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Journalists Should ‘Tell the Truth’ About Trump

Reading has been my passion since when I was a kid I could barely read full sentences. Passion makes sense for an aspiring writer. Although I’ve always preferred fiction to fiction, I can still read a biography of a public figure or person I admire and feel compassion, empathy, or some way of relating. to their world.

However, it wasn’t until I read Jemele Hill’s new memoir Uphill that I felt as if I had been seen.

So, at the beginning of our interview, I told the famous journalist that there was a chance that I would get emotional during the conversation.

I saw myself in some of the battles she described in her autobiography: moments where I questioned my purpose, times when I felt more like a burden, and almost wish his existence would disappear. Growing from Black girls to Black women, we’re pulled in so many directions and it’s hard to maintain a sense of self. We enter the world fighting everyone, even those closest to us, for a chance to live. If we go far enough, we’ll fight to prove we’re worth it. At the same time, we must demonstrate our femininity while being reminded of our lack of closeness to white.

Where the mainstream press doesn’t understand the precarious position Black journalists are in, is that they want us to lead by journalism. We are black people. It’s different.

Jemele Hill

Add to that a career in journalism, and the Black woman is in a grueling battle to protect every segment of her identity.

Hill hides nothing — even her multi-layered consciousness — in her recently released autobiography, Uphill. Moving through life as a girl with dreams, to a woman with a big reality, she explores those dichotomies and, in the end, they lead her to unexpected turns on the road to victory. how.

“When people ask me if I would change anything or do anything differently, the answer is no,” Hill said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “I want it to be exactly the same, although, yes, it comes with some pain and some trauma and… some unfortunate scars. But I really don’t believe I would be the person I am today without it.”

Black unapologetically, the front-runner sports journalist sat down with Beast for a video call. She wears a T-shirt in the colors of the African flag; it read, “Supporting Black Journalists” with a proud black fist that, at the bottom, turned into a pen. Her honey-colored box-shaped braids were tied up like a crown.

Before delving into her own Detroit upbringing in the memoir, Hill detailed the story of her family: her mother’s sexual assault and abuse as a child, both father and mother Hill’s were all battling an ongoing drug addiction and her mother became pregnant at the age of 18.

“I wanted to share…my family’s relationship with addiction because I wanted to remove the shame of it,” explains Hill. “That’s why I decided to share so many truly personal details in this memoir. I think a lot of us walk around shamefully, whether it’s about family history, whether it’s about our own history, whether it’s about personal decisions friend. “

Later, in the book, Hill explains her life simply Try to survive as a child. She became estranged from her father after he and her mother split, and her mother sometimes loses herself as a parent trying to figure out how to reach the next high school. Meanwhile, Hill is constantly moving into new homes with her mother – and sometimes her mother’s various boyfriends – trying to find some sort of normalcy. The short men seeping in and out of the picture had a lasting impact on both Hill and her mother.

As Hill grew, her relationship with her mother became more complicated, sometimes turbulent. Her mother threatened to kick her out of the house after finding and reading her diary. There were times when Hill lived with his grandmother, who also did not have a close relationship with Hill’s mother.

“There were times… when my mother was mean. And I don’t know where that came from or what prompted it. So for me, I just felt like there was something about me or about me that my mom didn’t like,” Hill said.

She added that it wasn’t until much later that she realized what her mother was going through as a young woman and the post-traumatic stress.

“We see this especially when it comes to Black mothers and Black daughters, where they are feeling the pain to some extent,” she said. “Sometimes, the only outlet for that pain, anger, frustration may be with their daughter. I took a lot to absorb that. That’s part of navigating around abuse. “

So much of what Hill inherited emotionally was part of a cycle she knew she had to break.

The future sports writer began her professional journey by writing stories and journaling as a child.

“Journaling is a big solution for me. I’m carrying so many pent-up emotions and things, I need a place to put them. It provides a space for me,” she said. “It gives me self-determination. It’s something I desperately need as an adult because… I don’t feel in control in any of my circumstances. I needed somewhere where I felt like I had something to say about what was happening to me. Journaling is where that comes in. “

Eventually, Hill’s articles turned into a career: interning with the local Detroit newspaper while in high school and writing in college. It didn’t take long for her love of sports — the love she shared with her former stepfather — to raise the stakes in her journalism career.

It also didn’t take long for her to realize her place as a black woman in the industry.

She said that the letter of protest and protest did not bother her. Instead, it made her more determined to succeed.

Even as she climbed into a broadcaster role at ESPN, Hill said there was more to journalism than objectivity, especially as a Black journalist during the Trump presidency.

“We should tell people to tell the truth,” she said, referring to former President Donald Trump’s racial controversies. “Objectivity and truth are not the same thing. Truth has a side. “

She told The Daily Beast that the media world wants Black journalists to “separate our experiences and identities from the reporting that we do when we understand the injustice that is happening to the community.” ours. We understand the levers and mechanisms of institutional racism and how it has impacted us. “

She claimed the media didn’t do its job and took advantage of Trump’s presidential campaign and presidency for the sake of ratings.

In her memoir, Hill shared her story ESPN . Suspension after tweeting that the former president is a white supremacist. It became a viral moment, even disrupting the daily lives of her colleagues.

“Where the mainstream press doesn’t understand the precarious position Black journalists are in, is that they want us to lead by journalism. We are black people. It’s different,” she told The Daily Beast. “We have a much deeper responsibility. Not just for our community, but for how we see ourselves. That cannot be objective. That doesn’t mean we can’t be fair. Objectivity and fairness are not the same thing.”

Now running her own media company, Tetherless, Hill has become a voice on racism in other verticals. However, she still has dreams from her childhood that she wants to fulfill.

“I need life to slow down a bit,” she said. “I always have a lot of ideas in mind about what kind of stories I want to write. When the dust from this season settles… I will fasten my seat belt and write the story that is already in my head.”

“I want to think and hope this book is an input to that.”



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