Jeb`s Bush front-runner status was short lived, to say the least. But who could have predicted that the Republican front-runner would be someone that we were not even thinking about.Donald Trump was not even on anyone`s radar back then and Mike Pence was getting more attention than he was.

Melissa Harris-Perry

We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we've always had a private notion of children. Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven't had a very collective notion of these are our children. So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.

Melissa Harris-Perry

education kids children

For me, success is when I'm making a contribution and fully engaging all of my talents. In terms of the key quality, it's being willing to continue to believe in yourself even when other people don't, and being able to fail and to come back.

Melissa Harris-Perry

keys believe people

Stereotypes work to help divide women from recognizing their common interests.

Melissa Harris-Perry

stereotype common helping

Drink lots of water, and nap. I've made some really big messes along the way, whether on the academic side or on the media side. It hasn't been a straight path. But a lot of those mess-ups have led to opportunities, so I guess I'd say be fearless, and keep bottled water with you, so you don't dehydrate.

Melissa Harris-Perry

media naps opportunity

Loss of social standing is an ever-present threat for individuals whose social acceptance is based on behavioral traits rather than unconditional human value.

Melissa Harris-Perry

individual acceptance loss

The land on which they (the Founding Fathers) formed this Union was stolen. The hands with which they built this nation were enslaved. The women who birthed the citizens of the nation are second class. This is the imperfect fabric of our nation, at times we’ve torn and stained it, and at other moments, we mend and repair it. But it’s ours, all of it. The imperialism, the genocide, the slavery, also the liberation and the hope and the deeply American belief that our best days still lie ahead of us.

Melissa Harris-Perry

father lying hands

So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.

Melissa Harris-Perry

break-through kids ideas

Terrifying mass shooting and high-profile officer-involved incidents have dominated the national conversation on gun violence in recent years. But most deaths by gun are not headline-grabbing massacres. They`re more private, more intimate, and perhaps in that way, even more horrifying. Domestic violence, make no mistake, domestic violence is a gun issue.

Melissa Harris-Perry

mass-shootings gun mistake

You just have to be strong if you're a black woman.

Melissa Harris-Perry

black-women black strong

Popular films are so powerful and compelling that it's often easier to accept their versions of history than the much more complicated true stories.

Melissa Harris-Perry

film powerful stories

Therapists are less likely to perceive a black woman as sad; instead they see her as angry or anxious.

Melissa Harris-Perry

therapists anxious black

I do think that we have to be careful not to assume that getting a perm or wearing a blonde wig is a desire for whiteness. It may or may not be. Listen, I live in a poor black neighborhood where women wear blue hair, green hair, and all kinds of stuff. So, I simply see it as a different set of choices.

Melissa Harris-Perry

hair blue thinking

With Donald Trump, you know, what I would tell you is that he`s got shelf life like I never would have guessed.

Melissa Harris-Perry

shelf-life shelves trump

Politics are a part of athletics now. Politics is a part of everything. And athletics is no exception.

Melissa Harris-Perry

athletics exception

As we watch Republican candidates like Scott Walker and Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal and George Pataki, and even Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, guys who are either out or who are really struggling to stay in, it might seem like the Republican Party is no longer a very strong party. There may be people who use the Republican label, but the party itself might feel like it`s in a bit of disarray.

Melissa Harris-Perry

party strong struggle

Once it's everybody's responsibility and not just the household's we start making better investments.

Melissa Harris-Perry

household investment responsibility

I learned that you can't write a book in the margins of your life. I'd forgotten how much uninterrupted time it takes to write chapters, and how you have to push everything else aside and really focus.

Melissa Harris-Perry

focus writing book

I would want to know that my daughter is going to enjoy a long, happy and healthy life.

Melissa Harris-Perry

daughter healthy long

The problem is that many of our policymakers want to base sweeping laws on those feelings.

Melissa Harris-Perry

law want feelings

A big part of the Republican 2016 race is now basically a bunch of establishment Republicans going after each other. Jeb Bush going after Marco Rubio, and the governors, Chris Christie going after Marco Rubio. Rubio firing back, John Kasich going after Jeb Bush.

Melissa Harris-Perry

republican bigs race