) than has Alabama ( 15,700 ) or North Carolina ( 24,000 ) , some of the states where the number of daily new cases is on the rise .
It is also difficult to say for certain how much the relaxation of social distancing policies in some states has affected Covid-19 ’ s spread so far and whether those policy changes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases .
The coronavirus is a very sneaky pathogen with symptoms often taking a week or more to show up .
Yet people can begin infecting others before symptoms set in .
It could then take another week or two for those people to realize they may be sick .
Given the lag in new infections revealing themselves , and the fact that an infected person will on average ( and without social distancing ) infect two or three other people , it may be some time before we have a good idea @ @ @ @ @ @ @ affected the pandemic ’ s arc .
The reopenings only began a month ago .
Increased testing could again help to explain some of the increases in new confirmed cases , further complicating efforts to isolate the impact of easing social distancing .
“ I think speculation there is premature , ” says David Rehkopf , a Stanford professor and fellow at the university ’ s Center for Population Health Sciences .
If you look at other metrics — such as the number of daily new cases as a share of a state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t really a clean breakdown between different types of states .
As much as we might want it to , the coronavirus has generally not conformed to tidy narratives .
The bottom line : the general plateau of new cases nationally obscures the variations across states , which are driven more by local conditions .
To repeat , this is not one coronavirus outbreak but many .
On that point , some of the recent spikes in cases can be linked to specific incidents ; Arkansas has traced its recent surge in cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a church gathering , and poultry plants ( at least for starters ) .
The latter is representative of one other important trend in America ’ s Covid-19 pandemic .
3 ) The pandemic started in wealthier environs but has shifted to working-class settings To paint with a very broad brush , the coronavirus pandemic in the US seems to have started with the jetsetting crowd .
People taking cruises .
International travelers who brought the virus to the US in the first place from China or from Europe .
The metropolitan areas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Seattle and Boston and San Francisco — are among the wealthiest places in the country .
But the pandemic has quickly become stratified along socioeconomic and racial lines .
The coronavirus may have been blind to color and class during the early weeks , especially when it was spreading undetected .
But once states and cities began to lock down , the disparities began to deepen .
People who have higher incomes generally find it easier to work from home or even take time off work .
They may also be able @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is running rampant : the New York Times reported that wealthier neighborhoods in the Big Apple have seen a much higher percentage of their residents leave during the pandemic compared to working-class neighborhoods .
People with lower incomes ( who are also more likely to be black or Hispanic ) typically have less flexibility in their work situation .
So they are more likely to be laid off or they have been asked to continue working despite the ongoing risk because their job is considered essential .
These populations have higher rates of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that can make them more susceptible to the coronavirus , too .
They may also live in places more exposed to air pollution or have other economic restraints that affect , for example , their ability to seek out medical care .
The exact causes of these disparities in Covid-19 ’ s toll will be studied for years .
But the data already shows black people in particular are getting infected and dying at higher rates than white people .
One example of these trends in practice would be the high rates of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Another would be the outbreaks in meatpacking plants across the country .
In addition to occupational hazards , these populations are also more likely to live in intergenerational households and that can induce more spread , an observation made to me recently by an epidemiologist based in New Orleans .
“ There are a wide range of health behaviors and environmental exposures , not the least of which are crowding and occupations that require more exposures , that come together to explain this , ” Rehkopf told me .
Now the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are also often at a financial disadvantage compared to wealthy enclaves , which may exacerbate these socioeconomic trends .
Taken together , these three trends should help explain where the coronavirus pandemic stands in the US as June approaches .
The virus is still widespread , and hitting vulnerable populations the hardest , even if at the national level , we have begun to see this gradual decline in new cases .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

While it’s always tempting to think of the coronavirus pandemic in terms of numbers endlessly piling up — especially as the United States passes the 100,000 death mark, an unfathomable toll that is likely still an undercount — it’s important to remember that the outbreak is also constantly changing and evolving. We should be updating our understanding of the situation on the ground at all times, because it is never stable.
With that in mind, I thought it would be worthwhile to answer a very simple question: What is actually going on with Covid-19 right now? Because I think that even for people who are closely following the news about the pandemic, myself and my colleagues included, it is easy to lose sight of the big picture.
I looked at the data and talked to several public health experts, hoping to synthesize what I saw in the numbers. Here are three takeaways, my situation report on coronavirus here at the end of May.
1) Nationally, new Covid-19 cases are on a gradual decline
If we zoom all the way out and look at the United States as a whole, the number of new Covid-19 cases reported each day has gradually fallen over the last month, from a peak of nearly 37,000 new cases on April 24 to about 19,000 new cases on May 26, according to data compiled by the New York Times.
As you’ll see in the chart below, there is a lot of noise in this metric. Sometimes, there are lags in government agencies reporting new cases and the number of daily new cases reported is partly dependent on how many tests are being conducted at a given time. But this should give you a general sense of the trendlines: the rapid growth in new cases in March and into April, before the rate starts to level off and then declines through May.
The higher number of daily cases reflects both the coronavirus’s spread throughout the United States and the increased testing, which improves our surveillance of how widespread the disease actually is. There is no one ideal number of tests to be performed, but experts have said the percentage of tests that come back positive should be at least below 10 percent and even lower (5 percent or less) if countries are going to relax social distancing.
On May 26, the positive test rate in the US was 5.4 percent — a significant improvement from the days when 20 percent of tests were positive, but still not quite down to the 3 percent or so that South Korea, the global model of early and widespread testing, achieved weeks ago.
Still, there has generally speaking been a decline in new cases nationwide over the last month, which recent research indicates is a reflection of the social distancing policies put in place by states and cities.
But the national picture can be a bit misleading depending on where you live. There is a lot of variation across the states.
“Some areas, like NYC, are slowing. As big as their outbreak was, that alone makes for a marked decline in new cases nationwide that we’re seeing,” Tara Smith, a Kent State University professor who studies infectious diseases, told me. “Most other places seem to be better than they were in March as far as rate of new cases.”
“But even if the epidemic has slowed, it’s not gone, and some places are picking up.”
2) Some states are seeing declines in new cases, but in others, cases are flat or increasing
The New York Times continually updates this reference page that has some handy charts showing where coronavirus outbreaks seem to be tailing off and where they may be intensifying.
