Melissa Harris-Perry famous quotes

04-24-2025

We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we've always had a private notion of children. Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven't had a very collective notion of these are our children. So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Children #Kids #Responsibility
The land on which they (the Founding Fathers) formed this Union was stolen. The hands with which they built this nation were enslaved. The women who birthed the citizens of the nation are second class. This is the imperfect fabric of our nation, at times weâ€™ve torn and stained it, and at other moments, we mend and repair it. But itâ€™s ours, all of it. The imperialism, the genocide, the slavery, also the liberation and the hope and the deeply American belief that our best days still lie ahead of us.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Lying #Father #Hands
So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Kids #Ideas #Parent
Adults who enter into public life implicitly consent to having less privacy, but their families - especially their children - should not be treated callously or thoughtlessly.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Family #Leadership #Wisdom
Once it's everybody's responsibility and not just the household's we start making better investments.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Responsibility #Investment #Household
Loss of social standing is an ever-present threat for individuals whose social acceptance is based on behavioral traits rather than unconditional human value.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Acceptance #Loss #Individual
Therapists are less likely to perceive a black woman as sad; instead they see her as angry or anxious.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Black #Therapists #Anxious
The problem is that many of our policymakers want to base sweeping laws on those feelings.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Law #Feelings #Want
For me, success is when I'm making a contribution and fully engaging all of my talents. In terms of the key quality, it's being willing to continue to believe in yourself even when other people don't, and being able to fail and to come back.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Believe #Keys #People
Stereotypes work to help divide women from recognizing their common interests.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Helping #Common #Stereotype
Drink lots of water, and nap. I've made some really big messes along the way, whether on the academic side or on the media side. It hasn't been a straight path. But a lot of those mess-ups have led to opportunities, so I guess I'd say be fearless, and keep bottled water with you, so you don't dehydrate.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Opportunity #Naps #Media
Terrifying mass shooting and high-profile officer-involved incidents have dominated the national conversation on gun violence in recent years. But most deaths by gun are not headline-grabbing massacres. They`re more private, more intimate, and perhaps in that way, even more horrifying. Domestic violence, make no mistake, domestic violence is a gun issue.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Mistake #Gun #Mass Shootings
I do think that we have to be careful not to assume that getting a perm or wearing a blonde wig is a desire for whiteness. It may or may not be. Listen, I live in a poor black neighborhood where women wear blue hair, green hair, and all kinds of stuff. So, I simply see it as a different set of choices.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Thinking #Blue #Hair
Popular films are so powerful and compelling that it's often easier to accept their versions of history than the much more complicated true stories.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Powerful #Stories #Film
You just have to be strong if you're a black woman.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Strong #Black #Black Women
With Donald Trump, you know, what I would tell you is that he`s got shelf life like I never would have guessed.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Trump #Shelves #Shelf Life
Politics are a part of athletics now. Politics is a part of everything. And athletics is no exception.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Athletics #Exception
As we watch Republican candidates like Scott Walker and Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal and George Pataki, and even Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, guys who are either out or who are really struggling to stay in, it might seem like the Republican Party is no longer a very strong party. There may be people who use the Republican label, but the party itself might feel like it`s in a bit of disarray.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Strong #Party #Struggle
I'm horrible with money. I make bad business decisions every hour of the day.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Decision #Hours #Horrible
Donald Trump has changed the rule and so have the stations and the media coverage.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Media #Trump #Changed
I learned that you can't write a book in the margins of your life. I'd forgotten how much uninterrupted time it takes to write chapters, and how you have to push everything else aside and really focus.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Book #Writing #Focus
From childhood forward, our hair is one of the most critical, defining aspects of our embodied selves as black women: how we get it done... how we have to focus on it... the questions we have to answer about it... and so forth.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Hair #Self #Childhood
A big part of the Republican 2016 race is now basically a bunch of establishment Republicans going after each other. Jeb Bush going after Marco Rubio, and the governors, Chris Christie going after Marco Rubio. Rubio firing back, John Kasich going after Jeb Bush.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Race #Republican #Bigs
I would want to know that my daughter is going to enjoy a long, happy and healthy life.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Daughter #Long #Healthy
I had a friend say to me the other day, I hate when I see Jonathan Metzl on your show because I know it`s bad news. I know that there has been a shooting.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Hate #News #Shooting
I think the most critical needs of the African-American communities aren't being addressed primarily because of decisions being made by Republican Congressional leaders.
-- Melissa Harris-Perry

#Thinking #Decision #Leader

You may also like:

Al Sharpton
Minister
Andrea Mitchell
Journalist
Anna Julia Cooper
Author
Bell Hooks
Author
Chris Hayes
Commentator
Chris Matthews
Commentator
Cornel West
Philosopher
Ed Schultz
Television host
Eric Holder
United States Attorney General
George Zimmerman
Janet Mock
Writer
Joy-Ann Reid
Commentator
Karen Finney
Political Consultant
Marc Lamont Hill
Academic
Megyn Kelly
Television host
Michael Eric Dyson
Author
Michaela Angela Davis
Writer
Rachel Maddow
Host
Lawrence O'Donnell
Political analyst
Rachel Dolezal