This week’s dispatch connects two headlines, Joy Reid at MSNBC and Dr. Chris Pernell at University Hospital, to the deeper toll of competency checking on Black women’s lives, bodies, and futures.
Joy Reid revealed she was paid a fraction of what others, even those with lower ratings earned at MSNBC. She called it the “curse of competency:” delivering more and getting less.1
Dr. Chris Pernell, praised publicly on her way out of University Hospital, alleges she was pushed out after vying for CEO. She cites a “sham” investigation, being tasked with race work without authority, and gendered and racial discrimination.2
Both stories are examples of what Qualified calls competency checking: Black people, specifically women, are forced to meet higher, harder standards while being penalized for the very excellence that should sustain them.
The Roots
Competency checking isn’t new. It’s the modern vine growing from the foundation of racial fictions upon which America was built.
“Much like a house, human systems originally built on poor foundations of faulty thinking, erroneous assumptions, and lopsided benefits will cause problems in the present and the future if left unaddressed.”
From Bacon’s Rebellion to the “one-drop rule,” race itself was codified as a way to contain Black success. That same logic now hides behind “professionalism” and “readiness.” The past isn’t past; it’s the blueprint for today’s workplace inequities.
The Cost
Chapter 7 makes plain that the price isn’t abstract. It’s lived:
“Black women face constant competency checking… This puts them in a position where they must navigate their work life constantly worrying about hitting an unseen trip wire… It’s exhausting, too.”
Reid was penalized despite higher ratings. Pernell was punished for ambition. Both carry the psychic cost of being celebrated when silent and sanctioned when they demand recognition.
The Weathering
This isn’t just emotional, it’s biological.
Nataki Garrett, former artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, described what relentless scrutiny did to her body:
“Your body is in a state of hypervigilance… your inflammation response, your stress response, and everything else is on high alert. Everything that happens is a 10-alarm fire.”
Research confirms what Garrett lived: Black women’s bodies literally age faster internally under the daily toxic stress of racism and sexism. Scholar Arline Geronimus calls this weathering, a cumulative erosion that no amount of wealth or status can insulate against.
And this is almost certainly what Dr. Chris Pernell is enduring. The double bind of being a visible symbol of equity while being denied authority to enact it. The hypervigilance of knowing that ambition (applying for CEO) could trigger retaliation. The emotional whiplash of being lauded in public and punished in private.
Weathering means she is likely battling sleepless nights, disrupted immune function, and the accelerated aging of her cardiovascular system. The cruelest twist? This toll comes not because of failure, but because of success. Pernell’s visibility, her willingness to claim leadership, is what triggered the higher bar and the harsher scrutiny.
The Financial Impact
This is where the connection to Joy Reid’s story is undeniable. Being paid “a tenth” of what white peers earned, even with higher ratings, isn’t just an insult; it’s wealth denied. Over a career, that pay gap compounds into hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars stripped from Black families and futures.
“When their financial fortunes are stunted by competency checking and racism, it directly impacts Black wealth accumulation for generations to come.”
The same pattern haunts Dr. Pernell. Being sidelined from a CEO position isn’t just personal; it blocks the generational economic impact of executive pay, power, and influence.
Black women turn to entrepreneurship as a survival strategy, but systemic barriers remain. They receive less than 0.35% of venture capital funding, forcing most to self-fund at enormous risk. The lawsuit targeting the Fearless Fund makes the point plain: when Black women build their own avenues to capital, those too are attacked.
Leading in Living Color: Across Industries
Chapter 9 of Qualified makes clear that this is not limited to television or healthcare:
“This constant competency checking is a veritable Groundhog Day… There is no memory of your competency; you are forced to start over again and again like every time is the first time. But if you fail? That memory never goes away.”
Across industries, the pattern holds:
Nonprofits: CEOs of color are often required to hold master’s or terminal degrees when white predecessors did not.
Corporate America: Black executives report being assigned high-risk projects designed to “test” their leadership, while white peers are assumed ready.
Academia: Black women scholars with Pulitzer Prizes or MacArthur “genius” grants are still denied tenure.
Sports: NFL coaches like Brian Flores allege “sham” interviews that check boxes rather than open doors.
The storyline repeats: Black excellence discounted, Black leadership doubted, Black ambition disciplined.
What We’re Documenting
The Zora Project exists because these stories repeat across sectors:
Credit discounting: Reid’s success was reframed as “less valuable.”
Pet-to-threat: Pernell celebrated, then discarded.
Invisible labor: Black women doing the equity work without pay or protection.
Weathering: The body itself carries the costs of systemic disbelief.
Wealth stripped: Every dollar denied Reid is a dollar denied her family and her future.
Industry-wide reset: From boardrooms to locker rooms, Black leaders are forced to start over again and again.
Closing Thought
Competency checking is not just about a paycheck or a title. It extracts a toll measured in health, wealth, and humanity.
Joy Reid’s pay gap is proof: when Black women outperform, they are still underpaid. Dr. Pernell’s lawsuit is proof: when Black women reach for leadership, the bar is raised again. And the research in Qualified is proof: across industries, the rules of the game change only when the player is Black.
Equal rules. Equal grace. Equal pay. And the right to thrive without having to wear armor every day.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/joy-reid-paid-less-msnbc-lower-ratings/
https://www.nj.com/news/2025/08/a-black-hospital-exec-was-publicly-praised-but-privately-pushed-out-now-shes-suing.html
