Don Lemon's Full Speech at Empowerment in Entertainment

Hollywood Journal

"I have an obligation to speak up for people who don't have a voice," Lemon said.

Transcript

00:00I'm going to give my praise to the folks in this room and to Oprah, because I never told

00:06you this in person.

00:07As the unicorn on cable news at night, the only person of color, I have an obligation

00:11to speak up for people who don't have a voice, for people who look like me, black people,

00:17members of the LGBT community, and the voiceless all over this world.

00:23So I was this young man in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and we had this giant satellite dish at our

00:30house.

00:31And with that giant satellite dish, we could get all of the talk shows who were sending

00:36out their promotions and saying, tune in at 5 o'clock or 4 o'clock for the Oprah Winfrey

00:42Show.

00:43And I watched you when you first started your show.

00:44I would watch you do your promotions and send them out to every station around the country.

00:50And I would say, who is this woman?

00:51I want to do this.

00:53Who is this?

00:54And your show came to my town in Baton Rouge, and you taught me about not being perfect,

01:04to be perfect in my imperfection, and to be who I am.

01:09And you taught me about self-empowerment, and Ayaan LaVanzant, and just all of these wonderful

01:16people who taught me empowerment.

01:19And I will never forget you for that.

01:20And that's why I can sit ... You are a large part of the reason that I can sit there every

01:24single night and be who I am and unafraid and unapologetic.

01:27So thank you so much, Oprah Winfrey, for that.

01:31I know we're running long, but I have a lot to say, so I'm going to try to go a little

01:38fast here.

01:39But this is important because I want you to hear me.

01:41Today, we are here to honor the change agents.

01:46Many of those change agents are people like you.

01:49We're here to recognize and celebrate the risk takers and champions in our industry who

01:55are insisting upon greater inclusion and empowerment.

02:00Think about those words.

02:05In the news business, we learn early on that one of our most important jobs is not to settle

02:13for jargon.

02:15Words matter.

02:17Language matters.

02:20And that is why we are trained as journalists to get the words right and to prevent our subjects

02:26from hiding behind them.

02:30That is not an easy job lately.

02:34These two words, inclusion and empowerment, are in danger of becoming jargon.

02:42It has become too easy for leaders and people of influence to hide behind these words, to

02:47use them as a point of deflection, while their real meaning continues to elude the people who

02:53need them most.

02:55And that is why we are here today.

02:58To get beyond the words and insist upon a new standard, a new normal.

03:07To paraphrase our very honored guest here today, Oprah Winfrey, to imagine a day where

03:12when nobody ever has to say, Me Too, again.

03:17I often think about people of color in this business, that we need a Me Too moment.

03:24And I talk about this with my friend Tamron Hall, who is starting her show this coming fall.

03:29And we say, maybe we need to start an Us Too campaign, so that people will realize that

03:36discrimination can also be brutal and violent to people.

03:42And the effects are felt throughout your life.

03:46As I was preparing these remarks for today, I experienced a mild feeling of dread.

03:50I have to be honest.

03:51Not because I didn't want to be here.

03:54Not because of a lack of enthusiasm about this topic.

03:58I had a feeling of dread that I might give a speech that we have all heard too many times

04:02before.

04:03Right?

04:04We've heard the speech, nothing is done.

04:06A speech that extols the virtues of diversity and inclusion.

04:10A speech that makes people feel good and inspired, but doesn't inspire good actions.

04:19Now that's not meant as a criticism towards anyone in this room.

04:23In fact, I am fairly certain that in this room I am preaching to the choir.

04:28Look at the diversity in this room.

04:29Look at the faces and the people around you.

04:32But I also imagine that in this room, many of us are feeling fatigued, if we are to be

04:39honest.

04:40I am tired of having this conversation about diversity and inclusion and empowerment.

04:45It is 2019, y'all.

04:50We are feeling that every step toward, forward, we are often taking two steps back.

04:58The truth is, we have made a lot of progress.

05:01We can't deny that we've made a lot of progress.

05:03Underrepresented groups, women, people with disabilities, people of color.

05:10We are being represented more on screen and more in the public eye than ever before.

05:15And we should celebrate that.

05:18But that is not the same thing as inclusion and empowerment.

05:25I stand on the shoulders of a lot of great men and women.

05:30People who made great sacrifices in pursuit of these elusive ideals of inclusion and empowerment.

05:38One figure that comes to mind as I was thinking about this today, maybe you've heard of him.

05:44Maybe you haven't.

05:45If you haven't, you should research him.

05:47His name is Max Robinson.

05:50One of my role models.