The Times breaks the states down into three categories: states where new Covid-19 cases are increasing, states where new cases are mostly the same, and the states where the number of new cases is declining. Let’s run through the two extremes quickly; if your state isn’t on the lists below, that means the situation appears stable, not worsening but not improving.
States where daily new coronavirus cases are increasing, as of May 27:
Alabama
Arkansas
California
Florida
Maine
Mississippi
Nevada
North Carolina
North Dakota
South Carolina
Tennessee
Virginia
Wisconsin
States where daily new coronavirus cases are decreasing, as of May 27:
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Massachusetts
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Texas
Washington
Washington, DC
It’s important to remember that these states are starting from different places, though. New Jersey’s daily counts have been going down, but it has to date seen far more cumulative Covid-19 cases (about 155,000) than has Alabama (15,700) or North Carolina (24,000), some of the states where the number of daily new cases is on the rise.
It is also difficult to say for certain how much the relaxation of social distancing policies in some states has affected Covid-19’s spread so far and whether those policy changes explain some of the trends in new cases. The coronavirus is a very sneaky pathogen with symptoms often taking a week or more to show up. Yet people can begin infecting others before symptoms set in. It could then take another week or two for those people to realize they may be sick.
Given the lag in new infections revealing themselves, and the fact that an infected person will on average (and without social distancing) infect two or three other people, it may be some time before we have a good idea of how much states’ reopening has affected the pandemic’s arc. The reopenings only began a month ago. Increased testing could again help to explain some of the increases in new confirmed cases, further complicating efforts to isolate the impact of easing social distancing.
“I think speculation there is premature,” says David Rehkopf, a Stanford professor and fellow at the university’s Center for Population Health Sciences.
If you look at other metrics — such as the number of daily new cases as a share of a state’s population — there isn’t really a clean breakdown between different types of states. As much as we might want it to, the coronavirus has generally not conformed to tidy narratives.
The bottom line: the general plateau of new cases nationally obscures the variations across states, which are driven more by local conditions. To repeat, this is not one coronavirus outbreak but many.
On that point, some of the recent spikes in cases can be linked to specific incidents; Arkansas has traced its recent surge in cases to a high school swim party, a church gathering, and poultry plants (at least for starters).
The latter is representative of one other important trend in America’s Covid-19 pandemic.
3) The pandemic started in wealthier environs but has shifted to working-class settings
To paint with a very broad brush, the coronavirus pandemic in the US seems to have started with the jetsetting crowd. People taking cruises. International travelers who brought the virus to the US in the first place from China or from Europe. The metropolitan areas where Covid-19 initially appeared — New York and Seattle and Boston and San Francisco — are among the wealthiest places in the country.
But the pandemic has quickly become stratified along socioeconomic and racial lines. The coronavirus may have been blind to color and class during the early weeks, especially when it was spreading undetected. But once states and cities began to lock down, the disparities began to deepen. People who have higher incomes generally find it easier to work from home or even take time off work. They may also be able to simply leave a city where Covid-19 is running rampant: the New York Times reported that wealthier neighborhoods in the Big Apple have seen a much higher percentage of their residents leave during the pandemic compared to working-class neighborhoods.
People with lower incomes (who are also more likely to be black or Hispanic) typically have less flexibility in their work situation. So they are more likely to be laid off or they have been asked to continue working despite the ongoing risk because their job is considered essential. These populations have higher rates of preexisting conditions like diabetes and heart disease that can make them more susceptible to the coronavirus, too. They may also live in places more exposed to air pollution or have other economic restraints that affect, for example, their ability to seek out medical care.
The exact causes of these disparities in Covid-19’s toll will be studied for years. But the data already shows black people in particular are getting infected and dying at higher rates than white people.
One example of these trends in practice would be the high rates of infection among New York City transportation workers. Another would be the outbreaks in meatpacking plants across the country. In addition to occupational hazards, these populations are also more likely to live in intergenerational households and that can induce more spread, an observation made to me recently by an epidemiologist based in New Orleans.
“There are a wide range of health behaviors and environmental exposures, not the least of which are crowding and occupations that require more exposures, that come together to explain this,” Rehkopf told me.
Now the coronavirus is spreading to rural areas, which are also often at a financial disadvantage compared to wealthy enclaves, which may exacerbate these socioeconomic trends.
Taken together, these three trends should help explain where the coronavirus pandemic stands in the US as June approaches. The virus is still widespread, and hitting vulnerable populations the hardest, even if at the national level, we have begun to see this gradual decline in new cases.


vox--2020-05-27--“We are correcting the erasure of black lives”: What On the Record’s subjects say about Me Too

On the Record — a bombshell documentary in which a large group of women allege that the “ godfather of hip-hop ” and Def Jam record label founder Russell Simmons sexually assaulted or raped them — wound up on a strange and baffling journey to its HBO Max release .
Not long before its Sundance premiere in January , Oprah Winfrey rescinded her support for the film ( on which she was serving as executive producer ) while reiterating her support for the women who appear in it .
Many of On the Record ’ s allegations previously appeared in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the reasons for Winfrey ’ s sudden withdrawal from the project remain confusing , months later .
Once Winfrey stepped away , that meant the film would no longer be released on Apple TV+ as part of her programming slate .
The film was forced to seek out a new distributor , which it found in HBO .
But no matter this strange turn of events , On the Record is absolutely damning of Simmons , who continues to insist he did not commit the crimes he ’ s accused of .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the film is at its best when exploring the reasons that women in America , and particularly black women , often hesitate to accuse a powerful black man of a crime like sexual assault .
On the Record ’ s main subject is Drew Dixon , who was a rising star and record executive at Def Jam in the 1990s when , she alleges , Simmons harassed her , exposed himself to her at the office , and eventually raped her at his home .
Later she joined Arista Records , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and CEO L.A. Reid .
In the film , Dixon is joined by a chorus of voices , mostly black women , whose stories about Simmons are shockingly similar to Dixon ’ s .
Among them are Sheri Hines ( who also goes by Sheri Sher ) , a co-founder of the first female hip-hop group , the Bronx-based Mercedes Ladies , and activist and former Def Jam employee Sil Lai Abrams , both of whom allege that Simmons raped them .
I had a frank conversation with Dixon , Hines , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which they talked about women who “ disappear , ” what ’ s missing from the Me Too movement , and what young women and men can do to stay safe in a world where they may be even more vulnerable to predators today .
