A Microaggression Lesson from MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry. Pay Attention Please!

[thebeave]

MHP wants us to be careful, actually "supercareful", about how we use a certain phrase. It has racial connotations so its possible the phrase may trigger some of you. I'll put it in a Hide box, just in case:

Show

Hard Worker

Folks, just keep this in mind when you're at work and you feel the need to complement a co-worker's work ethic. That is all for now. I will report on more "microaggressions" as they develop...

 

[Deepak]

I have no idea who any of these people are.

 

[Nexus]

I have no idea who any of these people are.

That's good. Mainstream media pundits should not be taken seriously and avoiding them or being unaware is one strategy. Unfortunately the nonsense they spew influences some people so its helpful to point it out sometimes.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

So Paul Ryan is in fact a hard worker because advocating a do-nothing Congress is hard work whereas working in cotton fields or being a full-time mom is easy?

 

[Trausti]

This is the woman who wore tampon earrings and blames everything, everything, on racism. Just ignore her and hope she goes away.

 

[barbos]

OK, she is crayzy

 

[thebeave]

This is the woman who wore tampon earrings and blames everything, everything, on racism. Just ignore her and hope she goes away.

At least they weren't used tampons.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Why can't MHP and other women just accept their fate that they can't bring tampons into city hall when protesting the closing of planned parenthood? Women shouldn't have a right to display cotton swabs or other clean, sanitary products unless a big Texas government says they can. Wearing them as earrings means not obeying the law. Not obeying the law means arrest. Non-compliance means you can get shot.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Why can't MHP and other women just accept their fate that they can't bring tampons into city hall when protesting the closing of planned parenthood? Women shouldn't have a right to display cotton swabs or other clean, sanitary products unless a big Texas government says they can. Wearing them as earrings means not obeying the law. Not obeying the law means arrest. Non-compliance means you can get shot.

Get in line. Hand in your tampons if you're willing to go through the hassle.

Long live authoritarianism.

 

[Mumbles]

...I must have missed the part where MHP started talking about micro aggressions.

Or maybe she just didn't say anything about that.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Wow, this woman is insane. The guy calls somebody a "hard worker" and she goes off on some tangent about black slavery. Really? He wasn't even remotely talking about race. This is what I would expect from some posters on this forum, not a national TV news show.

 

[Mumbles]

...I must have also missed the part where she brought up slavery.

Sounded to me that she was discussing physical labor versus relatively cushy jobs that House Speakers and professors such as herself hold.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Can a black woman mention cotton fields without a lot of people making assumptions (even injecting assumptions) about what she means? Based on reaction the commentary got, I am going with no. It would be interesting to understand why that is, in particular why the large negative reaction.

 

[Horatio Parker]

...I must have also missed the part where she brought up slavery.

Sounded to me that she was discussing physical labor versus relatively cushy jobs that House Speakers and professors such as herself hold.

Yes. Nothing about slavery or race. Cotton farming was very hard.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

...I must have also missed the part where she brought up slavery.

Sounded to me that she was discussing physical labor versus relatively cushy jobs that House Speakers and professors such as herself hold.

IMO, I think she took political offense to calling Paul Ryan a hard worker. He's a politician but also, yeah, a house speaker to be, who took some time to be with his family and well, Republicans are busy doing nothing but name-calling and trying to destroy Obamacare. So the real work they do is pretty lame. She didn't only compare "hard work" to hard-working manual laborers (probably who were slaves) but she also in the same paragraph brought up full-time mothers as hard workers. She mentioned things about it but it was hard to follow because she was being interrupted. It seemed like she mentioned lack of healthcare since they do not officially have a job except by their husbands who might get the healthcare for the family....which is relevant because it is something the Republican party would like to destroy. So really her answers were being pretty anti-Republican and race was being injected into it by taking a snippet of what she said out of context.

 

[barbos]

...I must have also missed the part where she brought up slavery.

Sounded to me that she was discussing physical labor versus relatively cushy jobs that House Speakers and professors such as herself hold.

Yes. Nothing about slavery or race. Cotton farming was very hard.

"Hard worker" is a figure of speech which can and is applied to describe a lot of situations, including being a politician.

- - - Updated - - -

Can a black woman mention cotton fields without a lot of people making assumptions (even injecting assumptions) about what she means? Based on reaction the commentary got, I am going with no. It would be interesting to understand why that is, in particular why the large negative reaction.

Is she black? she looks a lot like that white woman pretending to be black

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

...I must have also missed the part where she brought up slavery.

Sounded to me that she was discussing physical labor versus relatively cushy jobs that House Speakers and professors such as herself hold.

Yes. Nothing about slavery or race. Cotton farming was very hard.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDJ3cuXKV4[/YOUTUBE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDJ3cuXKV4

 

[barbos]

...I must have also missed the part where she brought up slavery.

Sounded to me that she was discussing physical labor versus relatively cushy jobs that House Speakers and professors such as herself hold.

She said p-word (privilege), so yes she did bring up race.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

...I must have also missed the part where she brought up slavery.

Sounded to me that she was discussing physical labor versus relatively cushy jobs that House Speakers and professors such as herself hold.

She said p-word (privilege), so yes she did bring up race.

So her relative privilege she brought up was in reference to race not class?

 

[barbos]

She said p-word (privilege), so yes she did bring up race.

So her relative privilege she brought up was in reference to race not class?

I did not know Paul Ryan comes from a politician caste I mean class.
Come on, it's pretty clear what she was thinking.
I will be the first one to call Paul Ryan asshole but "Hard worker" is perfectly fine expression and can be applied to any profession including politicians.