Important conversation with people who are both on the front lines of history and to make history, because of what they do and of who they are. And reallylace here, our privilege, at smpa to host conversations like this that bring remarkable people who do remarkable things and sometimes very Difficult Conversations to this stage. Tonight, what you will hear is, as i said, that front row seat on history. Being a woman of color at this time and in this place is something that is too rare, something we need to be thinking about on a lot of different levels. I know your thoughts will be challenged with that, and probably in places you will be regaled by some of the stories along the way. It is a pleasure and a privilege for me, as well, to introduce to you a very special student who was going to introduce professor thompson and bring out the panel. She is a junior. She is a journalism major. She has done remarkable things here at gw and beyond. She happens to be president of the Gw Association of black journalists. The prime ofs, in her life at gw. She is the assistant editor of gws multicultural magazine, an intern at an africanamerican newspaper. I think she is destined to go on to a remarkable career, and she is launching right here. Would you join me, please, and welcoming lauryn hill. [cheers and applause] [applause] thank you. Good evening. Third major event in as many years. Streamlineds being streamed live. I would first like to thank the school of media and Public Affairs for helping plan tonights event and the black Heritage Committee for allowing our organization to be a part of another great series of programming. Our organization believes it is important to discuss the Trump Administration from the perspective of black women journalists, a group whose voices have historically been suppressed but who refused to be silenced. Tonights panel, which will be introduced shortly, includes some of the best, most recognizable journalists who cover this countrys elected officials. I hope each of you leaves tonight with a better understanding of the challenges of being a woman of color and a journalist during such a unique juncture in our nations history. It is my pleasure to introduce the moderator for tonight, professor cheryl thompson. Professor thompson teaches investigative reporting and newswriting at gw and has spent 21 years writing for the washington post. She has covered the justice the permit, immigration, d. C. Police, the white house during Barack Obamas term, and spent more than a dozen years on projects in investigative teams. She shared the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2002 and won an emmy award in 2011 for a series on guns in a prison interview with a young man in chicago who killed a police officer. She has two naacp headliner awards and dozens of other awards. She was part of the team the ditty yearlong series on police she was that ones opponents are. That one the full of surprise. Pulitzer. She was named the 2017 journalism educator of the year. Professor thompson has bachelors and masters degrees from the university of illinois. She is Vice President of the investigator reporters and editors board, the first africanamerican to hold that position, and serves on the board of the fund for investigative journalism. She is also a member of alpha kappa alpha. Do, further of further do professor thompson. , [applause] alpha kappa alpha. Please welcome professor thompson. [applause] wow, shouldnt you all be studying . [laughter] out. T come on out. This is our panel. They are being shy. [applause] niamalika henderson knows more about political pen games political campaigns than most people. She is simply one of the best political reporters in the country. Niamalika thank you. [applause] i met yamiche when shenine years ago came to the post as an intern fresh out of that other g school down the street, georgetown. I was thrilled to be one of her mentors. She was fearless, feisty, and dogged, traits that make her the amazing reporter she is today. And she also just took a new job with pbs. She gave up a job at the New York Times does go to go to pbs i know. [laughter] and she is also a considered to msnbc. A contributor to msnbc. [applause] prof. Thompson whether it is discussing tax reform or writing about rob porter you all know rob porter . [laughter] that you didnt know him before a couple of days ago, did you . Darlene superville is a rockstar at the associated press, her home for the last three decades. I know shes like, did you have to say that . [laughter] actually, three decades sounds better than 30 years. Darlene neither one. [laughter] prof. Thompson the nyu graduate has covered former First Lady Michelle Obama and has covered the white house since 2009. [applause] well, well, well. [laughter] whether it is confronting Sarah Huckabee sanders over the president s treason comments or lashing out at a fellow journalist who clearly didnt know you [laughter] for invoking her name at the end of a White House Press briefing, april ryan takes no prisoners. The baltimore native joined the American Urban Radio Network in 1997 and was one of the First White House correspondents to talk to me when i joined the ranks during obamas firstterm. You probably dont were member that, but pretend like you do. [laughter] prof. Thompson welcome. [applause] so we want to have a frank cussion no, not sesno a frank discussion about what is going on in the Trump Administration and what it is like as a woman of color, a black woman, to cover it. April is already giving me looks. First question, journalists, including the White House Press corps, are under attack from the unconventional administration. How do you deal with racially coded policies and statements . In other words, how do you keep your balance . April, you first. April how do you keep it balanced . It is not about me. It is about the story. That is what we really aim to do. It is about the story. That room has never been a room