Rashida Jones And The Passing Of The Patriarch

Today, it’s December 14, 2020, and the Electoral College will be meeting to make official the results of the presidential election. It feels appropriate, then, as this year, this administration, and—a bit further out—this pandemic draw to a close, that we focus on the future, something I am excited to once again have the opportunity for, particularly after four years where it was impossible to think even a week or two ahead. A calm falls upon us. The lights flicker back on. Bleary-eyed, we emerge from the darkness and face the world with hope once more.

I’m doubly excited to have the opportunity and the pleasure, yet again, to pen an honorific for an exceptional woman ascending to new heights. Just a few weeks ago, it was general manager Kim Ng of the Miami Marlins. Before that, it was our ceiling-smashing Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. And today, it’s Rashida Jones. No, not that Rashida Jones, a titan in her own right. This Rashida Jones, currently a senior vice president at MSNBC, is a longtime news producer and executive who was last week named the next president of MSNBC. She’s startlingly young, too; not even 40 years old. Jones is the first millennial as well as the first Black woman to head a major news organization, a changing of the guard of great significance both symbolic and practical. Her predecessor, Phil Griffin, took the reins 12 years ago at 51. There is, perhaps, nothing more indicative of our progress—and future—than a sexagenarian white man being succeeded by a Black woman twenty-five years his junior; it may only be a rumble in the shifting ground beneath us, but it’s a big one.