Joy Reid BWIH 2025

essencemagazine

3/13/2025

Transcript

00:00♪♪

00:26Well, good afternoon and welcome to Essence Black Women in Hollywood.

00:37Now, I think you might have heard that I've recently been through a breakup,

00:43but not with my husband, not with my husband, because today actually is our anniversary. It's

00:47our wedding anniversary. We have been married, I probably shouldn't age myself, for 28 years.

00:54We've been together for 32 years, and our daughter is 30. You do the math on when the

01:00wedding happened versus the children. And I love actually being here on my anniversary

01:10because we get to enjoy beautiful Los Angeles. I want to start by acknowledging

01:16the pain that Los Angeles has suffered, the fires, particularly in Altadena, which I know has so many

01:22of our hearts, but all throughout Los Angeles. I just want to acknowledge that, all that's

01:26happened here and all the pain people have gone through and all the loss. And I just wanted to

01:32say that that is seen, and while it may not be at the top of the news cycle every night anymore,

01:38it is still at the top of my heart and so many people's hearts. So I wanted to start by saying

01:42that. And, you know, it being my wedding anniversary is just a reminder that when we,

01:49as particularly as Black women in media, whether it is in the news media or whether it is in

01:55Hollywood, in any of the spaces that we occupy, whether it is in business, in the C-suites,

02:01there is such a tendency to put us in a box, to say that we are just one thing, such that if that

02:06one thing goes away, we have lost everything. But none of us are just one thing. As I've mentioned,

02:12I am a wife. I am a mother. But also, I am not just a news broadcaster. I am an author,

02:20but I'm also a filmmaker. I'm working on a documentary film about Medgar Evers right now.

02:25I'm working on that as we speak. I'd like to think of myself as an historical thinker,

02:29someone who cares about this country, who cares about democracy. We are not one thing. Those of

02:36you who are in this room who are actors are also writers, are also producers, are also thinkers

02:41and thought leaders. We are many things. So you can't take one thing away from us and say that

02:46you have taken all from us, because we are so multidimensional. And that's why it feels so

02:54warm and powerful and important to be in this room at this time, because we, as Black women,

03:02are living at a time of theft. A time when our history is at risk of being stolen away and hidden.

03:15At a time when our political power, come on, 92%, is being threatened. And our opportunity

03:23to participate in this democracy is being threatened. A time when we are losing the

03:30service, potentially, of federal workers who are disproportionately us. In the service that

03:35we disproportionately give. When those of us who are in the United States military are being told

03:41that our history cannot be taught in military academies, that our photos cannot be shown on

03:47their websites, because that is DEI. As if diversity, equity and inclusion is not a great thing,

03:53that is a gift to the corporations and to the entities that we serve. It is not a present to

03:59us, it is a present to them. Because we bring our diversity, which allows the products that they

04:05sell to actually move. Because this country is becoming more diverse, whether people like it or

04:10not. The equity is important because we come in knowing we have to be better, more educated,

04:17stronger, more prepared than anyone else when we walk into a room. And so we are. And so in each

04:22of the spaces that we exist, we tend to be the best. And that equity is not just equity for us,

04:29it's equity for these companies and organizations that we serve. It makes their organizations

04:34better. And inclusion is just reality. There's nothing you can do to reverse the tide that is

04:41making this a more diverse country. The only thing that people can do is to try to make it

04:45not a multiracial democracy. And you know what? There's one group of Americans that have never

04:50been willing to allow that, and that is African Americans, who have struggled through loss and

04:55lack and enslavement and Jim Crow, to say we believe more than anyone in this country in the

05:01rights, the freedoms and the constitution that did not include us. So on this day, I am joyful.

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