A Thin Line Between Love and Hate: A Black Man’s Journey Through Life and the CIA

Author James Baldwin once said, A journey is called that because you cannot know what you will discover on the journey, what you will do, what you will find, or what you find will do to you. In A Thin Line Between Love and Hate: A Black Man’s Journey Through Life and the CIA, Darryl Lansey takes readers on a journey from his childhood growing up in a working class Black family in Baltimore, Maryland to the secretive halls of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During his more than 30 years with CIA, Darryl traveled the world collecting and analyzing secret information in support of six presidents’ administrations from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump.

Darryl describes his tenure with CIA as a strange love affair. He loved the Agency and the work of trying to keep the United States safe from its enemies. Yet, he also describes the mental and physical pain he endured that stood in contrast to his loyalty to his country, as CIA’s deeply rooted systemic racism and its white managers repeatedly thwarted his career aspirations. Despite the personal hurdles he faced, Darryl worked throughout his career to transform CIA’s diversity and inclusion and leadership cultures for the better, so future generations of employees are able to thrive.