Jemele Hill’s message was direct and clear — there’s room for everyone.
The veteran media personality and 2018 National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Journalist of the Year took the moment at Essence’s inaugural Black Women in Sports event on Feb. 13 to reflect and pay it forward. Hill was honored alongside her new CNN co-host Cari Champion on the upcoming show “Cari & Jemele: Speak.Easy.”
During her acceptance speech, Champion admitted she didn’t initially want to be friends with Hill when both of them worked at ESPN because the industry made her feel like there could only be one Black woman at a time.
“We were pitted against each other,” Hill said. “Not by our own doing, but by the scuttlebutt in the business and a lot of us fall for that. A lot of us believe there can only be one, and not only that, you wind up hating people you don’t even know. You wind up disliking women just coming into a room, for what?
“They want us all to have this mentality that we all have to fight over these crumbs. It’s a whole pie. Why would we fight over crumbs, for what? We’re all guaranteed a slice, and because that slice might look different than you thought, or it might look exactly like you thought. You eating doesn’t mean someone else is starving. It’s not zero-sum.”
Hill’s comments received a rousing ovation from the audience, as the Detroit native began her acceptance speech by acknowledging what she believed to be a successful salary at the beginning of her career — $50,000.
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