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 More Quotes by Melissa Harris-Perry More Quotes From Melissa Harris-Perry I can understand how someone might read wearing a blonde wig as a desire to be white, but I suspect that the same shaming smirk can happen if you wear a big afro or any number of other hairstyles. Melissa Harris-Perry white desire numbers I had a friend say to me the other day, I hate when I see Jonathan Metzl on your show because I know it`s bad news. I know that there has been a shooting. Melissa Harris-Perry shooting news hate I think the most critical needs of the African-American communities aren't being addressed primarily because of decisions being made by Republican Congressional leaders. Melissa Harris-Perry leader decision thinking I just keep thinking of how many times I`ve heard Ferguson effect. And I`ve heard it because of protests, officers are afraid to do their job because of - because of a YouTube effect. Melissa Harris-Perry ferguson jobs thinking Many people consider darts a sport, with a live audience and very excited fans and competitors who aren`t hitting the bull`s-eye. Melissa Harris-Perry eye sports people You can`t use hair spray, because hair spray is going to affect the ozone. I`m trying to figure out - okay, I`m in my room in New York City and I want to put a little spray, so that I can - all right? Right? Melissa Harris-Perry ozone new-york hair In the 1990s, Michael Jordan was the preeminent athlete in the country. And when the product with his name on it seemed to be linked to crime and violence in poor communities, many called on him to address it. They asked him to weigh in on robberies, on kids robbed for their high-priced Air Jordan sneakers. But he wouldn`t. Melissa Harris-Perry athlete country kids In a moment when young black voters were key to the election and the reelection of a black president, when the Department of Justice has been led these years by the first two African-American attorneys general, when many big cities boast African-American league prosecutors and police chiefs and mayors, even in this moment, why is it that it still feels to so many young people that there is more power for change on the court than in the courts? Melissa Harris-Perry cities two years The Republicans don't need black folks to vote Republican, they just need them to not vote. Melissa Harris-Perry vote black needs I'm horrible with money. I make bad business decisions every hour of the day. Melissa Harris-Perry horrible hours decision I don't know what people mean when they ask me whether I'm embracing my whiteness. Whiteness is ubiquitous. Melissa Harris-Perry ask-me mean people I am a supporter of much of the Arab Spring, as a matter of indigenous self-determination. So, I see the United States' role in Libya as an appropriately restrained one in providing some international support for the work of those trying to bring democratic change against a regime that has undoubtedly been dictatorial, particularly in the past twenty years. Melissa Harris-Perry determination spring past It actually does matter what people think about you. Melissa Harris-Perry doe people thinking From childhood forward, our hair is one of the most critical, defining aspects of our embodied selves as black women: how we get it done... how we have to focus on it... the questions we have to answer about it... and so forth. Melissa Harris-Perry childhood self hair I don't think that a white woman is in denial when she dyes her hair blonde. And I actually think we are the most varied in terms of the choices we make about our hair. Some of it may be political or psychological, but an awful lot of it is just aesthetic, how we like to view ourselves when we look in the mirror. Melissa Harris-Perry views white thinking I think the idea that you're somehow rejecting whiteness if you don't identify yourself as biracial is odd because everybody engages in whiteness. If you live in America, you're doing whiteness all the time, even if you have no white people in your family. Melissa Harris-Perry america ideas thinking Having a white parent undoubtedly makes for a different childhood experience than having two black parents. Melissa Harris-Perry childhood white two Housing affects everything, and we continue to live in very, very segregated communities. Melissa Harris-Perry housing community Look, I grew up in, went to school in, and now live in the American South, and southern white women are interesting, complex and quirky, even the ones with racial anxieties. Melissa Harris-Perry white interesting school Think of how hard it would be to create a gender-based movement across racial lines as long as one group believes that it has to be strong while seeing the other group as passive and weak. We could also go into the stereotypes of the saucy, mercurial Latina and the docile, easily-dominated Asian woman. Melissa Harris-Perry strong believe thinking