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.

Darryl Lansey was CIA's Director of Leadership Learning prior to his retirement in March 2018. He was responsible for creating and executing CIA's vision, guiding philosophy, and strategy for providing enterprise-level training for new supervisors to senior executives. Previous to Leadership Learning, he was the National Reconnaissance Office's Chief and Deputy Chief Learning Officer. During Darryl's CIA career, he served in four of five Directorates, including more than 20 years in the Directorate of Intelligence where he authored and managed analyses on an array of topics including: chemical and biological weapons proliferation, counternarcotics, counterterrorism, and the Balkans. Upon Darryl's retirement, CIA awarded him with its Career Commendation Medal, which was the last of more than 30 exceptional performance awards and citations that he received during his career. In retirement, Darryl is seeking mastery of his photography skills, which has been a hobby for more than 45 years.