I still have a job. That’s a blessing. But it’s also a burden.

Every few months, I watch another talented Black journalist walk out the door—some laid off, some pushed out, some just too exhausted from the fight to stay. When Black voices disappear from the media, so do the stories that only we would have told. And lately, it seems like those voices are vanishing at an alarming rate.

Across the industry, Black journalists are being pushed out, laid off, and passed over for leadership roles at a time when we need them more than ever. Some of my most brilliant colleagues—writers, editors, producers, anchors—are now job hunting or have left the industry altogether. They didn’t lose their talent. They didn’t lose their drive. They lost their seat at the table because too many newsrooms still see Black journalists as expendable.

Let’s be honest: Black journalists have always had to fight for space in this industry. But what we’re seeing now isn’t just a matter of a few firings here and there. This is a systemic purge.

Take MSNBC, where Joy Reid—one of the few Black women to ever host a primetime show—was just let go. Before her, Tiffany Cross and Melissa Harris-Perry were both abruptly dismissed, even after cultivating loyal audiences that tuned in specifically because they brought perspectives no one else on air was providing. Rashida Jones, the first Black woman to lead a major cable news network, also recently left MSNBC. That’s four high-profile Black women in media, gone in just a few years.

And it’s not just TV. At HuffPost, mass layoffs in recent years disproportionately affected Black and other journalists of color, gutting the newsroom of diverse voices. The Los Angeles Times just went through another brutal round of cuts. And let’s not forget when The New York Times pushed out its first Black executive editor, Dean Baquet, despite his years of exceptional leadership.

These are not isolated incidents. This is an industry-wide purge of Black journalists.

Even before these recent cuts, Black journalists were already underrepresented in newsrooms. Today, only 6% of U.S. journalists are Black, compared to nearly 14% of the U.S. population. And it gets even worse in leadership—only 5 out of 100 top editors across the country are Black. That means the people deciding what stories get covered—and how they get covered—overwhelmingly do not look like us.

In local TV news, where many Americans get their information, Black journalists are even more rare at the top. Though about 13% of local newsroom employees are Black, only 6% of news directors are.

And in digital and print media? Black reporters have been disappearing from newsrooms for decades. Between 2001 and 2010, Black representation in newspapers dropped by 31.5%. Every time the industry contracts—whether it’s from layoffs, buyouts, or newsroom closures—we’re the first to go.

This is not by accident. This is what systemic exclusion looks like.

When Black journalists lose their jobs, the public loses access to full, accurate, and diverse storytelling.

• Who tells the story when a police officer kills an unarmed Black person?
• Who covers voter suppression and makes sure Black communities know their rights?
• Who asks the right questions when politicians and corporations roll out policies that disproportionately hurt Black people?

If we aren’t in the room, those stories either don’t get told or get told wrong.

We saw this in 2020 during the George Floyd protests. Some mainstream outlets focused on property damage rather than police violence. But Black reporters—on the ground, in our communities—made sure the real story got out.

But if our numbers continue to shrink, who will do that work?

If the media truly cares about diversity, it can’t just hire Black journalists for optics and then discard us when times get tough. It needs to:

1. Stop the purge – Layoffs should not disproportionately affect Black journalists. If a newsroom claims to value diversity, it should not be gutting its Black staff every time there’s a budget cut.
2. Promote us, not just hire us – Black journalists should lead newsrooms, not just be reporters in them. We need more Black editors, producers, and executives.
3. Defend us when we speak truth to power – Black journalists should not fear for their jobs just because they address race and injustice.
4. Make diversity a newsroom priority, not an afterthought – Diversity should not just be a talking point for PR campaigns. It should be an actual commitment reflected in hiring, retention, and leadership.

Black journalists are essential to an informed society. Our voices challenge bias, expose truth, and demand accountability. Without us, news coverage becomes narrower, whiter, and less truthful.

So I’m speaking up while I still have this platform.

Because if we don’t fight for Black journalists now, soon there won’t be any left. And when that happens, everyone loses.