Refinery29: What It's Really Like To Cover This Election As A Black Female News Anchor

NOVEMBER 1, 2016, 11:00 AMThe 2016 election has been historic for any number of reasons, not least of which is the emergence of Hillary Clinton as the first woman to gain the nomination of a major American political party. It’s a fact that often gets glossed over in coverage of a race whose narrative has been dominated by a reality star with a vulgar way with women. But in just over one week, the United States could join countries like Germany, Liberia, Great Britain, India, Israel and even Pakistan, in finally electing a female head of state.Read more here.

Joy Reid among the honorees at the 2016 WMC Women's Media Awards

The Women's Media Awards were last night, and the honorees were Samantha Bee, Salma Hayek Pinault, Anita Sarkeesian, Regina K. Scully and Joy Reid! Check out some of the red carpet pics here.Read about the awards here.

Joy Reid to receive Women's Media Center Journalism award

The Women's Media Center is proud to announce our host and honorees for the 2016 Women's Media Awards, to be held on September 29, 2016, at Capitale in New York City.The event will be hosted for the first time by Sally Field, the two-time Academy Award-winning and multiple Emmy-winning star of "Hello, My Name is Doris," who will be returning to Broadway in March 2017 starring as Amanda in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie." Gayle King, co-anchor of "CBS This Morning" and three-time Emmy winner, will give the opening remarks at the awards.The honorees will be:Samantha Bee, host of TBS' "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"; longtime correspondent on "The Daily Show"; co-creator of the upcoming sitcom "The Detour"; and author, who will receive the Women's Media Center History Making Award.Salma Hayek Pinault, Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA nominated actor; Emmy-winning director; award-winning producer; co-founder of CHIME FOR CHANGE; and activist, who will receive the Women's Media Center Sisterhood is Global Award.Joy Reid, political analyst for MSNBC; host of "AM Joy"; and author, who will receive the Women's Media Center Carol Jenkins Visible and Powerful Media Award.Read more here.

My latest at The Daily Beast: Hillary Clinton - Our Modern-Day Lady Macbeth

With Donald Trump’s campaign continuing to careen into incoherence, it’s becoming increasingly clear that barring some unforeseen circumstance (or low non-white voter turnout) Hillary Clinton will likely win the presidency. However, she will never win the peace. Hillary seems destined, if she wins, to be a president without popular devotion or even a public honeymoon. And she will likely spend four, or eight, years at constant war with a hostile press.

Why the relationship between Mrs. Clinton and the media is so fraught is a complicated tale. Journalist Jonathan Allen last year tackled the miserable web of mutual distrust and distaste that has defined the “rules” by which the press has covered the Clintons for more than a quarter-century.

The fact that many journalists approach the Clintons—especially Hillary Clinton—with a presumption that she has done something that if it’s not outright corrupt is at least worthy of looking into, inevitably colors the way the public views the former secretary of state, and the way they respond to her in the polls.Read the rest here.

And check out all of my Daily Beast columns here.

Washington Post: The challenges of #BlackGirlMagic at the Olympics

Rio 2016 been filled with #BlackGirlMagic: The 28 million people on average who watched daily in primetime and tens of millions who streamed the games online — to which many analysts chalk up the reduced television audience — saw our screens and Twitter timelines filled with stellar moments of achievement by African American women, offering all Americans the chance to respond with chants of “U-S-A!” to the athletic exploits of black women, and watch our sons, and particularly our daughters, cheer, too.But these games also underscored ongoing challenges in race, representation and athletics in America. Black women — Michelle Carter, Gabby Douglas, Ibtihaj Muhammad, “the Simones” — were, in many ways, the American heroes of these Olympics. But in a painful reminder of the ways in which that hero status can often be conditional, and fleeting, these women, other athletes of color, and by extension we, were also unjustly cast at times as the goat.Read more here.

TNR photo/essay: Black Republicans at the RNC

To say that Donald Trump enjoys wide support among black voters, even those in his own party, would be an overstatement of truly Trumpian proportions. An estimated 18 black delegates attended the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this year—less than one percent of all RNC delegates, and only a third of the number who turned out to support Mitt Romney in 2012. Even among wealthy white scions, it seems, Trump has a race problem.The black delegates who showed up at the convention are acutely aware of their isolation, from both their own communities and their fellow Republicans. “I’m a unicorn,” laughs Henry Childs II, head of the Texas Federation of African American Republicans. Supporting the GOP, he says, has made him “the most hated man in America”—unappreciated by Republicans and held in suspicion by Democrats.So why do it? What drives these men and women to back a candidate who delights in playing the racial provocateur, who has campaigned with a rollicking mix of barking xenophobia and unabashed nativism surpassed only by George Wallace?Read and view the full piece here.

