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Smartest Nerd in the Room: Why Melissa Harris-Perry is America's foremost public intellectual...
The Atlantic ^ | January 6, 2014 | Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor

Posted on 1/7/2014, 5:37:38 AM by 2ndDivisionVet

On Saturday, Melissa Harris-Perry apologized on air for segment that made light of the Romney clan's adoption of a young black boy. On Sunday, Mitt Romney accepted Harris-Perry's "heartfelt" apology, noting, "I've made plenty of mistakes myself." I've watched the offending segment several times now. I can see how a white parent who'd adopted a black child (or vice versa) would find the segment flip and offensive. It would not have surprised me if those concerned about adoption, equality, and racism voiced some protest about the segment. Instead what we got was week of invective driven mostly by a conservative movement with less lofty concerns.

"Harris-Perry has been a public laughingstock for some time now," wrote John Nolte. "P.S. The Duck Dynasty family has an adopted black child. Maybe this is why the media hate them so much." Nolte was writing for the site named for the man who engineered the "Shirley Sherrod is a racist" hoax. There has never been an apology for that and there won't be one. That is because the conservative movement does not believe that racism is an actual issue to be grappled with, but sees it instead as a hand grenade to be lobbed into an enemy camp. One week we find Sarah Palin defending a man who thought my father was better off living under state-sponsored terrorism. The next we find her arguing that history's greatest monster is one Melissa Harris-Perry.

When not attempting to shame their enemies on trumped-up charges of racism, the conservative movement busies itself appealing to actual racists. We are into the sixth year of the era of a black president. In that time the conservative movement has gorged on a steady diet of watermelon jokes, waffle jokes, affirmative-action jokes, monkey jokes....

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blacks; mormonism; mormons; palin; racecard; racism; romney; television
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Ta-Nehisi Coates

1 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:37:38 AM by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

WTF?

This creep really needs to put down that crack-pipe.


2 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:44:04 AM by Bullish (America should yank Obama like a rotten tooth before he poisons the entire body)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Is this the classy commentator who wears feminine hygiene products on her face? That’s what passes for “intellectual”...MSM is in full coverup


3 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:44:38 AM by HonkyTonkMan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Now I WILL CANCEL my Atlantic subscription, as I’ve oft thought to do until dissuaded by an unexpectedly good issue.


4 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:46:32 AM by Elsiejay
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’ll bet the writer has a bloated ego.


5 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:46:51 AM by machogirl (First they came for my tagline)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Damn, I totally missed the watermelon jokes again!


6 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:47:09 AM by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Dear Mr Coates,

Give it up. She’s never going to blow you. Move on.

L


7 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:48:58 AM by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
                           

    'intellectual'

8 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:50:22 AM by tomkat (unreconstructable)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I thought this would be satire... I was wrong.


9 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:50:37 AM by Viennacon
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Of course she’s an intellectual. Aren’t all liberals?

And those who are conservatives are simple knuckle draggers.


10 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:50:54 AM by llevrok (Obama 2008 : "If you vote for me, you can keep your country")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Melissa Harris-Perry is NOT the foremost public intellectual of America; likewise Susan Sontag was NOT the greatest intellectual of her time (or the 20th century or whatever the Stupid NY Times said years ago).

Sorry, ladies.


11 posted on 1/7/2014, 5:59:50 AM by jocon307
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

On Sunday, Mitt Romney accepted Harris-Perry’s “heartfelt” apology, noting, “I’ve made plenty of mistakes myself.” ____________________________________________

did he ever apologize ???


12 posted on 1/7/2014, 6:00:01 AM by Tennessee Nana
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To: machogirl
I’ll bet the writer has a bloated ego.

Maybe it's not his ego that is bloated for her.

13 posted on 1/7/2014, 6:00:18 AM by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: llevrok
Of course she’s an intellectual. Aren’t all liberals?

I don't know, the word I associate with liberals is ineffectual. I thought the headline was a typo.

14 posted on 1/7/2014, 6:03:38 AM by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

On Sunday, Mitt Romney accepted Harris-Perry’s “heartfelt” apology, noting, “I’ve made plenty of mistakes myself.”

_______________________________________

I guess Willard thinks these are just “mistakes”

Like his lifelong pushing of abortion..

or his being responsible for same-sex marriage in MASS the first in the nation..

or his RomneyCare

or maybe the two times he dodged the draft...

or his push for AMNESTY

or his push for global warming..

or his gun grabbing..

etc

etc

etc


15 posted on 1/7/2014, 6:07:11 AM by Tennessee Nana
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s dumbfounding how such a mutual masturbatory fantasy could actually be typed up and submitted to an editor with a straight face.


16 posted on 1/7/2014, 6:22:24 AM by SpaceBar
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Losers at The Atlantic have closed comments, doing what the left loves to do: Shut down dissenting discussion, Effem.


17 posted on 1/7/2014, 6:27:19 AM by clintonh8r (Don't twerk me, Bro!)
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To: SpaceBar

He IS an editor, which explains much, no?


18 posted on 1/7/2014, 6:33:37 AM by 2ndDivisionVet (A courageous man finds a way, an ordinary man finds an excuse.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Didn’t catch that. Mystery solved.


19 posted on 1/7/2014, 6:39:34 AM by SpaceBar
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To: tomkat

Your post says it all. What makes this funier is that the writer is serious.


20 posted on 1/7/2014, 6:52:51 AM by lee martell
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