Joint Center President Explains How to Increase Top Staff of Color on MSNBC’s Politics Nation
Joint Center President Spencer Overton appeared on Rev. Al Sharp ton’s MSNBC talk show, Politics Nation, to discuss the lack of congressional staff diversity in Washington, DC, personal offices and explain what can be done to repair it.
Folks of color consider 40% of the U.S. population but less than 14% of top staff in Congress. This is a bipartisan problem. Black Americans, as an example, take into account over 54% of the Georgia Democratic voters that allowed Democrats to regulate the U.S. Senate and over 20% of Democratic voters nationally, but only 5% of top Senate Democratic staff.
Diversifying top staff is critical to dismantling structural inequality, as complete staff draft laws, shapes the $4.79 trillion budget, and oversees 3 million federal employees.
Members are currently filling open staff positions, and this is the moment to diversify top staff.
On Politics Nation, Spencer talked about actions we should take today to repair this problem. Along with people calling and telling their Congressperson and Senators to prioritize diversity in hiring and promotion, the U.S. Senate needs to set up a Bipartisan Diversity and Inclusion Office (as Speaker Pelosi did 2 yrs ago in the House).
WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s Co-Founder & Executive Director Peggy Shepard interviewed MSNBC’s Politics Nation with Rev. Al Sharp ton on July 11, 2021. She was asked about the extreme weather we’ve been experiencing along with her work as the co-chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, ensuring that the Biden administration’s policies support environmental justice and that funds from Justice40 reach our communities.
REVEREND AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: Welcome to “Politics Nation.” I’m
Al Sharp ton lives from Atlanta, Georgia.
- Tonight’s lead is game on in the election, and it’s not just
- A contest between two men. Though it has become seems clear that Willard
- Romney would be the Republican choice, but this is often a battle of ideas.
- A fight in regards to the fundamental relationship between ourselves and our
- And all of it comes down seriously to fairness. That’s the conversation we
- Need to have in this election. President Obama is drawing a bright line
- attacking the Republicans flagship plan, the Ryan budget, which guts the
The Rev. Al Sharp ton’s “Politics Nation” show on MSNBC moves from its daily 6 p.m. time slot to a weekly broadcast on Sunday mornings at 8 a.m. starting Oct. 4, and the cable news network announced late Wednesday.
“Politics Nation,” a one-hour political talk show started in 2011, features Mr. Sharp tons accept justice, civil rights, equality, and other issues of the day. The show’s final weekday broadcast will air on Sept. 4. It will temporarily be replaced with breaking news coverage before MSNBC announces its new plans for a regular 6 p.m. program, the network said.
The development comes because the ratings-challenged MSNBC undergoes broader programming shake-up, shifting from its left-leaning, opinion-based coverage to more hard news throughout the day.
At once, MSNBC is finding your way through the return of Brian Williams, the former anchor of NBC’s “Nightly News” program who had been taken from his position after he fabricated his role in a helicopter attack in Iraq. Mr. Williams is expected to go back to work at MSNBC in mid-September, an anchor of breaking news and special reports.
In an internal e-mail sent yesterday by President Phil Griffin, MSNBC announced that Al Sharp ton, host of the 6 p.m. daily program “Politics Nation,” could be moving to Sundays at 8 a.m., a grievous demotion that’s almost spin-proof. But Sharp ton did his best, telling the Daily News: “First, I could reach a wider audience of individuals who don’t get home by six at night. Second, I can now get the A-list guests and newsmakers I want.
