MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry has drawn fire after objecting to a seemingly innocuous reference by a guest to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) as a “hard worker.” Harris-Perry suggested that the use of this term for someone like Ryan is insulting to people who once picked cotton or mothers without health care.
Harris-Perry offered her correction with the guest Alfonso Aguilar, Executive Director of the American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership, after Aguilar said If there’s somebody who is a hard worker when he goes to Washington, it’s Paul Ryan.”
Harris-Perry warned “[I] want us to be super careful when we use the language ‘hard worker’ . . . Because I actually keep an image of folks working in cotton fields on my office wall, because it is a reminder about what hard work looks like.” She then continued by noting that “in the context of relative privilege, I just want to point out, that when you talk about work-life balance and being a hard worker, the moms who don’t have health care who are working, we don’t call them hard workers. We call them failures, people who are sucking off the system. Really, y’all do! That’s really what you do!”
Aguilar objected to the point and said “This is very unfair. I feel that we cannot generalize about the Republican Party.”
I am not clear about how many people actually call working mothers “failures” but it is not clear why we cannot recognize hard-working people in different facets of life, including Republican leaders.
MSNBC is useful in giving the normal people in this country, the folks who work hard and think little of politics, a glimpse into just how depraved the left has become. The hosts, like this woman, are useful idiots.
Keith Olbermann is as crazy. Literally. He can’t keep a job, having been fired from @ least 7 posts. I guess that would be appealing to some here. He is a joke to everyone but the wacky left. He devolved. When he was first on ESPN he was amusing. When he got to MSNBC the narcissism and crazy brought him down. After getting canned there, he has gone from job to job like a migrant worker. Yeah, he’s a guy to look up to. LOL!
FAUX news will never go out of fashion. It’s classic.
“Nick Spinelli
1, October 28, 2015 at 10:13 am
Unless you’re in a liberal echo chamber, which this place USED to be, the term “Faux News” is SO played, dude. It’s like calling something “groovy.””
Someone’s longing for the old days. Just can’t let go.
I recall Kieth Olberman on MSNBC, where I first saw Professor Turley who appeared on the Olberman show quite often. I wonder what a good many of the readers and commenter’s here think of Keith Olberman? Interesting that JT gave some of his best interviews and opinions back in the day, on that show.
Paul Ryan worked @ McDonald’s as a kid. I didn’t know “spoiled brats from wealthy families” worked @ McDonald’s! You see, the person who uttered that stereotype has to fit people into it. The facts matter little. Dissembling is part of the liberal playbook.
Rick: Your comment was poorly written and is probably why it makes no sense.
And you’re still wrong.
So, using her definition, she is a slacker. I can buy that.
BarkinDog
It was a very young Spanky who uttered that phrase.
I will patiently await my prize in the mail. Please, no magazines addressed to tasty children.
The racist tinged comments on these sorts of threads seem to be getting notched up daily.
BamBam: Jeso. Please go Google: Who said on The Little Rascals: “I wish Cotton was a monkey”. A film clip comes up that you can click on and the whole episode is played. The kids were real young in this episode. It was Spanky who was rubbing a lamp to get a wish. They were rubbing different lamps to find out which one was a magic lamp.
Thank God for MSNBC – sensible people need a good laugh once in a while. Oh … am I allowed to say “God”?
Unless you’re in a liberal echo chamber, which this place USED to be, the term “Faux News” is SO played, dude. It’s like calling something “groovy.”
Darren, Great comment. One of the thing that upsets this woman about calling Ryan, “hard working” is that does not fit w/ the false stereotype this ilk has for Republicans. You see, the stereotype is, Republicans are stupid, lazy and uncaring. Democrats are smart, hard working, and they care.
bambam: I think if was Alfalfa on The Little Rascals. I am going to Google it. The prize will be in the mail. The show got banned on television somewhere along the road in America because it was deemed racist because of that comment and others.
What randyjet said.
Nick, Your constant and repetitive (mostly off subject) baiting of who you identify as “liberals” is what is causing these comments to devolve.
T. Hall
1, October 28, 2015 at 9:47 am
You’re wrong once again, Rick.
Speaking of people who do nothing but repeat idiotic propaganda. Did someone chant Bloody Hall three times in front of a mirror?
Incidentally, you’re “Makers” included increasingly bigger banks demanding more money and the multinational corporations that dismantled American manufacturing and stashed their profits in Caribbean tax havens.
Reasonable people would focus on what others actually say and support and skip the fantasizing. I suspect those who don’t consider demonizing the enemy a thrill they need to mask their own feelings of uselessness.
They’re probably right.
I find it very revealing that instead of posting what was said on MSNBC Turley chose to use the FAUX network for this so called outrage. I find it FAR more outrageous that he has not seen fit to call out FAUX for its outright falsification of news on its news programs, and I have yet to see any outrage at O’Reilly or Hannity for their lies and outrageous statements. The FACT is that she is not delivering news, but is an opinion host like Hannity.
There is no question that calling any member of Congress hard working is an oxymoron since they have FAR more days off than most working people. This woman is quite aware that SHE is among the privileged few, so calling her out misses the mark and only shows the lack of intellect for those who slam her. I see that all of her critics forget Romney and his remarks to the privileged who do not need to work for a living about the lower 47% of the population. The real outrage here is that even a hint of fighting back against Ryan is viewed unfavorably here. He is the spoiled brat of a wealthy family who has never had to work a day in his life. GET REAL!
You’re wrong once again, Rick. The marketing gurus for the Republican party coined the phrase “Takers”, as opposed to “Makers”, to describe working parents lacking health insurance and in need of government funded child healthcare.
Incidentally, you’re “Makers” included increasingly bigger banks demanding more money and the multinational corporations that dismantled American manufacturing and stashed their profits in Caribbean tax havens.