Growing up, my mama would often say, “Don’t write a check with your mouth that your butt can’t cash.”
News of Roseanne’s racist Twitter tirade recently filled my timelines, and the consequences she faced can be attributed to one thing: a black woman at the seat of power.
Channing Dungey, President of ABC Entertainment Group, and the first black female head of an entertainment group at ABC, brought about Roseanne’s day of reckoning when she called for the show’s cancellation. Dungey was cashing checks and snatching shows. Praise for her swift action also filled my timelines.
When you have a seat at the table, you have a say in the decisions that are made. When it’s your table, you make the decisions. “Roseanne canceled after star's RACIST comments.” #ChanningDungey #ABC Entertainment President https://t.co/iqgONSjJU0 pic.twitter.com/zKeQL7NwVL
There's a time to speak and a time be silent. One of the greatest tests of someone's character is the use of one's power to speak about issues that matter in the midst of controversy. #ChanningDungey passed with flying colors. pic.twitter.com/TGxWCUy93B
https://t.co/jXURFCgHzg The #President of @ABCNetwork
#ChanningDungey. Thank #God for #BlackWomen. #BlackWomenLead
#Roseanne
#BlackLivesMatter
Hashtags about trusting black women and letting black women lead are the current fad, and it’s cute or whatever. But when black women challenge the status quo and exhibit the leadership we claim we want to see, they are met with threats, attacks on their character and doubts about their ability to lead.
An article from CNN downplays Dunge’s role in the swift decision to cancel Roseanne, speculating that she couldn’t have made the decision on her own. The article also notes that she alone would be responsible for cleaning up the mess left by the decision to cancel the show, having to fill the opening in the show lineup and make up the ad revenue that would be lost.
Edward-Issac Dovere’s Politico hit piece on Our Revolution, is another example of the undue criticism that black women in leadership face.
According to Dovere, Tezlyn Figaro, a political consultant, lacked any political organizing experience, making her unfit for the Chief of Staff role Nina Turner, President of Our Revolution presented to the board. A simple google search would have uncovered a resume for Figaro that illustrates over 20 years of political experience and other relevant experience. The former CEO of an award-winning staffing firm with 300 employees and serving in management at two of the world’s largest staffing firms, Figaro is more than qualified to be Chief of Staff. The article conveniently omits her most recent role as the National Racial Justice Director for the 2016 Sanders campaign.
While black women are demanding a seat at the political decision making table with the democratic party, Figaro would have been in a position of leadership in one of the progressive movement’s most visible institutions. As progressives struggle to connect with black voters, positioning black women in leadership is a symbol of progress in black engagement that the movement desperately needs going into midterms and beyond.
The article also blames Turner for staffing issues and the endorsement process, although these are issues that have plagued the organization since its inception. Unsubstantiated claims that Turner is leveraging her role for fame and the next political office is to question Turner’s audacity to think she can aspire for higher office.
Black women are held to unreasonable standards and being twice as good isn’t usually good enough. And when Black women in leadership have missteps, the consequences are quite disproportionate.
Joy-Ann Reid, the only black national correspondent at MSNBC with a news show, is fending off calls for her show to be pulled because of inflammatory comments drudged up from a old blog, despite apologizing for the remarks. Figaro apologized and resigned after concerns about her comments regarding immigration were raised, but Our Revolution supporters have pushed for Nina Turner to step down.
Missteps made by black women in leadership overshadow their talent, contributions and accomplishments. The backlash black women in leadership endure for missteps that others in similar situations brush aside, sends a message — a dog whistle that other black women aspiring to leadership hear loud and clear.
But we keep it moving.
Despite the sacrifices, risks and challenges, black women continue to step into leadership in politics, business and movement spaces. We lead the fight for black lives, even though brutality and sexual violence against black women by police goes unnoticed. We raise our tired and strained voices to say #MeToo after years of screaming #MuteRKelly.
Although there are no black women running Fortune 500 firms, we only earn 66 cents on the dollar in wages and black women take on more student debt than any other group of women, we are still the most educated group in the nation. And black women continue to be a deciding factor in key state elections, although we have yet to elect a black woman to statewide office.
If events of this past week taught us anything, it's that black women at the seat of power get stuff done. Black women lead with authenticity, conviction and unflinching courage in the face of white supremacy, privilege and mediocrity. And when black women lead, we all win. So when the hashtags are long forgotten, the legacy of change that black women in leadership have shaped will live on.