Democrats, 2016 and the fight over Obama's legacy

My latest piece, for The New York Times online:In fundamental ways, the 2016 Democratic primary has been a litigation of the Obama years, and of whether the president’s 2008 campaign vow of “change we can believe in” succeeded or failed.http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/29/opinion/campaign-stops/clinton-sanders-and-the-fight-over-obamas-legacy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

Killer Mike talks politics, social justice, and Bernie Sanders, too

My interview with Bernie Sanders' hip-hop surrogate Killer MIke.Click here to view.

Three writers wrestle with Obama's racial legacy

BY: TODD STEVEN BURROUGHS

Posted: Feb. 21 2016 3:00 AM

During both of Obama’s terms, and even before, a visible minority of black activists—some prominent, some not, and from different age groups—have criticized their president out loud when they felt their community slighted. They have been, and still are, disappointed because, they say, most of what they have gotten from him is shallow symbolism, while other constituency groups have gotten attention to specific, targeted policies. It seems like a long time ago since those days in 2008 when Barack Obama represented so much to so many, particularly those in the black, sometimes radicalized, grassroots: A new black history was visible, with new opportunities and new freedoms possible.

Eight years later, the experiment in black American democracy is almost finished, and black authors have come forth to discuss Obama and his often-overlooked-by-him constituency. The books areThe Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America, by Michael Eric Dyson; Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide, by Joy-Ann Reid, national correspondent for MSNBC; and Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, by Princeton professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

Read more at The Root.

Warning signs for Hillary in South Carolina

Even before Sen. Bernie Sanders began surging in early state and national polls, the Hillary Clinton campaign viewed South Carolina as her firewall, mainly due to her much higher standing and name recognition with black voters. But there are signs that the Clinton team may be falling behind the Sanders campaign, both in terms of organizing on the ground and exciting black voters, even as former Secretary Clinton maintains a large lead in the polls and prognosticators like FiveThirtyEight.com give her overwhelming odds of winning the state’s primary in two weeks.Read more here.

Join Joy at Kent State's MLK Celebration

Join Joy at Kent State, for a book signing and lecture on the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., at the invitation of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. More info:Annual Martin Luther King Jr. CelebrationJanuary 28, 2016, KSC Ballroom @ 4 p.m.Keynote Speaker Joy-Ann Reid(Tickets are required for the keynote presentation)For tickets and information click here.

Buy 'Fracture' and support Mahogany Books!

Haven't purchased your copy of Fracture? Here's your chance to get read in on the politics of race and support a small business too!The Iowa Caucuses are just over a week away, and that means the political season is fully upon us. 2016 is going to be a very important election year, and if you still haven't gotten your copy of ‪#‎Fracture‬, and want to get read up on the history of race and politics in the Democratic Party and in the country, from LBJ to Barack Obama (and now, between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton), and you'd also like to support a small business, might I suggest ordering your copy from my friends at MahoganyBooks?

I had the pleasure of meeting Ramunda and Derrick last week at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore last week, at a #Fracture signing which they staffed, and think everyone should get to know them. Love my friends at Amazon, but do consider giving Mahogany Books some love!You can purchase your copy of Fracture from MahoganyBooks here:http://www.mahoganybooks.com/9780062305251

One-on-one with Michael Eric Dyson at the Schomburg, February 17th

Join me as I interview my friend Michael Eric Dyson on his new book: "The Black Presidency" in Harlem:Schomburg Center for Research in Black CultureWednesday, February 17, 2016 from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)New York, NYRSVP here:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/between-the-lines-michael-eric-dyson-and-joy-reid-tickets-20063232669

Tallahassee, here I come!

Join Joy in Baltimore, January 21st!

