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Dear
Friends & Colleagues
It has been nearly nine months since I last sent out my monthly newsletter. Please forgive the long delay and be assured that in 2011 I will once again work to stay in touch and to share my writing and media appearances.
The last several months have been extraordinary.
I spent the summer taking a break from public writing, lectures and media appearances as I worked furiously to complete my academic book manuscript. The new book, Sister Citizen, is slated for publication with Yale University Press this fall. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes smoothly!
You may notice that I have changed my name. On October 3, 2010 I married my beloved partner, James Perry. We were married in a small ceremony in Southhampton, Bermuda. Our closest friends and dearest family were there to support us. In November I sold my home in New Jersey and moved full time to New Orleans and have been commuting to teach at Princeton. We have been having quite an adventure!
As we enter 2011 we are faced with continuing economic crisis, international war, domestic political violence, and building momentum of the next presidential election. Our challenges are great and I look forward to sharing this journey with all of you.
Melissa
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With bitter cold weather affecting the country, we are reminded of the tragedy of homelessness. Please consider supporting a local or national organization that addresses this crisis. Click here to support the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Recent
Media Appearances
Discussion of the Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
The Rachel Maddow Show
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Discussion of Haley Barbour
The Rachel Maddow Show
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Discussion of Race and the GOP
The Rachel Maddow Show
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Keynote Address at Facing Race Conference
Teachable Moments in Real Time
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Recent
Writings
From MLK to Obama: How We Define Black Leadership
The Grio
 The American political stage onto which Barack Obama entered 40 years later was very different. Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley was a fierce opponent of King. His son, Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, became one of Obama's greatest allies. Dr. King battled for full voting rights for black Americans. Barack Obama relied on mobilizing an existing black voting base within the Democratic Party. Unlike King, Obama did not face an America where acts of racial violence are routine, but he did seek to lead in a toxic political environment that pitted Americans against one another based on identity and ideology. President Obama, like Dr. King, has been severely criticized for consistently refusing to engage his opponents on the same terms of "verbal violence."
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An Open Letter to My Students in Response to Arizona Shootings
The Notion
The Nation's Group Blog
 For years I have had one, insistent piece of advice for all of you: run for office. Voting, I have told you, is the citizenship equivalent of brushing your teeth: I am glad you do it regularly, but I am hardly going to applaud you for achieving such a minimal responsibility. If you have taken classes from me you have likely heard me urge you to offer yourself for public service by running for elected office. This, I have explained, is a better measure of citizenship commitment because it expands the pool of talent available for governing our country. Because I have been lucky to teach all of you exceptionally bright students at world-class universities I have never had any hesitation suggesting that you (male and female, conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat) consider making a bid for elected office. I thought of all of you this weekend when I first learned of the shooting in Arizona.
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Michael Vick, Racial History and Animal Rights
The Notion
The Nation's Group Blog
 Last night I had one of those awful television moments that sometimes afflict those of us who spend part of our life in classroom where we have 90 minutes to discuss a topic and the other part of our life on television where we are constrained to four-minute analyses. On Wednesday evening I joined The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss the current flap surrounding Michael Vick and President Obama. My goal was to offer some historical context for understanding the vastly different responses to Vick’s crime, to the severity of his punishment, and to the sense that he should be given a second chance to earn a living as a professional football player.
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Obama in the Age of Accommodation
Sister Citizen
The Nation
 Barack Obama's candidacy inspired comparisons to change agents like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Critics of his presidency have invoked Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton to portray him as weak and to decry his rightward shift. In my circle of African-American progressive academics and advocates, the name hissed with particular derision recently is Booker T. Washington, who at the turn of the twentieth century publicly articulated his acceptance of segregation, brokered compromises on racial disenfranchisement and emphasized individual effort over structural justice. To equate President Obama with Booker T. Washington is to suggest that the president is willingly complicit in atrocities of inequality.
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Bush’s Nadir
The Notion
The Nation's Group Blog
 It is possible that the most stunning story of the past week is not the brutal midterm loss suffered by the Democrats but the release of former President George W. Bush's memoir, Decision Points, and his attendant book-promoting public appearances. Sitting with NBC's Matt Lauer, President Bush breezily defended his use of waterboarding torture, explaining that he relied on the judgment government attorneys who advised him the practice was legal. He also told Oprah he was "sick" about not discovering weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but he went onto confidently assert that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein. But for me the jaw-dropping, headline-making revelation of this week is President Bush's assertion that the low point of his presidency came when 33-year-old hip-hop artist Kanye West went off-script during a Hurricane Katrina benefit concert, looked into the camera and asserted, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."
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The Misunderestimation of Sarah Palin
Sister Citizen
The Nation
 I assigned Sarah Palin's Going Rogue in my course on women in contemporary US media and politics. I spent the week walking around town, riding the train and dashing through airports with the book tucked under my arm. "Isn't she awesome?" gushed a waitress in a New Jersey restaurant. My seatmate on a flight to Louisiana smiled knowingly and whipped out her copy of Decision Points. On my way to California a guy in a University of Alaska sweatshirt nearly threw himself across the aisle to chat with me. It was a camaraderie with perfect strangers that I once evoked by wearing my Obama sweatshirt.
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January 2011 -
About Melissa
Melissa Harris-Perry is Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University. Her academic research is inspired by a desire to investigate the challenges facing contemporary black Americans and to better understand the multiple, creative ways that African Americans respond to these challenges. She is also an award winning author and appears regularly on MSNBC and other media venues.
Learn More...
View my wedding pictures.
Brief article about the move to New Orleans.
MHP
Monthly Archives
- April
2010
- March
2010
- February
2010
- January
2010
- New
Orleans Edition
- December
2009
Contact
General Inquiries
melissa@melissaharrisperry.com
Speaking Engagements and Public Appearances
Kathleen Anderson
lectures@andersonliterary.com
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