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

[Crazy Eddie]

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...

Republican Pundit refers to Paul Ryan as a "hard worker."

Melissa Harris Parry points out -- 100% correctly -- that this phrase doesn't actually fit what Paul Ryan actually DOES; that, being a politician, most of what he does involves brownnosing other politicians and lobbyists to get them on board with his political agenda, attending fundraisers, giving speeches, cocktail parties, conferences and thinktanks. The hardest "work" he ever does involves writing editorials or being interviewed on cable news shows.

Melissa defines "hard work" as something done by people who perform actual productive labor. The guy who has to spend five hours cleaning up the reception halls after Paul Ryan's fundraiser, for example, or the landscapers who tend to the near-immaculate greens that Ryan and his buddies use as a backdrop for their discussions. Even his own staffers, who have to scramble to organize his notes and campaign materials, who have to coordinate with staffers in other offices to make sure schedules don't conflict, who have to see to security arrangements, catering arrangements, checking on legal issues (conflict of interest) and other issues in the background have to do fifty different things in an hour that Paul Ryan spends mostly sipping martinis trying to convince another senator to change his vote.

Paul Ryan may do a lot. He may be a very prolific writer. He may be a highly accomplished butt-kisser. He might even be the most convincing bullshitter in America (he isn't) and disseminates more bullshit per hour than any other bullshitter has ever bullshitted before. But calling him a "hard worker" is, at best, a misplaced metaphor (it would be like calling him a "dedicated soldier in the American culture war." Actual soldiers probably wouldn't appreciate the comparison).

 

[barbos]

Mike Rowe, of the show Dirty Jobs, wrote an interesting response on his Facebook wall about this incident. He doesn't seem too fond of MHP's take on "hard work":

https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe/posts/1075683639108445:0

Good point from this Mike Rowe fellow.

 

[barbos]

Mike Rowe, of the show Dirty Jobs, wrote an interesting response on his Facebook wall about this incident. He doesn't seem too fond of MHP's take on "hard work":

https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe/posts/1075683639108445:0

And again, we see the same problem. First, he fixates on "slavery", which she didn't discuss. Second...um, wait,that's all he does.

Just a technical question, has ever been a time in the history of United States of America when cotton field workers were not black slaves, or former black slaves?
And no, I don't believe that lady has a picture of white dude on a cotton harvester on her wall.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

And again, we see the same problem. First, he fixates on "slavery", which she didn't discuss. Second...um, wait,that's all he does.

Just a technical question, has ever been a time in the history of United States of America when cotton field workers were not black slaves, or former black slaves?

Under Peonage in the south until about the 1940s (and in some places, even after that).

Note the photomural on this page.

And no, I don't believe that lady has a picture of white dude on a cotton harvester on her wall.

I don't think she has that either. I think she has a point.

 

[barbos]

Just a technical question, has ever been a time in the history of United States of America when cotton field workers were not black slaves, or former black slaves?

Under Peonage in the south until about the 1940s (and in some places, even after that).

Peonage was technically a slavery. it appears practical cotton picker was invented in 1944. So who were picking cotton between end of civil war and 1944?

Note the photomural on this page.

And no, I don't believe that lady has a picture of white dude on a cotton harvester on her wall.

I don't think she has that either. I think she has a point.

Not if the picture on the wall shows black slaves.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

it appears practical cotton picker was invented in 1944. So who were picking cotton between end of civil war and 1944?

There's also Jim Crow.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Mike Rowe, of the show Dirty Jobs, wrote an interesting response on his Facebook wall about this incident. He doesn't seem too fond of MHP's take on "hard work":

https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe/posts/1075683639108445:0

Mike Rowe is an evil and privileged cis-gender straight white male. Who cares what he thinks? Down with the racist, ableist, sexist, antidisestablishmentarianist patriarchy!

All of that may or may not be true, but there are some things he has left out:
(1) MHP also included women working several jobs and taking care of the kids while getting no healthcare, a situation that the Republican message isn't focused upon as being hard work or as problematic. MHP said that there is a negative Republican message about these hard workers.

(2) Her response about hard work was therefore broader in scope than Rowe and others let on.

(3) Paul Ryan was first the one talking about "hard work" and was pointing at "inner city males" as lacking a culture of "hard work" and not being "hard workers."
"We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with." -- Paul Ryan

"There was nothing whatsoever about race in my comments at all — it had nothing to do with race." -- Paul Ryan

(4) Her response then has to be seen in that context because she is discussing the Republican Party messages about hard work. Paul Ryan is fair game for bringing up hard work in the past.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Under Peonage in the south until about the 1940s (and in some places, even after that).

Peonage was technically a slavery.

Then your question is irrelevant.

I don't think she has that either. I think she has a point.

Not if the picture on the wall shows black slaves.

I'd be willing to bet the photomural above IS the picture on her wall.

And no, technicalities aside, they are not actually slaves.

 

[J842P]

here is what that white dude was thinking:

That wasn't a white dude in the video. He was Hispanic. That's one microaggression for you. Two more and you will be suspended from the forum.

Hispanics can be white. Hispanic merely refers to nationality, and only really implies that the country is Spanish speaking. There are entire countries full of white Hispanics. In fact, Spanish comes from such a country.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

That wasn't a white dude in the video. He was Hispanic. That's one microaggression for you. Two more and you will be suspended from the forum.

Hispanics can be white. Hispanic merely refers to nationality, and only really implies that the country is Spanish speaking. There are entire countries full of white Hispanics. In fact, Spanish comes from such a country.

Dare I muddy the water further by pointing out that, contrary to what most Americans prefer to believe, hispanics can also be black?

 

[thebeave]

That wasn't a white dude in the video. He was Hispanic. That's one microaggression for you. Two more and you will be suspended from the forum.

Hispanics can be white. Hispanic merely refers to nationality, and only really implies that the country is Spanish speaking. There are entire countries full of white Hispanics. In fact, Spanish comes from such a country.

You are correct, sir! I rescind my microaggression claim.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Hispanics can be white. Hispanic merely refers to nationality, and only really implies that the country is Spanish speaking. There are entire countries full of white Hispanics. In fact, Spanish comes from such a country.

You are correct, sir! I rescind my microaggression claim.

Did you have any microagressions against what Paul Ryan said or were they reserved only for MHP when speaking about Paul Ryan? I am just wondering because you've been very silent on "hard work" alluding to what Paul Ryan said himself.