05:55Like our honoree here today, he came up through the Chicago ranks, through the news trade.

06:00And they were dear friends, close personal friends.

06:04As a matter of fact, Oprah shared with me that she and Stedman met at Max Robinson's house.

06:13Max was the first person of color to sit in the anchor's chair of a network news desk.

06:20He was not only a person of color.

06:22He was a colorful person, right?

06:25And history has neglected him because of his struggles in his personal life, many of them

06:29self-inflicted.

06:30And he would tell you that himself.

06:32He was known for being tempestuous.

06:35He struggled with alcohol abuse.

06:38And his lingering self-doubt sometimes made him an unreliable colleague.

06:42But he broke a barrier in the world of television journalism in 1978 when he joined Peter Jennings

06:48and Frank Reynolds on World News Tonight.

06:51I don't know if you guys remember that.

06:53I'm Peter Jennings from London, I'm Frank Robinson from Chicago, and I'm Mr. Reynolds

06:59from Washington, right?

07:01Remember that?

07:03It was a long way from years before when he had a slideshow from the viewers.

07:10And what happened was, in his first job, he was reading the news behind, he was reading

07:17the news and they would put a slide up, right?

07:21So you could not see the color of his skin.

07:25And so you could just hear him, but you couldn't see the color of his skin.

07:29And one day, Max told the station hand, the station hand, to remove that slide.

07:35And he said, I thought it would be good for all my folks and friends to see me, rather

07:38than this dumb news sign up there.

07:41It got him fired the very next day.

07:45Beautiful voice, they didn't want to see the black face.

07:47It got him fired.

07:48Not long after that, though, Max secured the anchor desk at ABC News.

07:54He stoked controversy, again, when he delivered a fiery speech at Smith's College.

07:59He criticized his own network for their lack of inclusion.

08:02He was furious that ABC News overlooked black reporters like himself for stories that had

08:06nothing to do with race or civil rights or issues deemed relevant to skin color.

08:13Why were they not included, he wondered, in the news that concerned every American?

08:17So he spoke out against it.

08:18He called it an unconscious kind of racism.

08:21His speech ruffled feathers.

08:24But it was also the thing that led to changes in the news division of ABC.

08:30Robinson wanted change everywhere, not just for the correspondent and on-air talent, but

08:35also for the show producers, the writers, and behind-the-scenes staff, for everyone.

08:41Everyone was there for the same purpose, and that was to report the news of the day.

08:46All of it.

08:48Max Robinson died in 1988 at the age of 49.

08:55Even his passing raised controversy.

08:57He insisted that his family disclose the cause of his death publicly, which was from complications

09:05due to AIDS.

09:08At a time when the President of the United States wouldn't even utter the name of the

09:12disease, Max Robinson said that he wanted to alert others in the black community about

09:17its dangers and a need for treatment and education.

09:20Even in his death, he was informing people.

09:25That is a true journalist, a true American.

09:32The reason I thought of Max today is because his story has never finished.

09:38To this day, that's why we're sitting in this room and we're discussing this.

09:42Because he is not the typical hero we lionize in pursuit of inclusion and empowerment.

09:47There are no perfect people.

09:49There are no perfect victims.

09:50There are no perfect heroes.

09:52Because he never chose to be the icon of diversity in his field.

09:57But he just wanted to be the best at reporting the news and he wanted the same opportunities

10:01as everyone else in our business.

10:04The opportunities that I want.

10:05The opportunities that all of you want.

10:08And because he recognized early on that the best way to achieve this goal was to sometimes

10:13break the rules and speak out.

10:17Break the rules and speak out.

10:19I encourage all of you to please do the same.

10:24Actions over words.

10:28Look around you.

10:29Look at the people we're sitting in this room with.

10:31We sit in a very privileged position.

10:37What we do reaches a broad audience and influences the attitudes, the opinions, and the behaviors

10:43of the world around us.

10:45To achieve inclusion and empowerment, we have to empower and include.

10:52That means, for you, changes in casting.

10:56Changes in staffing.

10:59Changes in marketing.

11:01Resist the easy path.

11:05It is easy to hire the same crew.

11:08You know what they can do.

11:10You feel comfortable with them.

11:12You take risk out of the equation.

11:15Who wants to live a riskless life?

11:18Boring.

11:20But if we want change, you're going to have to embrace the unknown.

11:26Feel uncomfortable.

11:27And face the same risks as Max Robinson faced when he told the stage end to pull that card.

11:36Show his black, beautiful face to the world.

11:41It is hard, but it is the only way that we will make real change.

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