that reflects america, number one. Unfortunately, it seems like when you look like me, you stand out like a pink elephant. I sit smack down on the third row. You cant miss me, and they dont miss me. They choose to overlook me at times but you cant miss me. Covering this white house as an africanamerican woman has been tough. That is a beat that is not kind to anyone. But when you are not part of the , instream press i am not am specialty media, meaning i have a certain niche. I talk about or question about primarily black issues. But i also asked everything. Cover thisu Administration Working on these , particularly when in this administration i am not perceived as their base, it is tough. It is very tough. There have been attacks. Theres been retaliation for questions. But it is not about me. Unfortunately i have been in the news, but it is not about me. It is about the story. And when you look at it as the story and not yourself, you can move on. You can keep going back every day. I havent done anything wrong. I am asking questions like anyone else would, be it black, white, man, woman, jew, gentile, catholic, protestant. Im asking questions is like everyone else who has covered , 1600 pennsylvania avenue, the most magnificent place in the world. Prof. Thompson thank you april. I just want to say i am delighted to be here with all these women who i have known for years. Niamalika i will say for me and i dont cover the white house every day like these women do i see my role as sort of areecting how people registering and analyzing this president s words, particularly in regards to race. I go back to interactions ive had with voters as they were assessing his candidacy, some of the things they would say. Their real reactions to my some would say racially tinged, racial undertones, somewhat say racist, but if you look in the ways that this president talks about race and deploys race, i think it is pretty clear and i have written about this that he is playing the race card. Your criticisms about the left playing identity politics because they talk about black lives matter or the dreamers. Well, it is also true that President Trump plays like identity politics. It is pretty evident if you look at the data and the polling him and terms of how a lot of his voters feel about race and a sense of racial grievance and resentment. I think that is the way i deal with it. You try to talk about the data, how he talks about race. You put together the ways in which he tax he talks about africanamericans, very easily calling for the firing of nfl players, not so easily for the , john kellyb porter making up a story about a congresswoman, that is the way i deal with it. In terms of the way i feel personally about it, this is our job. To holdn this business peoples feet to the fire, to in thisthe voices country, so that is the way i deal with it. I asked myself pretty often why i am still a reporter and what i am actually going to do. The question i would go back to is this young boy, emmett till, who was killed in mississippi as a teenager. That sparked the Civil Rights Movement. I think of myself as a Civil Rights Movement civil rights journalist. No matter what beat i am doing, or at theher crime white house, i think it is a story of race. When i think of the questions i am asking or the stories i am going to write, i think, what are we learning about our country and about the differences in race continuing to color how people are in real race . I dont believe in. With lindsays, so i think you can be fair, but you dont have to always there is no false equivalency like segregation, so i think if i was writing in 1960s i would not say that charlottesville is something that was bad on both sides. I think as a reporter i am growing into that, being able to say that was not ok. I am haitianamerican. When the president was talking about shole countries and talking about haitians and questioning what they have been doing for america, i was in to get on tv and say, one, that is wrong for you to say that patients arent contributing, to two, you should go georgia because free 6lacks came from haiti free blacks came from haiti and helped free you from the former britain, so that is what i do to stay balanced in my mind. I want to come back to your haitian response little later. Darlene . Darlene one thing i would say is that i exercise. [laughter] darlene keep exercising. It helps relieve the stress. It is a stressful place. But as april said, it is a hard place to cover, whether you are black, white, male, female. I have not experienced any kind of personal animus directed towards me because im a black woman. Different a black woman. And i have a different audience than april. One thing i try to keep in mind is that there is life outside of the white house after work. Pursue your interests, and that will take some of the sting out of whatever happened to you that they. Race is such an issue in this administration. Do you are member of another playedtration where race even in the Obama Administration race did not come up as frequently as it does. Race has touched every president in some way, shape, or form. We started up together as a large contingent of black reporters at the time in the bill clinton era. He was dealing with africa, putting a focus on africa. He was also putting a focus on healing the racial divide in talking about the heart. Then we came to george w. Bush, he intrinsically knew what his audience or his base was not black. I am republican because of my father, because i was governor of texas, because of the Death Penalty issue in texas, and just kept going on and on. One ofn when katrina hit the issues is if he had put a little more equity or state into the black Community Like he did africa were Different Things with africa he didnt want to count it because he felt the black population was not his base if he would have done a little bit more in saying who he was, it would not have been so rough when katrina hit. So