CAMP 2018: Jemele Hill Keynote

By Jazmin Bailey

The Top Five

• “Artists are here to disturb the peace.” – James Baldwin

  • Hill said, “We cannot disturb the peace unless we face the uncomfortable truths about this business. It’s too white, too male, too elitist and it’s too corporate.

  • “It’s 2018. If you don’t know how to find Black and Latino people for your newsroom, it’s because you don’t care...If you’re still wondering why people of color and women are leaving your newsrooms, the truth is, you didn’t want to keep them bad enough,” Hill said.

  1. On mental health for journalists, particularly, women of color: We have to find people and spaces where we can rage, cry and go through the gamut of emotions.

     • “Frankly, I think I’m still processing it (the fallout from tweets about the president). You know, sometimes we don’t give ourselves enough time to process things because we don’t have time,” Hill said. “I think it’s not until I really get to a quiet moment, am I really going to understand the toll it’s taken,” Hill said.

  2. On personal branding (especially for the next generation of journalists): “You can’t have a brand without the product.” “When you’re you, and the best version of you, that’s the brand,” Hill said.

  3. On her tweet calling Trump a white supremacist: “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. It wasn’t even a hot take! It was lukewarm,” Hill said.  “If that’s all people know me for, I’ve done a terrible job."

The Surprise

Jemele will be back on TV.

“You’ll see me back on TV, I didn’t retire from it…sources tell me, 2019,” Hill said.

The Contacts

@jemelehill on Twitter