Our conversation has been lightly edited for clarity .
I first saw On the Record before its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January .
In rewatching it this week , I was struck by how forcefully you all make the case that we ’ ve lost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who “ disappeared , ” who left their industries , because of assault and abuse from men like Russell Simmons .
The film feels a little bit like you ’ re taking back space you lost .
Is that something you ’ re trying to do ?
The answer is yes .
We ’ re all doing the opposite of disappearing in this moment , having finally found a safe space in the Me Too moment — however fleeting this moment may be — to come forward after decades in each of our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fallout for us , in terms of our livelihoods in the industries we were navigating as young , professional women .
So yes , we are doing the opposite of disappearing in this moment .
But we ’ re never going to get those 25 or 30 years back .
In some ways , that ’ s something I ’ m grieving really for the first time , because in the moment , I just kept going .
I kept going after the rape .
I went to Arista Records , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and I made more hit records .
And then when I was harassed , I felt that the whole idea that I would overcome this misogynist industry by virtue of my work ethic and talent had been misguided and naive .
And I left .
I convinced myself that I was fine , that I was happy being a stay-at-home mom , which in many ways I have been .
But I ’ ve given up a huge part of who I am in order to live with that .
I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my own loss , professionally and financially .
I had this trajectory .
I had this track record .
And had this not happened — if I had been a man , if I hadn ’ t been sexualized and objectified by two of the biggest gatekeepers in the black music industry — all signs pointed to the fact that I would have been their peer by now .
I ’ m still grieving what I ’ ve lost .
And so while I am trying to reconcile the trauma and shine a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obstacles faced by black women who are victims of sexual violence , it doesn ’ t make up for what I lost .
I ’ m never going to get that back .
When it happened to me 30-plus years ago , I kind of drowned it out , or tried to drown it out .
I only shared it with people who were around when it happened .
I did not out him , or go to the police , or nothing like that , because he was bringing our hip-hop culture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thought that would be a bad move for me .
So I just kept going on , as far as starting the first female DJ rap group , doing all kind of things with the group , just trying to [ keep ] everything out of my head and move on after we did the record deal with him , and he did us not good on the record deal .
I kept moving on .
I was doing stuff for different magazines because they wanted to know about Mercedes Ladies , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up .
From there , I went and I did Hip-Hop Divas , the book that Vibe Magazine put out , which was with Mary J. Blige , Missy Elliott , and all of them , and so they asked me would I come and do a feature about Mercedes Ladies , so I did that .
That ’ s how I hooked up with Vibe Magazine .
I said , “ Hey , I ’ ve been writing a journey since I was , like , 15 and hip-hop , a journey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ d be dope for a book.
” When they read it , they was like , “ We love this .
You should finish it.
” I was like , “ I ain ’ t go to college or nothing , y ’ all have people to finish it.
” They was like , “ Well , you ’ re going to finish it because we read it and it ’ s so true , and reading your journey is like we was there.
” So from that , I got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got the book published , before I got it published , I had a choice to make .
The choice was , do you want this to be an autobiography and use Russell ’ s name to blow it up ?
Or do you want it to be a novel based on a true story ?
I chose the novel , because he was very big at that time , and I thought it would take away from the essence of what I wanted my journey and my story to be about — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t want it to overshadow my talent .
So I chose it to be a novel .
From there , the book came out , I started doing college tours , I was doing panels , I was just doing stuff , plus I was working .
I started working at Bronx Criminal , and [ was ] out here still trying to push my dreams and have the book published .
I just kept doing what I was doing after the book was published .
[ Mercedes Ladies was published in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ broke with Russell , people came out , everybody , in 2017 , everybody was like , “ Oh , she ’ s doing this to make money off her book.
” What nobody understood I was still working a job and I wasn ’ t making a dime , other than the college stuff and all these things , but I wasn ’ t making any money .
Since I was little , I always had this determination to be something , you know ?
I was raised by a single parent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I was just determined .
Never used [ Simmons ’ s ] name to do anything .
So when this came in 2017 , it started bringing attention to the book and everything else .
But when the documentary came , I was so happy that we had a platform where I can tell my story , and somebody gave the platform to us .
As a black woman growing up , I never really felt I had resources or support , even though I wrote about it .
I wanted to show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t want to be looked at as a victim .
I ’ m a victor .
And when the documentary came out , I saw myself on the screen , and I just felt like I ’ m exposing my vulnerability and stuff like that to the world now .
I ’ m so much more that I accomplished , and that this man did not stop me .
Russell , whatever you did , you didn ’ t stop me .
I ’ m still standing and I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point I always wanted to come across .
So this here was facing my fears , with the documentary coming out .
I ’ m very conflicted .
I ’ m very conflicted about this .
I honestly thought that I would be past the talking-about-him phase , because it ’ s been a two-and-a-half-year journey of talking about him and another man who assaulted me later .
I don ’ t want to be known as “ Russell Simmons rape survivor , ” “ Russell Simmons rape accuser.
” But that , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I have been framed by the media — and also by my peer group , if we ’ re really going to be honest .
The lack of support , literally observing your peer circle subside , it ’ s so profoundly sad and disappointing and angering .
… When I think about [ participating in ] the documentary , I ’ m thinking , well , there ’ s two different effects that are happening simultaneously .
On one hand , from a movement perspective , you are participating in a project @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understanding of the challenges that black women face when we come forward with our stories of sexual victimization , and to be in a film that does more than just talk about the assault but also explores larger things related to the continued suppression , marginalization , and erasure of black women from the larger anti-sexual violence movement .
That ’ s incredibly important .
And it is a privilege to be in this space .
At the same time , there is a part of me that mourns the fact that I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ afforded to me in my work as an activist .
I ’ ve had a successful career in the advocacy space , specifically focusing on issues on media representation , sexual violence , and domestic violence .
Once I said the name of the men who hurt me , everything changed , and I was no longer … my value is no longer seen in my expertise , and the work I ’ ve done for the past 13 some-odd years .
My value now has been tokenized as “ the ex-model who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that ’ s hurtful .
But you ’ ve got to give to get .
I don ’ t know what ’ s going to come out of this , but I do know that continuing the work in the advocacy space is something that I am committed to .
