Why the media’s coverage of the Melissa Harris-Perry controversy wrongfully made her into a villain.
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“We’re genuinely appreciative of everyone who offered serious criticisms of last Sunday’s program, and I am reminded that our fiercest critics can sometimes be our best teachers.” – MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, 1/4/14
Remember when Michael Richards, who played Kramer on Seinfeld, launched into that racist tirade where he made allusions to lynchings because of a few hecklers in the crowd? And how Richards made an apology and tried to make it seem like it was all just a bad joke? How it was news for a few weeks and then Michael Richards disappeared for a while before coming back? If you’ve paid attention to the Melissa Harris-Perry controversy the past few weeks, you’d begin to see some similarities between these two drastically different situations.
On Saturday, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry apologized for a segment in one of her shows that has come under fire by a handful of conservatives on Twitter and CNN. As Dylan Byers noted last week on Politico, CNN is really, really pissed off about the controversy, even making the case that some people are calling for her firing. The segment? Harris-Perry and her panel, including a comedian who regularly contributes to CNN (Dean Obeidallah) and an actress (Pia Glenn) made some off-color jokes about the “diversity” in Mitt Romney’s family, alluding to Mitt Romney’s adopted grandson Kieran.
Now, whether or not this is CNN attempting to attack an opposing network while it’s down, or CNN trying to boost its image as moderate or non-biased, the coverage of this minor incident by CNN, among others, has been borderline unbelievable. Want evidence of that? On Monday, Ann Coulter called Harris-Perry MSNBC’s “token African-American.” As of 11 AM on Tuesday, the Coulter comment hasn’t even warranted a website post from CNN, proving once and for all that if you say enough incredibly stupid and hateful things, eventually no one cares about them anymore.
What Harris-Perry said isn’t on the radar even among cringe-worthy things MSNBC hosts have said in the past few months: Alec Baldwin slung a homosexual slur at a photographer that cost him his job, Martin Bashir said, in no uncertain terms, that someone should defecate in Sarah Palin’s mouth, which prompted his resignation, and Chris Matthews suggested that Chris Christie crushes his wife during sex, after which… no one said anything, because people have come to expect this kind of hard-hitting commentary from Chris Matthews.
Harris-Perry’s segment was not on par with any of this. And although I disagree with Brittney Cooper of Salon that Harris-Perry and her guests were asking a legitimate question of “What it means to be a black kid in a white family” – in my opinion, it was just an attempt at being funny in the age of The Daily Show – she hits the nail on the head at the end of her column about the controversy:
“This is just one more way that white supremacy wins. It exhausts people of color in battles over offenses that are in no way equal. It makes the mere perception of threat among whites equal to actual political threats to black welfare. Then, to add insult to injury, our mistakes cost us more. What costs white folks a slap on the wrist, or more often a mildly disapproving look, generally costs us a pound of flesh and more than an ounce of dignity.
“Despite the injustice of it all, Melissa Harris-Perry refused to play small. She owned her ‘mistakes’ without qualification, modeled what real apologies look like, and elevated our level of public discourse in the process. In a world hellbent on disciplining uppity Negresses and stripping black folks of dignity by demanding our obsequity, she remains a class act.”
When the media covers “controversies” like this as though they’re actual crimes deserving of dismissal, and maintains the idea of false equivalency when it comes to racism, it makes a mockery of what news organizations are supposed to accomplish. The fact is that what Melissa Harris-Perry and her guests said doesn’t hold a candle to what Caucasians in the media get away with on a regular basis. And as for CNN and the other outlets that harped on this non-story, the persistent media catalyst in making a bad joke a “story,” please pray to whatever higher power you believe in that they aren’t the “teachers” that Melissa Harris-Perry is learning from.
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–Photo: therachelmaddowshow/Flickr
Further, the company stated that the names at issue don't only belong to celebrities.
I do not get the buzz about this woman.
As a person that was adopted by a “white” family, I am constantly amazed at the racist hypocrisy of people’s comments such as you have made. What MHP and her band of “comedians” have said was not more acceptable as you seem to infer because she is of mixed race, because they “do it all the time” on MSNBC and should be expected and because she was able to make jokes about it. Had any of Fox News broadcasters made the same joke about Obama sitting on his grandparents’ lap, and pointing at their religion and race, your keyboard would… Read more »
Easton,
Read the grey box in the article. I think this shows definitively why there is a difference between your two examples.
I think what’s in the grey box smacks of rationalization. One standard of behavior. This is like excusing drunken misbehavior of someone of Irish descent or Native American descent yet condeming drunken misbehavior of someone from England. Sounds pretty stupid to do so doesn’t it? Even with a full knowledge of history?
Bad behavior is bad behavior.
I personally hold MHP in higher esteem for her character because she owned her behavior and made amends. Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Alec Baldwin, CHris Matthews etc? Not so much.
Thanks for the comment Easton – in no way did I ever infer that because it’s on MSNBC it’s somehow better because it “happens all the time”. I was giving examples of statements that other MSNBC hosts have said recently that I thought were much more divisive and nasty than anything Melissa Harris-Perry or her panel said, and how it seemed that Melissa Harris-Perry, who didn’t do anything close to what Baldwin or Bashir or Matthews did, was getting a similar amount of flak. Any way you spin it, calling a baby ‘gorgeous’ is not the same as calling a… Read more »
I feel you are making a logical mistake by comparing Baldwin vs MHP and then stating that Baldwin is demonstrably worse. In the MHP scenario, the idea was scripted, rehearsed, agreed upon, mulled over and then executed. The group at MSNBC decided that singing “one of these things is not like the other” while showing a picture of the family was a good comedic spot to broadcast. The spot was watched by millions. Both the intent and outcome of the MSNBC stupidity was demonstrably worse and implying otherwise is nonsensical. There is also the obvious difference between attacking directly those… Read more »
Thanks for the comment Elissa. I’ll agree with you that the intent of the segment should be questioned, although hindsight is 20/20 and given the backlash that this received from so many in the media and on the right, plus the apology MHP made, I would bet that they’ll be stepping on eggshells for a while. I also think there’s an important point to be made for bringing comedy onto a news-based talk show, although there’s really not much difference, to me, between what MSNBC and Fox News does and what the comedy news shows do. It’s all entertainment. Rachel… Read more »
She was called out on it, she apologized and he accepted. Pretty much sums it up. I’m not sure why you’re taking this spin on it.
