Celebration of All: April Ryan On Supporting Black Women Rising To The Top

April Ryan, (L) author and CNN analyst at Chicago Humanities Festival with Valerie Jarrett, CEO of The Obamam Foundation.

Growing up in Baltimore, April Ryan, CNN analyst and author, says what she witnessed was, “All my life a Black woman was rising to the top.”

The author of Black Women Will Save The World: An Anthem, Ryan shares with the audience of the Chicago Humanities Festival at Northwestern University the examples in her family and around her professionally of Black women who succeeded.

“The author of Black Women Will Save The World: An Anthem, @AprilDRyan shares with the audience of the @Chihumanities at @NorthwesternU the examples in her family and around her professionally of #Blackwomen who succeeded. #blackwomenlead”

“I always want my daughter to see women who look like us to imagine a future for herself and show her what she can do,” says Ryan, who has been the only Black woman to cover the White House consistently since President Bill Clinton was in office.

Valerie Jarrett, CEO of The Obama Foundation and former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, shares the stage in conversation with Ryan on issues of media, representation, partisanship, leadership, fairness and being “the only.”

Starting out, Ryan says she had love for broadcast media production beginning her freshman year at Morgan State University, where she worked at the campus station between classes. “I had a craving for news production,” she says.

After graduation, she had stints at radio stations in Tennessee, and later Baltimore, before she started as a White House correspondent in 1997 covering President Clinton. It is also where she started the practice of soul food dinners for correspondents with the president.

At first, the White House correspondent’s job was not what she anticipated.

““I always want my daughter to see women who look like us to imagine a future for herself and show her what she can do,” says @AprilDRyan, who has been the only #Blackwoman to cover the White House consistently since President Bill Clinton was in office. #representation”

“I hated that job,” Ryan says. “But my mother said you can’t leave, you have to wait for two years because people will think you got fired.” She stayed for 23 more years. 

After Obama was elected, Ryan was in contact with Jarrett, and also on Air Force One together, where Ryan says she sat in the back with the press core until Jarrett brought her to the front for a on-on-one interview with President Obama.

Ryan interviewed Jarrett for her book, which is made up of “stories of what Black women have done.” She adds, “We are in every space and place and continue to move mountains so we can continue to live our lives in the best way possible.”

Even so, Ryan says, “Black women are not getting respect.”

“There are double standards,” Jarrett says, “and a culture of silence that targets Black women.”

A new study from Payscale.com “reveals that Black women are being paid the least in comparison to other groups, even as the gender pay gap is closing,” according to Black Enterprise. 

That gap continues to widen as Black women achieve more career success.

“The Payscale.com study reports that employers who acknowledge these challenges can make an impact by prioritizing pay equity. Pay transparency laws also play a factor in efforts towards closing the gender pay gap,” Black Enterprise reports. 

According to the National Women’s Law Center, the cumulative financial harm of the pay gap for Black women is significant.

“According to the @Nwlc, the cumulative financial harm of the #paygap for #Blackwomen is significant.”

“This pay gap is especially stark for Black women, who face not only race discrimination, but also sex discrimination. Among full-time, year-round workers, Black women typically make just 67 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. This wage gap costs Black women $1,891 per month, $22,692 per year and a staggering loss of $907,680 over a 40-year career.”

Black women in the workplace also frequently report microaggressions, blatant discrimination and bias, according to People Management, with more than 50% of Black women in a U.K. study saying they experience microaggressions at work.

Those microaggressions can include, “People making comments about a Black woman’s hair or the color of her skin – even if it is framed as a compliment – or asking a Black woman if you can touch her hair. Addressing a Black woman as ‘aggressive’ or “scary,’” People Management reports.

“#Blackwomen in the workplace also frequently report #microaggressions and blatant discrimination and #bias, according to @PeopleMgt, with more than 50% of Black women in a U.K. study saying they experience microaggressions at work. ”

Ryan says in the years of the Donald Trump White House, she was under a great deal of stress due to the hostile environment targeting her specifically. “That kind of hate is foreign to my nature,” says Ryan, who was mocked, trolled, intimidated and had a bomb sent to her home.

When she was called out and ridiculed in a press conference, Ryan says she was ready to quit her job.

“But Valerie called me and said, ‘We need you.’” So she stayed.

“I stayed because my working class parents worked too hard for this. I stayed. I’m still here.”

What that era has taught her is that, “We have to have safe spaces to have conversations. It takes people to make our country become a space where everyone is accounted for,” Ryan says.

In the days before the midterm elections, and now in the days following, Ryan says, “Laws are not permanent. SCOTUS has power. The White House has power. The legislative branch has power. And people can rise up. They are voting to make change.”

“In the days before the #midterm elections, and now in the days following, @AprilDRyan says, “Laws are not permanent. SCOTUS has power. The White House has power. The legislative branch has power. And people can rise up. They are voting to make change.” #democracy”

She adds, “I don’t stand here on my own, but on the shoulders of trailblazers, of Black men and Black women.”

Jarrett adds, “I have a bill of sale for my great great grandmother. She had strength of character and they cannot take that away from us. There are two different worlds for white women and Black women and you have to advocate for yourself when you are a Black woman in this country.”

That is evident in business leadership especially.

The first Black woman to be CEO of a Fortune 500 company was Ursula Burns, who was named to that spot at Xerox in 2009. She tells CNBC, “she never minded being the only Black woman in any room, even considering it an advantage. ‘If I raised my hand in any meeting, almost surely, I was called on. You’re so different that, at least in open spaces, they can’t ignore you.’”

““I don’t stand here on my own, but on the shoulders of trailblazers, of Black men and Black women.” —@AprilDRyan, @CNN analyst and author of Black Women Will Save The World: An Anthem. #blackwomenlead”

In the workplace, Jarrett says, mentorship and sisterhood is key. “You have to find somebody you can be vulnerable with. You have to find an association of women to figure out how to move upward.”

Speaking of recent antisemitism rants from celebrities and sports figures, Ryan adds, “We are linked to one another. We are communities that have been through atrocities and it has to stop. We need to stop giving voice to crazy. No one should be threatening any group at this moment in time.”

“Speaking of recent #antisemitism rants from celebrities and sports figures, @AprilDRyan adds, “We are linked to one another. We are communities that have been through atrocities and it has to stop.” #neveragain #stophate ”

She adds, “I believe in the celebration of all. I do not believe in hate.”