But I damn well sure don ’ t want it to be walking into spaces and to be exclusively known as , “ Oh , she ’ s one of Russell ’ s victims.
” … Black people have been disappearing forever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ black people were dying in incidents of extrajudicial police violence all the time , and we knew about it , as black people .
But “ mainstream ” America had no idea .
So we were able to capture those stories on film , on those cameras , and show the rest of the world what we ’ ve been living with the whole entire time .
Black people jumped off the boat in the Middle Passage and we will never know how many there were , we will never know what their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what their pain was , we will never know what their life trajectory could have been .
They are at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean today .
They are invisible to us .
I have tried to re-create my family history as part of my son ’ s history assignment using Ancestry.com , and you can ’ t even really track your family as a black person , because it ’ s just like “ Girl Slave , ” “ Boy Slave , ” “ Estimated Age.
” Like , you can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We disappear before 1865 , even in Ancestry.com , and we are invisible in so many ways still , 400 years into our journey in this country .
So making ourselves seen is an act of resistance as black people .
This film embodies the correction that has to happen for us all to be seen .
It ’ s not going to correct what happened to us as young , professional women with our whole lives ahead of us .
It ’ s never going to make up for the fact that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the tops of their various professions and we have been marginalized and cast aside .
That is heartbreaking and can not be corrected .
But one thing that we can correct by telling the true story … we are correcting the erasure , to use Sil Lai ’ s word , of black lives , black stories , in the way that happens across every sector of our culture as we see playing out again and again in so many different ways .
It just hit me right now that … what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what Sheri embodies is where we go [ when we “ disappear ” ] and why .
What you ’ re seeing is the process — the process of the push-out , the violence that precedes it , and that the reason why there ’ s an overrepresentation of men in the workplace is not by accident ; it ’ s by design .
For those of us who could have been , there generally is a very serious reason why we ’ re not .
That ’ s what this film does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happened to so-and-so ?
” You have conversations , you say , “ Hey , you remember so-and-so who used to work at that label ?
Whatever happened to that person ?
” What we ’ re doing is showing what unfortunately happens across so many industries and to so many black women .
How many of us have been forced out because of the fact that we have experienced sexual violence and end up blacklisted just because of what we embody ?
On the Record starts with one question : What is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s what you ’ re pointing to .
The answer you give in the film is “ black women ’ s voices.
” What else is missing from Me Too ?
One thing that ’ s very tricky about taking on the status quo and addressing a culture as pervasive as rape culture is in the entertainment industry : It ’ s tricky to find allies who are not adjacent to the powers that be , who will really stand with you when you want to rock the boat and not just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ really want to fundamentally shift the way we move and the way we treat other , and not just , in a performative way , call out one or two people and then revert back to the way things were .
I don ’ t see any traction in terms of a true shift that ’ s not just performative .
I think that ’ s what ’ s missing , something structural that ’ s happening to really move the ball forward , and I ’ m hoping that this film may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change .
Because right now I feel the change is superficial .
And a lot of the people who are positioning themselves as allies and advocates of the change are also adjacent to the abusers and are trying to hedge their bets .
I think until that shifts , we ’ re going to be running in place .
Successful movements are grassroots movements , and the reason why they are successful is because they ’ re so disruptive .
But there is a relationship between media and social movements , and social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their message , and the news needs social movements to give stories , to be able to tell stories .
Me Too was a very disruptive force in the media industry .
For the first time , those barriers that had been in existence were tumbling , and the perpetrators didn ’ t even know what to do .
They were just folding .
“ Okay , I did it.
” “ All right , well , I ’ m stepping down.
” It was time .
But there ’ s always a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happens time and time again .
And once you get significant dollars from individuals or corporations who have a vested interest in maintaining the structures that your movement intends to dismantle , you ’ re going to hit a roadblock .
That ’ s what has happened .
Structural change can not occur without financial independence .
And quite frankly , the media has lost interest in our story , which was disruptive , because they started to get conflated with all the lawsuits and the pushback , and news organizations were terrified @ @ @ @ @ @ @ news cycle .
It ’ s on to the next .
Unfortunately , I feel that we ’ ve had an opening , and we ’ ve done as much as we can , I think , from a movement perspective .
We ’ re now back to the incremental changes that are occurring behind the scenes on a policy level , occasionally on a social level .
There ’ s certainly greater discussion about consent , and people are very cognizant of the abuse that exists within Hollywood and , to some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rampant sexual abuse and harassment .
But let ’ s be clear : That ’ s always been whispered about .
The casting couch was legendary ; it ’ s just now “ regular people ” are aware of it .
I believe that our story is coming in at the tail end of a comet , and it remains to be seen what the impact is , but I do think it ’ s a step in the right direction .
Will we see structural change ?
I don ’ t know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to expect that the hierarchy that has itself been implicated in this culture is going to also fundamentally tear itself down and remake itself .
The hierarchy , somewhere along the way , decided , okay , R. Kelly is expendable , but Russell Simmons is not .
Harvey Weinstein , okay , fine , there ’ s so much evidence , fine , he ’ s expendable , but maybe , for some reason , Louis C.K .
is not .
Donald Trump is not .
The hierarchy is now becoming its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ radical transformation ” it ’ s willing to tolerate , which story is going to be permitted , and which silence breaker is going to be silenced .
Now , it ’ s not really a movement at that point , which is why it ’ s so important for just the individual survivors to keep speaking out .
It ’ s why we all — as terrified as we were when we lost our executive producer and our distribution partner — all got on those planes and showed up at Sundance and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we were grateful to Amy [ Ziering ] and Kirby [ Dick ] for being such great allies .
Because if we don ’ t hold the space for more survivors to be seen and heard , I promise you , the hierarchy [ is eager ] for this Category 5 hurricane to pass over and move on .
I ’ ve been thinking a lot about power structures and vulnerability in light of what ’ s going on in the world right now , with the pandemic and people losing their jobs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who were vulnerable before this — young women and men , people who are economically insecure — are going to be even more vulnerable to abusive work situations and assault in the workplace , because they ’ re so afraid of losing their jobs .
There aren ’ t other jobs to get .
What would you say to someone who is graduating into this world and thinking about protecting themselves in the workplace ?
And how can workplaces guard against letting predators have more rein since they have more influence over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can really speak on that .