then you had and i thought and then you have this guy who really mesmerized both democrats and republicans for one reason or another. , race. Ing about him it was race all over just because he was a black man, and s on thet wa thats on theuse black community because it was a black man. It is always on the table, from when bill clinton told me years ago and subsequently all the other president s, and then for this president race is definitely a factor. We talk about Colin Kaepernick and the narrative of the nfl causing a rift with players in the nfl and those who watch, when you talk about sons of what . Then when you go to the shole comments and we hear from maggie haberman, a white reporter, who said something to the effect who said he said something to the effect that if nigerians come here they should go back to their huts because they all have aids. Oh yes. I have seen race play out in some of the best way than most unfortunate ways. It ultimately comes down to a heart issue, the president is the world leader. He sets the tone. I think the narrative about obama was that america had reached this place that we were able to a black man got this job and that there is going to be this great moment and black people everywhere were going to somehow improve their lives. I think that was lost what was lost in that narrative was how my people were angry to see a black man and a black family on their tv everyday, and how many people were mad at their own shortcomings because the economy wasnt working out for them. Theres the idea that people are mad at obama because of the economy, but i mean that if you are someone who already has a predisposition to like africanamericans and then you cant get a job and the job numbers are coming out every day saying the economy is Getting Better and now you have to watch two black girls on tv wearing 1000 dresses, it is not just about president s anymore. It is about your actual lived experience looking at what you could do. America in a lot of ways is told straight white men that you have the privilege. You are the one that is going to be up to do everything. But that obviously isnt the case for everybody. There are straight white men who are struggling, who cannot get jobs, who have issues, and that is just catapulting it. As someone who wasnt a fullfledged reporter yet, i read way more stories about how great obamas presidency was for america and not as many stories about all of the people that were starting up White Nationalist groups were being very angry and stewing in their living rooms because they didnt like by people. Sort of the tea party, right . At some of those rallies oftentimes they would have signs , send obama back to kenya, there is one sign about his ugly dollars. You cover the tea party, you see some of that desperately daughters ugly daughters. You cover the tea party, you see need to take we our country back like it has gone somewhere. Obamak the brilliance of in running for the white house was that he didnt make anyone feel guilty about race and racism. A vote for obama was in some ways absolution for this great sin and stain of racism and this promise of postracism. The way he did that, he had sort of his own sort of sister. Oldier moment goingama, he does that by to black crowds and essentially saying, youve got to do better. Youve got to pull up your pants. This whole idea of black respectability politics, he does that and signals to voters, particularly white voters, that he is not going to coddle africanamericans and is not going to be the president of black americans with a basketball hoop anyway hows. That was first term hoop in the white house. That was first term obama. He was different in the second term. He talked about race a lot more. I think he used the nword once. One of the things against hillary that people brought up is that she made people feel bad about racism. She did bring up black lives matter and talk about racism, nothing that made people feel that. Prof. Thompson how has the Trump Presidency affected the conversation on race . While april is thinking about it, you want to respond . [laughter] darlene i would say that under the Trump Presidency the conversation about race is just more out there, more prominent again. We talked about him with the Football Players and kneeling during the national anthem. That has generated a lot of discussion, and in some cases protest. The issue of the comments he made about haiti, african countries. And lets also remember that one of the biggest proponents of the birtherism issue against president obama was donald trump before he was president. Thatlped drive that idea obama was not born in america for many, many years, and didnt give it up until recently. Prof. Thompson you think it is to cover race with more context because of him . Yamiche everyone on this stage does a great job digging up resources and talking. But we have found, i believe, we have had to dig for more facts and stats to prove certain things are not correct because we have a president now who likes to go off feeling. It is true. He sets the tone for other people to pontificate on cnn or any other network. A Great Network. [laughter] april to say what they feel. I am going to give you a big example. We havent even talked about charlottesville. Charlottesville really exposed a lot. When the president had those teleprompters in his face, we were like, we can breathe. But when he talked off the top of his head, the world shook. It was ugly. Kkkhad david duke of the during the state of the union when the president said americans are dreamers, too. Yet, it was like six or seven times i know i was with him when he went to the military base at fort myer and was military. The it was almost like an apology to tryn explanation tour and explain what he was saying, that both sides are good people. A woman died. A white woman died. So race is exposed and its barest sense. This is not archie bunker. This is the president of the United States.