This week, we witnessed what appeared to be a purge of diverse voices at MSNBC, a television channel owned by NBCUniversal. 

The final episode of “The ReidOut,” a show hosted by political commentator Joy Reid, aired Monday, after being canceled by the network. Two other programs, “The Katie Phang Show” along with José Díaz-Balart Reports” also were canceled. But Phang, who is Asian, and “José Díaz-Balart, who is Latino, will remain with the network. Reid mentioned taking her talents to Substack on her last show, but we doubt that will be the only place we will hearing her voice in the future.

Elsewhere at the network, in what appears to be a case of awful timing, veteran broadcaster Lester Holt announced he will be stepping down from the daily “NBC Nightly News,” in a few months, after a decade behind the desk. Holt will continue to host “Dateline NBC,” a news magazine that primarily features true crime stories and in-depth reports on national and international events.

Back at the cable network, one of Reid’s colleagues, Rachel Maddow, didn’t hide her displeasure at the decision to remove Reid’s program from the lineup.

“I do not want to lose her as a colleague here at MSNBC, and personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door,” Maddow said. “It is not my call, and I understand that. She continued: “In all of the jobs I have had in all of the years I have been alive, there is no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid,” she said. “I love everything about her. I have learned so much from her. I have so much more to learn from her.”

Some might say that this is the kind of thing that might happen when you replace a “Rashida” (Rashida Jones, the first Black woman to lead a major cable news network and a former Henrico High School student) with a “Becky,” (Rebecca Kutler, who dropped the interim from her title on Feb. 12 and now leads the network.) That’s an easy conclusion to jump to, especially given the long history of diversity gains being undone and the distasteful efforts of the current presidential administration.

The change at the network does raise broader questions about representation, equity and the challenges Black professionals face in leadership.

For some, it reinforces a familiar pattern — where groundbreaking progress is made, only to be rolled back in favor of the status quo.

In the television business, someone’s always watching what you do. On Monday, members of the National Association of Black Journalists met with NBCUniversal’s head of diversity to discuss the recent changes at the network. According to a press release from the association, they were assured NBCUniversal leadership is committed to elevating Black voices and remain disappointed by the removal of Joy Reid from her time slot.

“We remain concerned about industry-wide patterns in which Black talent is disproportionately affected by corporate changes,” the statement reads. “We urge news leaders across the board to recognize that removing Black voices affects how networks shed light on issues of great importance to our communities. Reducing those voices also limits the diversity of content and viewpoints. Networks must also ensure that more Black journalists by trade have opportunities to contribute. We urge all news platforms to add rather than subtract from the diversity of their talent — both on-camera and behind the scenes.”

Fortunately, for popular commentators such as Joy Reid, the current media landscape provides options for staying in touch with the audience she built at MSNBC. She could land at another corporate broadcaster, such as TV ONE or BET.

Or she could follow the path of Roland Martin, another former network anchor who has built his own platform with #RolandMartinUnfiltered. The later path would allow her to bypass the rules and limitations of commercial media and speak directly to the community without compromise.

The fight for representation and equity is far from over, and no matter how much they try to silence us, we will continue to elevate our voices and demand truth.