November 09, 2013

Friday at The New School in New York City, as part of their Black Female Voices series, Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry sat down with famed feminist and writer bell hooks, and hosted one of the most crucial and brilliant public dialogues about the well-being of black women and the myriad of other pertinent topics. 

Candid and with a few welcome straight no chaser moments, Dr. Harris-Perry deviated a bit from her MSNBC persona, and offered up some worthwhile fodder of her own, for folks to chew on. 

There were so many profound sound bites and ‘Yaass!’  moments, I’ll just highlight those that stood out the most to me and I've noted…

September 01, 2012

The wealth gap becomes ever vaster, as the working class and poor continue to slog through a still-struggling economy.  While some of those amongst the uber-wealthy seem far more vested in acquiring and hoarding more, they also seem to relish patronizing those who continue to struggle to stay afloat, even while toiling away at work every day for a paltry paycheck.  Affluent and wealthy folks love to trot out the same "just work harder" boot strap speech to condescend to poor people, many of whom would be hard pressed to find a part-time job, let alone a second or third one to supplement their living expenses.  Australian mining heiress Gina Rinehart [pegged as the world's wealthiest woman, with a net worth of about 30 billion dollars], made sure to drive the stake in and twist it, in a recent magazine article in which she accused poor and working class people of being jealous of the wealthy, yet not working hard enough to acquire the type of privilege she has enjoyed for most of her life- "Do something to make more money yourself -- spend less time drinking or smoking and socializing, and more time working."  She lectured.