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.
00:30And 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.
00:42And 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.
00:49And I would say, who is this woman?
00:51And I 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 Ayan LaVanzant, and just all of these wonderful
01:16people who taught me empowerment.
01:18And 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.
01:35I know we're running long, but I have a lot to say, so I'm going to try to go a
01:38little
01:38fast here.
01:39But this is important because I want you to hear me.
01:40Today, 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 are insisting
01:56upon greater inclusion and empowerment.
02:00Inclusion and empowerment.
02:03Think 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.
02:18Language 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.
02:29That 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.
02:57To get beyond the words and insist upon a new standard, a new normal.
03:06To paraphrase our very honored guest here today, Oprah Winfrey, to imagine a day when nobody
03:13ever has to say, Me Too, again.
03:19I 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
03:28fall.
03:28And we say, maybe we need to start an Us Too campaign, so that people will realize that
03:37discrimination can also be brutal and violent to people.
03:41And 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.
03:57I had a feeling of dread that I might give a speech that we have all heard too many times
04:02before.
04:04Right?
04:04Right?
04:04We've heard the speech.
04:05Nothing is done.
04:07A 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.
04:31But I also imagine that in this room, many of us are feeling fatigued.
04:38If we are to be honest.
04:40We are 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're often taking two steps back.
04:58The truth is, we have made a lot of progress.
05:00We can't deny that we've made a lot of progress.
05:03Underrepresented groups, women, people with disabilities, people of color, we are being
05:10represented 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, people who made great sacrifices
05:33in pursuit of these elusive ideals of inclusion and empowerment.
05:38One figure that comes to mind, and as I was thinking about this today, maybe you've heard
05:43of him, maybe you haven't.
05:45If you haven't, you should research him.
05:47His name is Max Robinson.
05:49One 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.
06:02Close, personal friends.
06:03As a matter of fact, Oprah shared with me that she and Stedman met at Max Robinson's house.
06:12Max 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, he was a colorful person.
06:24Right?
06:25And history has neglected him because of his struggles in his personal life.
06:29Many of them self-inflicted, and he would tell you that himself.
06:32He was known for being tempestuous.
06:35He struggled with alcohol abuse.
06:37And his lingering self-doubt sometimes made him an unreliable colleague.
06:42But he broke a barrier in the world of television journalism in 1978,
06:46when he joined Peter Jennings and Frank Reynolds on World News Tonight.
06:51I don't know if you guys remember that.
06:53I'm Peter Jennings from London.
06:54I'm Frank Robinson from Chicago.
06:57And I'm Mr. Reynolds from Washington.
07:01Right? Remember 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,
07:13he was reading the news behind, he was reading the news,
07:18and they would put a slide up.
07:19Right?
07:21So you could not see the color of his skin.
07:24And so you could just hear him, but you couldn't see the color of his skin.
07:28And one day, Max told the station hand to remove that slide.
07:34And he said, I thought it would be good for all my folks and friends to see me,
07:38rather than this dumb news sign up there.
07:42It 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.
07:53He stoked controversy, again, when he delivered a fiery speech at Smith's College.
07:58He criticized his own network for their lack of inclusion.
08:02He was furious that ABC News overlooked black reporters like himself
08:06for stories that had nothing to do with race or civil rights
08:09or issues deemed relevant to skin color.
08:12Why were they not included, he wondered, in the news that concerned every American?
08:16So he spoke out against it.
08:18He called it an unconscious kind of racism.
08:21His speech ruffled feathers.
08:23But it was also the thing that led to changes in the news division of ABC.
08:30Robinson wanted change everywhere.
08:32Not just for the correspondent and on-air talent,
08:35but also for the show producers, the writers, and behind-the-scenes staff.
08:39For everyone.
08:40Everyone was there for the same purpose.
08:43And that was to report the news of the day.
08:45All of it.
08:47Max Robinson died in 1988 at the age of 49.
08:54Even his passing raised controversy.
08:57He insisted that his family disclose the cause of his death publicly,
09:02which was from complications due to AIDS.
09:08At a time when the President of the United States wouldn't even utter the name of the disease,
09:12Max Robinson said that he wanted to alert others in the black community about its dangers
09:18and a need for treatment and education.
09:20Even in his death, he was informing people.
09:25That is a true journalist.
09:27A 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.
09:41Because he is not the typical hero we lionize in pursuit of inclusion and empowerment.
09:47There are no perfect people.
09:48There 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
09:59and he wanted the same opportunities as everyone else in our business.
10:04The opportunities that I want.
10:05The opportunities that all of you want.
10:07And because he recognized early on that the best way to achieve this goal was to sometimes break the rules
10:13and speak out.
10:16Break 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.
10:36What we do reaches a broad audience and influences the attitudes, the opinions, and the behaviors of the world around
10:44us.
10:44To achieve inclusion and empowerment, we have to empower and include.
10:52That means, for you, changes in casting.
10:56Changes in staffing.
10:58Changes in marketing.
11:01Resist the easy path.
11:04It is easy to hire the same crew.
11:07You know what they can do.
11:10You 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?
11:17Boring.
11:19But if we want change, you're going to have to embrace the unknown.
11:25Feel uncomfortable.
11:26And 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.
11:40It is hard.
11:42But it is the only way that we will make real change.
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