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Dear
Friends & Colleagues
My March newsletter is a little late. What a perfect indication of how busy life has been! I had opportunities to lecture places as diverse at the National Security Administration and UCLA Law School all in a single month. And of course, I celebrated women’s history month at events around the country.
I continued to write my new column “Sister Citizen” for The Nation magazine. As a new endeavor, I am working with The Grio.com to write short pieces as companions to my MSNBC appearances. I hope you like this new format.
On the personal front, my partner, James Perry, has decided to run for a Louisiana House seat in District 93. This district encompasses historic communities like Treme and portions of Uptown. The district also includes recognizable features of New Orleans like the Superdome and the Aquarium. This will be a short and busy campaign, culminating in a special election on May 1. As always we need your support and prayers.
Melissa
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Recent
Media Appearances
Racialized
Choices in the Stimulus
GRIT TV
March 23, 2010
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Who
Can Talk About Race?
GRIT TV
March 23, 2010
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One
on One with Maria Hinojosa
PBS
March 28, 2010
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Militias
on The Right
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
March 30, 2010
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The
Rise of Hate on the Right
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
March 23, 2010
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Recent
Writings
A
Right to Life for the Living
The Nation.com
March 18, 2010
 The
Tuskegee Syphilis Study employed Eunice Rivers as an outreach
coordinator for more than thirty years. Her role, as an African-American
nurse, was to gain and maintain the trust of black men targeted
by the study. She helped ensure that they did not seek the widely
available, highly effective medical care that they critically
needed to treat their syphilis, because if they received penicillin
they would disrupt the study's goal of observing the disease's
devastating course of blindness, madness and physical decay.
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Is
this the Birth of a Nation?
The Nation.com
March 22, 2010
 In
response to the imminent passage of health care reform, protesters
spat on Representative Emmanuel Cleaver. They hurled homophobic
obscenities at Representative Barney Frank. They shouted racial
slurs at Representative John Lewis. Democratic leadership responded
by marching to the Capitol in a scene that looked more like a
1960s demonstration than a morning commute for the majority party.
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Power
in the Blood
The Nation.com
March 7, 2010
 The
first chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois's classic 1903 text The
Souls of Black Folk is titled "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." It
begins by posing the dilemma of blackness in America this way: "between
me and the other world there is ever an unasked question... How
does it feel to be a problem?" Du Bois goes on to offer
a history of America that arrives at a core spiritual striving
for black people: the desire to be fully recognized citizens
with equal franchise and unfettered opportunity to secure property
and pursue human fulfillment.
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Our
Other Public Option
The Nation.com
March 3, 2010
 Like
most progressives, I support the public option. In this most
unlikely moment, it appears that the public option may have a
fighting chance. Democrats have managed to secure backing by
34 Senators willing to support a public option in reconciliation.
It is still a long haul to get to 50. But for the first time
since the 21st century version of massive resistance began, there
is some hope that American lawmakers will offer a public insurance
plan capable of competing with private insurers.
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Tea
Party Channels the Confederacy
The Grio
March 29, 2010
 Monday
evening I joined Chris Matthews on Hardball on MSNBC for a conversation
with Tea Party organizer Dana Loesch. We discussed the Sunday
NY Times editorial by Frank Rich, which suggested that the fury
over the health care reform bill was prompted more by white anxiety
about an increasingly diverse American society, than it was rooted
in substantive criticism of the bill. I want to follow up with
some points that may have gotten lost in the cross-talk.
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GOP
Can’t Turn a Blind Eye
The Grio
March 25, 2010
 It
has only been two short days and I have already been called on
by MSNBC's Countdown to once again discuss the issue of rising
rancor in American political discourse in the wake of the health
care reform debate. I have another opportunity to expand on those
ideas here on theGrio. Throughout the country, Democratic members
of Congress have been receiving aggressive messages and, in some
cases, death threats based on their vote for health care reform.
On Thursday night Lawrence O'Donnell asked me "Do these
threats threaten the democratic process?"
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Are
Conservatives Inciting Racial Violence?
The Grio
March 24, 2010
 I
often have the opportunity to discuss politics, race, religion,
gender and other issues on MSNBC. Television is a terrific forum
for disseminating ideas, but it also has severe time limitations.
So I have joined with theGrio in a new project. After my MSNBC
appearances I will come over to theGrio in order to continue
the conversation by offering some supporting ideas, references
or explanations that I was not able to fully explain during the
TV spot. Let's see if this little experiment works.
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March 2010 -
About Melissa
Melissa Harris-Lacewell is Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the award-winning book, Barbershops,
Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought. And she is currently at work on a new book: Sister
Citizen: A Text For Colored Girls Who've Considered Politics When Being Strong
Wasn't Enough.
Learn More...
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Contact
Melissa General Inquiries
info@melissaharrislacewell.com
Speaking Engagements and Public Appearances
Lynne Murphy, Media Relations Specialist
harrislacewellmedia@yahoo.com |