CW – thanks for your comment. My point was not that those “criticizing MHP for making a racist joke are the real racists”, it’s that the jokes her and her guests made weren’t racist at all. To me, this is not a progressive or conservative issue (which is why I brought up Baldwin, Bashir and Matthews’ comments), or an issue of “crappy behavior”. It’s the idea that “reverse racism” is a persistent plague that is somehow just as bad as actual racism that I take issue with. Racism is older than political attitudes in this country. Not only that, it’s… Read more »
Well, you’re right in that it is not reverse racism – it is just racism, pure and simple.
And precisely what axis is MHP supposed to be oppressed on? I ask because have you seen what colour Martin Bashir is?
Thanks for the comment. I think we have a fundamental disagreement on the definition of racism. To me, it’s not just (well, mostly, it isn’t) people who say ridiculous things; I happen to think that Paula Dean, Phil Robertson, etc., although their comments were ill-judged, are products of their environment of living in the South. And although I’ve written before about Phil Robertson, when someone in the public view makes comments that attempt to ignore or rewrite history, it’s disconcerting because it draws attention to the effects of the problem and not the actual problem itself of institutionalized racism within… Read more »
Your reservation of the term “racism” for the actions of the “other team” is exactly what’s wrong with your argument. Some simple examples: Ann Coulter’s token comment was racist and crappy. MHP’s jokes abotu the adopted Romney kid were racist and crappy. Pretty easy when you don’t bother to rationalize simple asinine behavior with incredibly divisive pseudo social science. MHP deserves credit for giving a decent apology. I don’t agree with her about much of anything (especially her thoughts on collective responsibility for children) but it takes a decent person to stand up and admit they were wrong. I wouldnt… Read more »
CW, I don’t think racism is a left or right issue. Plenty of people on the “left” perpetuate racist stereotypes and attitudes. “Prejudice” and “racism” are not the same thing, and sorry, but I just don’t think that making jokes about Mitt Romney’s perceived cluelessness when it comes to anyone who isn’t as privileged as he is as bad as calling someone a “token African-American”.
As for the “incredibly divisive psuedo social science”, I think you just described every school of political thought ever created. 🙂
You initially said: The fact is that what Melissa Harris-Perry and her guests said doesn’t hold a candle to what Caucasians in the media get away with on a regular basis. Bashir is not Caucasian, and got away with it. Nor is Paula Deen. You are trying too hard to make your paradigm fit where it doesn’t. Your own handpicked examples show people who are white and non-white, male and female getting away with with worse statements. Is it in some way unfair? Sure. But reflexively throwing “racist!” (or even “sexist!”, given that you have Ann Coulter as one of… Read more »
Bashir didn’t “get away with it”, He was forced to resign, and whatever you want to call Paula Dean: white, Caucasian, WASPy, whatever, she still lives in a bubble of white privelege. My examples weren’t to show male and female or white/non-white examples. They were meant to show examples of awful things that MSNBC hosts have said that received pretty much the exact same treatment or better than a comedy segment on Melissa Harris-Perry’s show. Chris Matthews, to the best of my knowledge, did not apologize for saying Chris Christie crushes his wife during sex, which is an actual personal… Read more »
So then race has nothing to do with it. So why mention the fact that they were Caucasian? Both a non-white (Bashir) and a white presenter (Baldwin) have been fired for their remarks.
So where’s the inconsistency?
Paula Deen and Alec Baldwin got fired. Those privilege bubbles pop pretty easy these days.
So what we have here are a bunch of people saying stupid things and only a couple of em getting fired? And in your eyes the ones who lost their jobs are the bubble boys and girls of privilege… yeesh. Theories should be predictive shouldnt they?
Paul – you’re a fool. Stop trying to act super enlightened and higher minded than those around you and just be real. She allowed and participated in race based jokes on her show and deeply offended adoptive parents of mixed families. You’re trying to justify racism just because you like the joker – She acted racist and then apologized for it. So what is it, Paul – did she fake the apology, or did she really do something wrong??? You lack a huge amount of simple logic. Way to justify wrong doing in your head just because of your seriously… Read more »
Thanks for the comment, Bob. I know you won’t believe this (and I can’t say I blame you, considering I wrote an article you percieved as me defending her), but I don’t watch MSNBC, and until I watched both the apology segment and the minute long segment where she made the comments, I’d never seen even a clip from Melissa Harris-Perry’s show. I don’t watch Fox News or CNN on TV either, although I get the large majority of my political information from CNN’s website and Politico. Even if I knew her work enough to like or dislike her, my… Read more »
So let me make sure I understand- The people who are criticizing MHP for making a racist joke are the real racists because 1. the color of MHP’s skin and 2. the fact a bunch of other progressive journalists said nasty things?
We’d all be a lot better off if progressives and conservatives would call out the crappy behavior of their own. A single standard of behavior that doesnt have to be rationalized would be nice.