You don ’ t know where your next meal is coming from , you don ’ t know where your next apartment is coming from , you get an eviction notice , and when you ’ re growing up , you have to go into adult thinking right away , because it ’ s just what you ’ re born into , and so you go into survival mode .
For people right now that don ’ t have that kind of support , they don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to do , it ’ s a fair [ worry ] .
My mom told us that you never look at the problem , you never think about it , you just keep moving no matter what the situation is .
I would say to them , in every storm , there is a treasure in it .
It could be a treasure from your growth of learning and that you made it through .
And believe me , everything ’ s not gon na be roses .
But at least you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with something that came at you at such an important part of your life .
What you got ta understand is that the big thing here is called fear .
Fear is just gon na hold you back from being the greatness that you was meant to be .
So understand , we ’ re all gon na have to face giants .
Don ’ t let this make you feel that there ’ s no hope or that there ’ s nothing for you .
I might add something that I tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which is to trust your gut .
Just trust your gut .
Because if it feels wrong , [ it ’ s easy to ] talk yourself out of it , and you talk yourself into overcoming a weird feeling and you keep going , it ’ s gon na keep feeling wrong .
That ’ s how grooming works .
You ’ re going to find yourself so far out to sea that you don ’ t even know what normal is anymore .
You don ’ t know what your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s especially important as we ’ re working virtually .
I really do feel for these young people entering a world that is turned upside-down , in the way that it is right now .
One thing that worries me is that abuse , it flourishes in the darkness , it flourishes in the corners .
Abusers are counting on the fact that we ’ re so repulsed [ by what they do that we ] talk about it in the kitchen but we won ’ t talk about the handsy uncle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by not talking about it in front of the kids , we ’ re giving the handsy uncle or the cousin or the soccer coach or the piano teacher or whoever it is , the preacher , whoever , we ’ re giving them more room to maneuver .
We ’ re talking about all of the other things that young people should do to keep themselves safe , and then when it comes to sexually abusive behavior , that ’ s the thing we want to whisper about .
We need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ young person encounters something that feels weird , validate it , affirm it , and say something , tell somebody , maybe even email yourself , keep track of it , keep a journal , don ’ t allow it to drip .
I just believe that the exposure of it , the conversation — it ’ s just so powerful .
And I think we need to be more intentional than ever , because we are now living in this odd virtual world , where people may feel more desperate and they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much more aware , that much more vigilant , and that much more vocal about anything that feels off .
Trust yourself , tell somebody , draw a line .
God , if I knew the answer .
[ Laughs . ]
Oh , my God .
Oh , my Lord .
I ’ d be sitting on a huge consulting business .
I think what Drew mentioned is definitely a huge part of it .
I simply don ’ t have the mental capacity to mind-map dismantling a toxic work environment and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does that .
Because , unfortunately , the nail that protrudes is the one that ’ s hammered down .
That is how it works in traditional work environments .
There is a lot for young people to be concerned about — that ’ s your point about , because of the scarcity of jobs , young people being in a more vulnerable position and maybe more likely to tolerate sexually inappropriate behavior , or straight-up assault .
I want to say that my generation , other generations — women have always dealt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my daughter , and I talked to her .
You ’ ve got to give your kids that talk .
If I can flip it and say there is an opportunity with a lot of people who are going to be working at home .
You have a double-edged sword .
For those who are being victimized within the home , it puts them at greater risk of exposure .
There are people much more well-versed in this area who are working to address that , and it is not an easy fix @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic , because we can ’ t even address it effectively outside of it .
But I ’ ve heard a number of business leaders stating that they will be transitioning to a work-at-home model over the next decade .
There will be some protection for people that we didn ’ t have , because we were forced to be in an office environment that was highly sexualized , with nowhere to escape .
This is not to say that — like in the case of Russell , who used his home as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protected and shielded from it .
But I think there is something to be said … look , I would have loved to have not had to sit in an office with a bunch of men , listening to them tell raunchy stories and speak terribly about women , and also make passes at me , and be able to work from home as a young single mother .
That would have saved me on child care and that would have saved me from having to deal with that .
I have one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ question , and I think I do I have one little piece of advice that I think might be an actionable item .
I think about what Russell Simmons did to me , and I think about the way L.A. Reid harassed and isolated me professionally ; neither one of them [ could have done that unless someone ] enabled them .
So anyone who thinks they ’ ve done enough for the Me Too movement , or that they ’ ve prevented sexual violence by not being a rapist , or by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are wrong .
You have not done enough .
Intervene .
Be an ally .
Look out for the signs .
If you see somebody in your workplace being objectified , sexualized , or even isolated so that she is now stuck and relying on somebody who clearly wants something from her that has nothing to do with her job , intervene .
Insert yourself into that interaction and change the dynamic .
Don ’ t laugh off the sexual joke .
Don ’ t turn a blind eye to the incremental violations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are a part of the problem .
Do not kid yourself .
It ’ s like the person sitting on his or her front porch drinking mint juleps during slavery in the South while brutality was happening all around them .
They are part of the problem .
So if you ’ re drinking your mint julep while this behavior is happening all around you , I have something you can do that is more than just not being a rapist : You can actually be an ally .
Intervene .
Speak up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to somebody to help them move forward in a way that does not compromise their integrity .
Very few people did that for me , and it would have made all the difference .
On the Record is now streaming on HBO Max .
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On the Record — a bombshell documentary in which a large group of women allege that the “godfather of hip-hop” and Def Jam record label founder Russell Simmons sexually assaulted or raped them — wound up on a strange and baffling journey to its HBO Max release. Not long before its Sundance premiere in January, Oprah Winfrey rescinded her support for the film (on which she was serving as executive producer) while reiterating her support for the women who appear in it.
Many of On the Record’s allegations previously appeared in a 2017 New York Times article, and the reasons for Winfrey’s sudden withdrawal from the project remain confusing, months later. Once Winfrey stepped away, that meant the film would no longer be released on Apple TV+ as part of her programming slate. The film was forced to seek out a new distributor, which it found in HBO.
But no matter this strange turn of events, On the Record is absolutely damning of Simmons, who continues to insist he did not commit the crimes he’s accused of. Directed by Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, the film is at its best when exploring the reasons that women in America, and particularly black women, often hesitate to accuse a powerful black man of a crime like sexual assault.