Join Joy as she heads to Baltimore on Thursday, January 21st (blizzard willing) ... to the Enoch Pratt Free Library, where she will discuss ‪#‎Fracture‬, 2016 politics, and the upcoming presidential election. Part of the Brown Lecture series.7:00 PM to 8:00 PM“In Conversation” with Radio host Marc SteinerEnoch Pratt Free Library (Main Branch)400 Cathedral StreetMain Hall, Central LibraryBaltimore, MDRSVP here:http://calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/writers_live_joy-ann_reid_fracture_barack_obama_the_clintons_and_the_racial_divide#.VqA_CVMrJE4

Two days in Chicago! Moving America Forward

I'm headed to Chicago this week for a pair of events as part of the Moving America Forward Summit. Info below!On Thursday, I'll be attending a book talk and signing at the University Chicago's Gleacher Center, from 5-6:30 p.m.The Gleacher Center450 N. Cityfront Plaza DrChicago, IL 60611Then on Friday:More info here

Next stop ... South Florida!

Two new Fracture Book Tour events to add to the calendar: November 9th and 10th! Please RSVP to attend one (or even both) if you can!

A 2Live Crew Boss Explains Trump

Fans who braved the Carolina rain to meet Luther “Luke” Campbell this past weekend in Charlotte—including a local DJ who brought seemingly every LP Campbell and his former rap group, 2Live Crew, ever pressed—came to hear about the music and madness of the Miami rap scene, and to collect signed copies of The Book of Luke, Campbell’s new memoir.They left with a dose of Luke’s unique brand of cultural wisdom.The 54-year-old rap pioneer, youth football philanthropist, and legendary party promoter has a decades-long reputation for pornographic lyrics and hypersexual showmanship. He invented the “parental advisory” sticker for music albums after battling Tipper Gore and a host of political adversaries in Washington who wanted to censor rap content because, in Luke’s telling, white kids in the suburbs, and not just black kids in the hood, were listening to it.But he’s also a serious student of American politics, with plenty to say about his disappointment with the Democratic Party, the prospects for a President Kanye West, and the appeal of Donald Trump.Read the rest at The Daily Beast.

Why Black Lives Matter still confounds Democrats

As she watched the recent Democratic debate, former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner felt her party could take great pride in offering the country a substantive discussion, in contrast to the three-ring circus taking place on the other side. But as the lone question relating to the lives of 41.7 million African Americans was tossed to CNN’s Don Lemon, Turner, a political and social activist, was among many African Americans who had reason to cringe.The “black question” was about as facile as it gets, with all due respect to the “real person” chosen to deliver it: “Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?”Cue the now well-rehearsed responses of the leading Democratic candidates, who in the recent past have been tripped up by their curious failure to prepare to respond to the most notable civil rights movement of the present era. The course correction goes something like this:“Of course black lives matter,” says Senator Sanders in his Brooklyn drawl.“You bet black lives matter!” says Secretary Clinton, with a Midwestern twang.“Black lives matter? Count me in!” Martin O’Malley chimes in, glancing warily around the room as if to make sure no one’s planning a follow-up about his time as Baltimore’s mayor.It’s not that the BLM movement is not important, says Turner. “It is,” she says. “But it seems the pendulum has swung too far to the superficial, and the media continues to perpetuate a misconception that the African-American community is homogeneous and its needs are singular.”Read the rest at The Daily Beast. 

Next stop: Cleveland! (Updated)

UPDATED: The next city stop on the Fracture tour will be Cleveland, Ohio!Joy will join the women of Delta Sigma Theta in Canton, Ohio on Friday, October 2nd, discussing race and politics and signing copies of Fracture.Friday, October 2nd - 12:30 – 1:30 pmBrown Bag Lunch Discussion at Malone University (www.malone.edu).2600 Cleveland Ave. NW, Canton, Ohio 44709Joy will address a committee consisting of representatives from the following community organizations:  Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Coming Together Stark County, NAACP, League of Women Voters, A Better Community Development (ABCD), Leila Green Alliance of Black School EducatorsThen, join Joy in Cleveland, at the Citizens Empowerment Summit, on Saturday, October 3rd at John Hay High School, for two important discussions, including on the lessons learned from Ferguson and beyond, followed by a "Fracture" book signing:Saturday, October 3rd -9:30 am-10:45 am Session 1: "Consent to Repair, Restore and Rebuild"This session will focus on the City of Cleveland Consent Decree, the challenges and how to impact legislation.11:00 am-12:30 pm  Session 2: “A Tell of Two Cities: From Ferguson to Cleveland” Special guests: The Ferguson Neighborhood Alliance and the Cleveland 8This session will focus on Lessons Learned from Ferguson and Cleveland’s leadership in addressing social justice efforts that impact the community. Discussion topics to include:1:00 pm – 2:00 pm –"Fracture" Book Signing