Randal D. Pinkett - Black Faces in High Places: 10 Strategic Actions for Black Professionals to Reach the Top and Stay There

Copyright 2022 by Randal D. Pinkett and Jeffrey A. Robinson

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ISBN 978-1-4002-2899-7 (eBook)

ISBN 978-1-4002-2897-3 (TP)

Epub Edition November 2021 9781400228997

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To my wife, Valerie, and children, Gabriella, Michael, and

Zachary, and my future grandchildren. May these strategic

actions help you make an impact when you get to the top.

JR

To my loving wife, Natasha, and children, Aniyah, Marquis,

Jaz, and Amira, and my future descendants. May these strategic

actions be a blessing along your journeys, and may you readily

accept your greatest responsibility to be good ancestors.

RANDAL

Each day I make my way down hallways that echo with the voices of many others who have made the same journey; except they were mostly white and mostly male. As I make this daily trek, much of the production is, well, in production, as the elements of news change almost semi-instantly. There are always facts to check, guests and videos to vet, and scripts to write and edit. Deadlines come at a rapid-fire pace. There is team call after team call with my producers, propelling me into what feels like a perpetual sprint to make it to the studio.

This is my sanctuary, where I command the attention of millions of people each week. They yearn for not just the facts but also a seasoned interpretation of the days news. They want perspective. They need pragmatic, candid conversations on complicated multilayered issues. That is what I bring from the vantage point of an underrepresented segment of the viewing and listening population. Unashamedly, I occupy a space that no one else who looks like me holds. I am the first Black woman to serve as a cable television prime-time news anchor, for MSNBCs The ReidOut.

I take my seat, adjust my chair, and exercise the ritual of getting settled on my mark. There is a flurry of activity around me as crews check mics, examine graphics, and adjust the lighting. Producers and writers continue to make changes right up until my stage manager counts me down to air. Through all of this, my thoughts are not just on the meticulously written words but also something deeper within. For those around me, this is routine. It happens many times a day, seven days a week. This is the innermost hub of a network news operation, where sometimes days of work, shooting, editing, laboring over verbs and nouns and tense boil down to this. This is when we will reveal to the world what we know and the people who caused this information to become news. For me, there is so much riding on what will flow from my mouth and into the minds of millions of people. My investment is not just in crafting the written word but also in the image on the screenmy image. Many other Black faces have preceded my coming, including Max Robinson, Carole Simpson, Ed Bradley, Mal Goode, Bernard Shaw, and Gwen Ifill, to name a few. What I have learned from the presence of these stalwart predecessors is that when the red light comes on: say something!

As the only Black woman currently hosting a national news program bearing her name, I am keenly aware of the power of the written and spoken word. I know the feeling of being a Black face in a high place. I know that what I do and what I say will come with an added layer of scrutiny by an audience and industry still adjusting to my presence. Despite that, I never waver from my core existence as a Black daughter, a Black mother, a Black woman. Every day Im in this job, Im very conscious of the responsibility to make that collective voice heard. Its unique to do that as a Black woman. Like many other Black faces in high places, I remain faithful to the life experiences that ultimately put me here. I yield to the lessons learned from others, and now this book will assist you in doing the same.

In 2010, Drs. Randal Pinkett and Jeffrey Robinson captured in Black Faces in White Places what millions of African Americans and I experience every daythe sometimes-uncomfortable position of being the only Black face in a white place. By the same name, their book documented this rarely discussed phenomenon and provided a workbook of strategies to exist, perform, and excel in such an environment.

Now Drs. Pinkett and Robinson have created a platform for further discussion and discovery in this book, Black Faces in High Places. Interestingly, it documents how to make it to the top of your industry or field, the challenge of staying in high places, and the social responsibility of being the voice in the room when issues related to social justice and racial equity are brought to the forefront. This was typified by the murder of George Floyd.

Who can forget the outpouring of emotion and the numerous protests across the globe, crying out that Black Lives Matter? Who can forget the words of his daughter, Gianna Floyd, when she simply said, My daddy changed the world!? Who can forget the moment when the verdict was read in the courtroom during the trial of convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin who was sentenced to twenty-two and a half years in prison?