On the Record’s main subject is Drew Dixon, who was a rising star and record executive at Def Jam in the 1990s when, she alleges, Simmons harassed her, exposed himself to her at the office, and eventually raped her at his home. Later she joined Arista Records, where she alleges she was harassed by president and CEO L.A. Reid.
In the film, Dixon is joined by a chorus of voices, mostly black women, whose stories about Simmons are shockingly similar to Dixon’s. Among them are Sherri Hines (who also goes by Sheri Sher), a co-founder of the first female hip-hop group, the Bronx-based Mercedes Ladies, and activist and former Def Jam employee Sil Lai Abrams, both of whom allege that Simmons raped them.
I had a frank conversation with Dixon, Hines, and Abrams by phone in May, in which they talked about women who “disappear,” what’s missing from the Me Too movement, and what young women and men can do to stay safe in a world where they may be even more vulnerable to predators today. Our conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Alissa Wilkinson
I first saw On the Record before its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January. In rewatching it this week, I was struck by how forcefully you all make the case that we’ve lost so much art and creativity from women who “disappeared,” who left their industries, because of assault and abuse from men like Russell Simmons. The film feels a little bit like you’re taking back space you lost. Is that something you’re trying to do?
Drew Dixon
The answer is yes. We’re all doing the opposite of disappearing in this moment, having finally found a safe space in the Me Too moment — however fleeting this moment may be — to come forward after decades in each of our cases, navigating around the pain and the fallout for us, in terms of our livelihoods in the industries we were navigating as young, professional women. So yes, we are doing the opposite of disappearing in this moment.
But we’re never going to get those 25 or 30 years back. In some ways, that’s something I’m grieving really for the first time, because in the moment, I just kept going. I kept going after the rape. I went to Arista Records, and I worked for Clive [Davis], and I made more hit records. And then when I was harassed, I felt that the whole idea that I would overcome this misogynist industry by virtue of my work ethic and talent had been misguided and naive. And I left.
I convinced myself that I was fine, that I was happy being a stay-at-home mom, which in many ways I have been. But I’ve given up a huge part of who I am in order to live with that. I’m just now confronting the magnitude of my own loss, professionally and financially. I had this trajectory. I had this track record. And had this not happened — if I had been a man, if I hadn’t been sexualized and objectified by two of the biggest gatekeepers in the black music industry — all signs pointed to the fact that I would have been their peer by now. I’m still grieving what I’ve lost.
And so while I am trying to reconcile the trauma and shine a light on sexual violence and the unique obstacles faced by black women who are victims of sexual violence, it doesn’t make up for what I lost. I’m never going to get that back.
Sherri Hines
When it happened to me 30-plus years ago, I kind of drowned it out, or tried to drown it out. I only shared it with people who were around when it happened. I did not out him, or go to the police, or nothing like that, because he was bringing our hip-hop culture into the major leagues, and I thought that would be a bad move for me. So I just kept going on, as far as starting the first female DJ rap group, doing all kind of things with the group, just trying to [keep] everything out of my head and move on after we did the record deal with him, and he did us not good on the record deal. I kept moving on. I was doing stuff for different magazines because they wanted to know about Mercedes Ladies, and at the time the group had broken up.
From there, I went and I did Hip-Hop Divas, the book that Vibe Magazine put out, which was with Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, and all of them, and so they asked me would I come and do a feature about Mercedes Ladies, so I did that. That’s how I hooked up with Vibe Magazine.
I said, “Hey, I’ve been writing a journey since I was, like, 15 and hip-hop, a journey with Mercedes Ladies, and I thought it’d be dope for a book.”
When they read it, they was like, “We love this. You should finish it.” I was like, “I ain’t go to college or nothing, y’all have people to finish it.” They was like, “Well, you’re going to finish it because we read it and it’s so true, and reading your journey is like we was there.” So from that, I got my book published.
And once I got the book published, before I got it published, I had a choice to make. The choice was, do you want this to be an autobiography and use Russell’s name to blow it up? Or do you want it to be a novel based on a true story? I chose the novel, because he was very big at that time, and I thought it would take away from the essence of what I wanted my journey and my story to be about — first scene of hip-hop. I didn’t want it to overshadow my talent. So I chose it to be a novel.
From there, the book came out, I started doing college tours, I was doing panels, I was just doing stuff, plus I was working. I started working at Bronx Criminal, and [was] out here still trying to push my dreams and have the book published. I just kept doing what I was doing after the book was published. [Mercedes Ladies was published in 2008.]
… When the story broke with Russell, people came out, everybody, in 2017, everybody was like, “Oh, she’s doing this to make money off her book.” What nobody understood I was still working a job and I wasn’t making a dime, other than the college stuff and all these things, but I wasn’t making any money.
Since I was little, I always had this determination to be something, you know? I was raised by a single parent of 11 kids from the Bronx. I was just determined. Never used [Simmons’s] name to do anything. So when this came in 2017, it started bringing attention to the book and everything else. But when the documentary came, I was so happy that we had a platform where I can tell my story, and somebody gave the platform to us.
As a black woman growing up, I never really felt I had resources or support, even though I wrote about it. I wanted to show even though I was victimized, I didn’t want to be looked at as a victim. I’m a victor. And when the documentary came out, I saw myself on the screen, and I just felt like I’m exposing my vulnerability and stuff like that to the world now. I’m so much more that I accomplished, and that this man did not stop me.
Russell, whatever you did, you didn’t stop me. I’m still standing and I’m still going. That’s the point I always wanted to come across. So this here was facing my fears, with the documentary coming out.
Sil Lai Abrams
I’m very conflicted. I’m very conflicted about this.
I honestly thought that I would be past the talking-about-him phase, because it’s been a two-and-a-half-year journey of talking about him and another man who assaulted me later.
I don’t want to be known as “Russell Simmons rape survivor,” “Russell Simmons rape accuser.” But that, for the time being, is how I have been framed by the media — and also by my peer group, if we’re really going to be honest. The lack of support, literally observing your peer circle subside, it’s so profoundly sad and disappointing and angering.
… When I think about [participating in] the documentary, I’m thinking, well, there’s two different effects that are happening simultaneously. On one hand, from a movement perspective, you are participating in a project which can enable a greater dialogue and understanding of the challenges that black women face when we come forward with our stories of sexual victimization, and to be in a film that does more than just talk about the assault but also explores larger things related to the continued suppression, marginalization, and erasure of black women from the larger anti-sexual violence movement. That’s incredibly important. And it is a privilege to be in this space.
