“The ReidOut,” one of MSNBC’s most popular and most viewed shows, was recently canceled. And with the show, its unapologetically Black, full-fledged soul sister Joy-Ann Reid was shown the proverbial door.
But this is not just a loss for Reid, it’s a loss for the culture.
This isn’t the first time MSNBC fired a soul sister while continuing to employ far less talented other-race hosts. The powerful Tiffany Cross and her ratings-leading show “The Cross Connection” were unceremoniously booted in November of 2022. In fact, Reid was brought on to host a show on the network after MSNBC axed the highly popular and absolutely thought-provoking Melissa Harris-Perry (MHP).
MHP was so beloved by viewers that an entire movement of followers (Nerdland) remained in conversation with the host and each other between shows before such online community-building became commonplace.
Former MSNBC star host Keith Olbermann said, “MSNBC fired Joy Reid, and yes, it is racist and maybe worse… Yes, it is designed to keep out people who might think differently.”
And Olbermann has a point.
Reid, Cross, Harris-Perry and Alex Wagner, whose show, “Alex Wagner Tonight,” was canceled after Reid’s, are the only women of color to solo-host MSNBC shows in the network’s history. All shows were canceled, and all hosts were let go from the network.
The loss of Wagner’s show hasn’t hit Black viewers yet since it just made the news. But the MHP, Cross and Reid firings cut deep.
It might be simply recency bias since Reid’s firing literally just happened, but it feels like her dismissal hit differently.
Representing every-sista
Reid’s style wasn’t for everybody. If you like your cable news show hosts to give it to you straight, no chaser, with just the facts, watching “The ReidOut” was a rude awakening.”
Reid hosted her show like she was having a conversation with her homies in the living room of her spot—unfiltered, full of all the emotions any of us have when we hear of the racist shenanigans going down in this country.
And in that way, Reid was (and still is) all of us. She never tried to hide her disgust at bearing witness in her and our lifetimes to American democracy’s complete obliteration and fascism’s accelerated rise.
When news broke of a white nationalist insurrection hellbent on delegitimizing Black votes during the 2020 Presidential Election, Reid wore her pain on her face.
When police officers ad nauseam indiscriminately gunned down and killed Black men, women and children, and got away with it, Reid didn’t attempt to hide behind journalistic objectivity. She shared her anger and pain.
And remember when the majority of U.S. voters, especially white women who claimed to roll with VP Kamala Harris, instead cast their votes for the anti-Black, anti-women, anti-democracy candidate? Reid didn’t come out playing it cool. Rather, she hit the airwaves sounding like every Black woman on Planet Earth I know.
Tired. Disgusted, Fed up. And through.
Segregation alive and well
But with her firing, it’s not just Reid who’s getting tossed out the door. I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice this, but the so-called “liberal” MSNBC only seemed to be able to find Black guests on MPH’s, Cross’s, Wagner’s and Reid’s shows. For all its supposed progressiveness, MSNBC was/is as segregated as any other aspect of Americana, including church congregations and public school rosters.
Makes you wonder, MSNBC must be an acronym for “Must Segregate Negroes By Choice.”
Without Reid, we, the news-craving viewing public, will once again be inundated with white “experts” on all things Black and that their thoughts, ideas and analyses are universal—which they are not.
Countless studies show that diversity (via race, gender, religion, etc.) improves every aspect of an institution. Why? Different people with different experiences bring different viewpoints that, when combined, are overwhelmingly superior in every aspect to those produced by homogenous, all-whitebread rooms.
Reid’s diversity of guests provided a superior analysis of current events, historical remembrances and social commentary designed for future forecasting. All that’s lost with “The ReidOut” thrown out.
Again, it’s really all of us who are being thrown out, discarded, cast aside, and declared insignificant.
The real FAFO
Reid’s firing serves as a reminder that while we’re getting a kick out of all the whites and off-whites for Trump experiencing their ongoing FAFO (“mess” around and find out) moments, it’s us who again find ourselves being reminded of the real FAFO.
We will never enjoy the space and opportunity for fully protected expression of who and what we are when we are confined to doing our thing within institutions owned and controlled by everybody but us.
Hell, the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey told us that in the 1920s (over 100 years ago). Since then, countless other sisters and brothers have preached that same sermon. But we’ve yet to heed those words with the seriousness they deserve.
Maybe this, our most recent FAFO moment, will help us see the absolute need to invest in Roland Martin’s NewsOne, the Black Press in general, and efforts led by journalist extraordinaire Karen Hunter, scholar supreme Dr. Greg Carr, and leading thought leader Lurie Daniel Favors.
Until we secure and support our own spaces (news, retail, education, etc.), the next MHP, the next Tiffany Cross and the next Joy-Ann Reid will suffer the same fate.
And so will we all.
