Nikole Hannah-Jones
The Disruptor
Contrarian and drawn to the edge; challenges the settled answer.
Nikole Hannah-Jones is a prominent journalist and educator known for her work on racial justice and history. This interview reveals her commitment to sparking change and mobilizing people around the need for systemic reforms in education and social equity.
“Yeah, so in the neighboring town in the metro area is the University of Northern Iowa. This is my mom's first time away from rural Iowa. She grew up in a very, very small town with no black people in it called Swisher, Iowa. And she came to go to school. And my dad actually, as he would say, would go up to the university to chase women.”
“The industry at that point because when I got there, I got there in 2006, I left in 2011. As many of the listeners may know, this is when the news industry was in a free fall newspapers were laying off thousands of people across the country. And so I couldn't leave. There weren't other jobs to go to.”
“Is important context. Now, again, would I write that today? Of course not. You know, you do a lot of shit when you're 19 that you wouldn't do now, but I certainly didn't think it was presented fairly and it wasn't presented in the context. And I don't remember the response on campus. I'm sure it was hot. That was a heated time.”
“I think every black parent tries to simultaneously preserve as much of your child's innocence as possible, but also give them the armor to go out into the world. That's what I tried to do with my daughter. She is very aware of racial inequality and very aware of racial injustice.”
The Axe Files with David Axelrod — Ep. 405 — Nikole Hannah-Jones
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