At the same time, there is a part of me that mourns the fact that I no longer have the anonymity that was afforded to me in my work as an activist. I’ve had a successful career in the advocacy space, specifically focusing on issues on media representation, sexual violence, and domestic violence. Once I said the name of the men who hurt me, everything changed, and I was no longer … my value is no longer seen in my expertise, and the work I’ve done for the past 13 some-odd years. My value now has been tokenized as “the ex-model who says that Russell raped her,” and that’s hurtful.
But you’ve got to give to get. I don’t know what’s going to come out of this, but I do know that continuing the work in the advocacy space is something that I am committed to. But I damn well sure don’t want it to be walking into spaces and to be exclusively known as, “Oh, she’s one of Russell’s victims.”
Drew Dixon
… Black people have been disappearing forever. Before there were cellphone cameras, black people were dying in incidents of extrajudicial police violence all the time, and we knew about it, as black people. But “mainstream” America had no idea.
So we were able to capture those stories on film, on those cameras, and show the rest of the world what we’ve been living with the whole entire time. Black people jumped off the boat in the Middle Passage and we will never know how many there were, we will never know what their stories were, we will never know what their pain was, we will never know what their life trajectory could have been. They are at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean today. They are invisible to us.
I have tried to re-create my family history as part of my son’s history assignment using Ancestry.com, and you can’t even really track your family as a black person, because it’s just like “Girl Slave,” “Boy Slave,” “Estimated Age.” Like, you can’t even really find yourself. We disappear before 1865, even in Ancestry.com, and we are invisible in so many ways still, 400 years into our journey in this country.
So making ourselves seen is an act of resistance as black people. This film embodies the correction that has to happen for us all to be seen. It’s not going to correct what happened to us as young, professional women with our whole lives ahead of us. It’s never going to make up for the fact that so many of our counterparts have risen to the tops of their various professions and we have been marginalized and cast aside. That is heartbreaking and cannot be corrected.
But one thing that we can correct by telling the true story … we are correcting the erasure, to use Sil Lai’s word, of black lives, black stories, in the way that happens across every sector of our culture as we see playing out again and again in so many different ways.
Sil Lai Abrams
It just hit me right now that … what Drew embodies, what I embody, what Sherri embodies is where we go [when we “disappear”] and why. What you’re seeing is the process — the process of the push-out, the violence that precedes it, and that the reason why there’s an overrepresentation of men in the workplace is not by accident; it’s by design.
For those of us who could have been, there generally is a very serious reason why we’re not. That’s what this film does.
When people say, “Whatever happened to so-and-so?” You have conversations, you say, “Hey, you remember so-and-so who used to work at that label? Whatever happened to that person?” What we’re doing is showing what unfortunately happens across so many industries and to so many black women.
How many of us have been forced out because of the fact that we have experienced sexual violence and end up blacklisted just because of what we embody?
Alissa Wilkinson
On the Record starts with one question: What is missing from Me Too? And that’s what you’re pointing to. The answer you give in the film is “black women’s voices.” What else is missing from Me Too?
Drew Dixon
One thing that’s very tricky about taking on the status quo and addressing a culture as pervasive as rape culture is in the entertainment industry: It’s tricky to find allies who are not adjacent to the powers that be, who will really stand with you when you want to rock the boat and not just change the window treatment, when you really want to fundamentally shift the way we move and the way we treat other, and not just, in a performative way, call out one or two people and then revert back to the way things were. I don’t see any traction in terms of a true shift that’s not just performative.
I think that’s what’s missing, something structural that’s happening to really move the ball forward, and I’m hoping that this film may create some momentum toward that kind of change. Because right now I feel the change is superficial. And a lot of the people who are positioning themselves as allies and advocates of the change are also adjacent to the abusers and are trying to hedge their bets. I think until that shifts, we’re going to be running in place.
Sil Lai Abrams
Successful movements are grassroots movements, and the reason why they are successful is because they’re so disruptive. But there is a relationship between media and social movements, and social movements need media in order to amplify their message, and the news needs social movements to give stories, to be able to tell stories.
Me Too was a very disruptive force in the media industry. For the first time, those barriers that had been in existence were tumbling, and the perpetrators didn’t even know what to do. They were just folding. “Okay, I did it.” “All right, well, I’m stepping down.” It was time.
But there’s always a corporatization of a social movement. It happens time and time again. And once you get significant dollars from individuals or corporations who have a vested interest in maintaining the structures that your movement intends to dismantle, you’re going to hit a roadblock. That’s what has happened. Structural change cannot occur without financial independence.
And quite frankly, the media has lost interest in our story, which was disruptive, because they started to get conflated with all the lawsuits and the pushback, and news organizations were terrified. Look, there’s the news cycle. It’s on to the next.
Unfortunately, I feel that we’ve had an opening, and we’ve done as much as we can, I think, from a movement perspective. We’re now back to the incremental changes that are occurring behind the scenes on a policy level, occasionally on a social level. There’s certainly greater discussion about consent, and people are very cognizant of the abuse that exists within Hollywood and, to some extent, the music industry — the rampant sexual abuse and harassment.
But let’s be clear: That’s always been whispered about. The casting couch was legendary; it’s just now “regular people” are aware of it. I believe that our story is coming in at the tail end of a comet, and it remains to be seen what the impact is, but I do think it’s a step in the right direction.
Will we see structural change? I don’t know.
Drew Dixon
I think it’s unreasonable to expect that the hierarchy that has itself been implicated in this culture is going to also fundamentally tear itself down and remake itself. The hierarchy, somewhere along the way, decided, okay, R. Kelly is expendable, but Russell Simmons is not. Harvey Weinstein, okay, fine, there’s so much evidence, fine, he’s expendable, but maybe, for some reason, Louis C.K. is not. Donald Trump is not. The hierarchy is now becoming its own gatekeeper, deciding how much “radical transformation” it’s willing to tolerate, which story is going to be permitted, and which silence breaker is going to be silenced.
