Joy Reid told the crowd at the 2025 Essence Women in Hollywood Awards on Thursday that Black women are “living at a time of theft.”
Reid’s speaking appearance at the luncheon came about three days after MSNBC’s abrupt restructuring resulted in the termination of her show, The ReidOut. Speaking about Black women, she told the crowd on Thursday that “our history is at risk of being stolen away.”
“Our opportunity to participate in this democracy is being threatened,” she continued. “We are losing the service, potentially, of federal workers who are disproportionately us in the service that we disproportionately give.”
To a cheering crowd, Reid also cited “those of us who are in the United States military [who] are being told that our history cannot be taught in military academies, that our photos cannot be shown on their websites, because that is DEI, as if diversity, equity and inclusion is not a great thing.”
Reid went on to speak about the power of diversity and inclusion efforts, saying that DEI policies — which the Trump administration has repeatedly attacked via multiple executive orders — “is a gift to the corporations and to the entities that we serve.”
She added, “This country is becoming more diverse, whether people like it or not, and so if you want to sell dollies, you’re going to need a Black mermaid, because all the little Black and brown girls want to see themselves in those characters.”
To cheers again, she continued: “Equity is important because we [Black women] come in knowing we have to be better, more educated, stronger, more prepared than anyone else when we walk into a room. And so we are. And so in each of the spaces that we exist, we tend to be the best. And that equity is not just equity for us, it’s equity for these companies and organizations that we serve. It makes their organizations better, and inclusion is just reality. There’s nothing you can do to reverse the tide that is making this a more diverse country.”
Reid went on to say that the only way to prevent the diversification of America is to try and “alter democracy,” and that Black Americans have been at the heart of resistance movements to prevent those threats. “African Americans, who have struggled through loss and lack and enslavement, and Jim Crow… we believe more than anyone in this country in the rights, the freedoms and the Constitution that did not include us.”
The 2025 Essence Women in Hollywood Awards honored Cynthia Erivo, Teyana Taylor, Marla Gibbs and Raamla Mohamed. They took place Thursday at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel.
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