Karine Jean-Pierre Named First Black White House Press Secretary

Written By Keith Reed

White House press secretary Jen Psaki talks about incoming press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a press briefing at the White House, Thursday, May 5, 2022, in Washington.Photo: Evan Vucci (AP)

Karine Jean-Pierre, who last year became the first Black woman in three decades to address the media from the White House briefing room, will soon take over that role full-time as the Biden Administration’s press secretary. Jean-Pierre will succeed outgoing press secretary Jenn Psaki, who held the job since Biden was inaugurated and is leaving to take an on-air role at MSNBC. Jean-Pierre will be the first Black woman and the first openly-gay person to hold the position. Jean-Pierre is currently Psaki’s second-in-command in the press office and has several times handled the daily press briefing in which reporters question, if not spar with, the administration’s spokesperson on a variety of issues. Last May, she became the first Black woman since Judy Smith, who was deputy press secretary for President George H.W. Bush, to host the daily press briefing. That was in 1991; if you track time by the hip-hop eras, it was the same year Tribe Called Quest dropped The Low End Theory, Public Enemy released Apocalypse ‘91, Ice Cube broke up with NWA and rappers still enunciated. In other words, a really long time ago.

It’s an unofficial African-American proverb that if you truly need something fixed, ask a Black woman, and the timing of Jean-Pierre’s ascension may highlight the wisdom in that statement. She’ll assume the role of the Biden administration’s public face before the media as the president’s approval rating is in the basement and as he faces bad news on multiple fronts: a drawn out war in Ukraine, skyrocketing inflation, high interest rates, a Supreme Court potentially poised to effectively snuff out women’s right to an abortion and midterm elections in which her party is at risk of losing a majority in Congress.