NABJ New York Delves Deep Into Reparations Dialogue With Trymaine Lee, Nikole Hannah-Jones, And Michael Harriot
The New York Association of Black Journalists (NYABJ) is holding an insightful discussion on reparations for members, featuring renowned experts Trymaine Lee, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Michael Harriot. This event will take place on May 29.
Pulitzer and Emmy Award winner Trymaine Lee will lead the conversation. Lee is the host of the MSNBC series “Into America: Uncounted Millions: The Power of Reparations,” which delves into the rarely told story of one of the few Black individuals who received reparations and the transformative impact it had on their family. This narrative underscores the profound potential reparations have to bridge gaps in wealth, education, and political power for Black communities historically marginalized in the United States.
Hannah-Jones is an acclaimed investigative reporter for The New York Times Magazine. She holds the prestigious Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she is also the founding director of the Center for Journalism & Democracy. Her work has earned her numerous accolades, including the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, the Knight Award for Public Service, the Peabody Award, two George Polk awards, the National Magazine Award three times, and an Emmy.
In 2019, Hannah-Jones initiated a groundbreaking project to fundamentally reshape the perception of slavery in the United States. Timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia, she produced a series of articles for a special issue of The New York Times Magazine titled “The 1619 Project.” Pulitzer Prize awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary to Hannah-Jones for her introductory essay.
Hannah-Jones is a reparations advocate, explaining to NPR, “Very few Americans have created all of their wealth on their own; it’s passed down through generations and then built upon. Black Americans never really had a chance to do that.”
Harriot is a columnist at theGrio.com, where he explores the intersection of race, politics, and culture. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, NBC, and BET, according to Google Books. Harriot is also a political commentator on MSNBC and CNN and has received honors from the National Association of Black Journalists for his commentary, digital commentary, and TV news writing. He is the creator and co-host of the podcast “Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History,” produced in partnership with Pharrell’s OTHERtone. His college course “Race: An Economic Construct” has been adopted by university economics departments nationwide as a model for integrating history, economics, politics, and class structures.
(L-R) Trymaine Lee, photo via MSNBC, https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/trymaine-lee-biography-n1230676/Nikole Hannah-Jones, photo: Howard University, https://profiles.howard.edu/nikole-hannah-jones/ Michael Harriot, photo via website, https://www.michaelharriot.com