Now, it’s not really a movement at that point, which is why it’s so important for just the individual survivors to keep speaking out. It’s why we all — as terrified as we were when we lost our executive producer and our distribution partner — all got on those planes and showed up at Sundance and stood there at the premiere and said we were grateful to Amy [Ziering] and Kirby [Dick] for being such great allies. Because if we don’t hold the space for more survivors to be seen and heard, I promise you, the hierarchy [is eager] for this Category 5 hurricane to pass over and move on.
Alissa Wilkinson
I’ve been thinking a lot about power structures and vulnerability in light of what’s going on in the world right now, with the pandemic and people losing their jobs. It seems to me that some people who were vulnerable before this — young women and men, people who are economically insecure — are going to be even more vulnerable to abusive work situations and assault in the workplace, because they’re so afraid of losing their jobs. There aren’t other jobs to get. What would you say to someone who is graduating into this world and thinking about protecting themselves in the workplace? And how can workplaces guard against letting predators have more rein since they have more influence over people’s job security?
Sherri Hines
I can really speak on that. You don’t know where your next meal is coming from, you don’t know where your next apartment is coming from, you get an eviction notice, and when you’re growing up, you have to go into adult thinking right away, because it’s just what you’re born into, and so you go into survival mode. For people right now that don’t have that kind of support, they don’t know what they’re going to do, it’s a fair [worry].
My mom told us that you never look at the problem, you never think about it, you just keep moving no matter what the situation is. I would say to them, in every storm, there is a treasure in it. It could be a treasure from your growth of learning and that you made it through. And believe me, everything’s not gonna be roses. But at least you’re gonna know how to deal with something that came at you at such an important part of your life.
What you gotta understand is that the big thing here is called fear. Fear is just gonna hold you back from being the greatness that you was meant to be.
So understand, we’re all gonna have to face giants. Don’t let this make you feel that there’s no hope or that there’s nothing for you.
Drew Dixon
I might add something that I tell my 13-year-old son and my 15-year-old daughter, which is to trust your gut. Just trust your gut. Because if it feels wrong, [it’s easy to] talk yourself out of it, and you talk yourself into overcoming a weird feeling and you keep going, it’s gonna keep feeling wrong. That’s how grooming works. You’re going to find yourself so far out to sea that you don’t even know what normal is anymore. You don’t know what your center is anymore.
I think that’s especially important as we’re working virtually. I really do feel for these young people entering a world that is turned upside-down, in the way that it is right now.
One thing that worries me is that abuse, it flourishes in the darkness, it flourishes in the corners. Abusers are counting on the fact that we’re so repulsed [by what they do that we] talk about it in the kitchen but we won’t talk about the handsy uncle in front of the kids. And by not talking about it in front of the kids, we’re giving the handsy uncle or the cousin or the soccer coach or the piano teacher or whoever it is, the preacher, whoever, we’re giving them more room to maneuver. We’re talking about all of the other things that young people should do to keep themselves safe, and then when it comes to sexually abusive behavior, that’s the thing we want to whisper about.
We need to not whisper about it. If a young person encounters something that feels weird, validate it, affirm it, and say something, tell somebody, maybe even email yourself, keep track of it, keep a journal, don’t allow it to drip.
I just believe that the exposure of it, the conversation — it’s just so powerful. And I think we need to be more intentional than ever, because we are now living in this odd virtual world, where people may feel more desperate and they may be less seen. Be that much more aware, that much more vigilant, and that much more vocal about anything that feels off. Trust yourself, tell somebody, draw a line.
Related The abuse problem within the film community extends beyond big names like Harvey Weinstein
Sil Lai Abrams
God, if I knew the answer. [Laughs.] Oh, my God. Oh, my Lord. I’d be sitting on a huge consulting business.
I think what Drew mentioned is definitely a huge part of it. I simply don’t have the mental capacity to mind-map dismantling a toxic work environment and still keeping your job, how one does that. Because, unfortunately, the nail that protrudes is the one that’s hammered down. That is how it works in traditional work environments.
There is a lot for young people to be concerned about — that’s your point about, because of the scarcity of jobs, young people being in a more vulnerable position and maybe more likely to tolerate sexually inappropriate behavior, or straight-up assault. I want to say that my generation, other generations — women have always dealt with this. I sat there with my daughter, and I talked to her. You’ve got to give your kids that talk.
If I can flip it and say there is an opportunity with a lot of people who are going to be working at home. You have a double-edged sword. For those who are being victimized within the home, it puts them at greater risk of exposure. There are people much more well-versed in this area who are working to address that, and it is not an easy fix. Not in the middle of a pandemic, because we can’t even address it effectively outside of it.
But I’ve heard a number of business leaders stating that they will be transitioning to a work-at-home model over the next decade. There will be some protection for people that we didn’t have, because we were forced to be in an office environment that was highly sexualized, with nowhere to escape.
This is not to say that — like in the case of Russell, who used his home as his workspace — that you will be protected and shielded from it. But I think there is something to be said … look, I would have loved to have not had to sit in an office with a bunch of men, listening to them tell raunchy stories and speak terribly about women, and also make passes at me, and be able to work from home as a young single mother. That would have saved me on child care and that would have saved me from having to deal with that.
Drew Dixon
I have one idea. I was reflecting on the question, and I think I do I have one little piece of advice that I think might be an actionable item. I think about what Russell Simmons did to me, and I think about the way L.A. Reid harassed and isolated me professionally; neither one of them [could have done that unless someone] enabled them.
So anyone who thinks they’ve done enough for the Me Too movement, or that they’ve prevented sexual violence by not being a rapist, or by not being an abuser themselves: You are wrong. You have not done enough. Intervene. Be an ally. Look out for the signs. If you see somebody in your workplace being objectified, sexualized, or even isolated so that she is now stuck and relying on somebody who clearly wants something from her that has nothing to do with her job, intervene. Insert yourself into that interaction and change the dynamic. Don’t laugh off the sexual joke. Don’t turn a blind eye to the incremental violations of his or her space because you are a part of the problem. Do not kid yourself.
It’s like the person sitting on his or her front porch drinking mint juleps during slavery in the South while brutality was happening all around them. They are part of the problem.
So if you’re drinking your mint julep while this behavior is happening all around you, I have something you can do that is more than just not being a rapist: You can actually be an ally. Intervene. Speak up. Say something. Extend a hand to somebody to help them move forward in a way that does not compromise their integrity. Very few people did that for me, and it would have made all the difference.
On the Record is now streaming on HBO Max.