February 4, 2016

"It is breathtaking how fearlessly – almost recklessly – she throws herself between he and I."

Writes Melissa Harris-Perry, which I'm reading because Glenn Reynolds blogged:
NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENS TO MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY EXCEPT THAT, IN A CROWDED HOTEL LOBBY, SHE MEETS SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T LIKE HER WORK. Naturally, she concocts tremendous “what if he’s here to kill me” drama out of thin air. As always, everything is about her, and her dramatic struggle against people of the wrong race and gender.
I'm going to back away from that drama. There is something genuinely creepy about a strange man saying to a woman "I just want you to know why I am doing this" when she has no idea what "this" refers to. The fear instinct belongs there and she's right to assume she needs to protect herself. After it's over, the question is, what, if any, kind of essay do you write about it?

I'll just confine myself to recommending avoidance of the phrase "between he and I."

108 comments:

tim in vermont said...

I'll just confine myself to recommending avoidance of the phrase "between he and I."

Ha! "I never called her a bimbo!"

chickelit said...

Oh she's free to feel fear but she still comes off as a drama queen. "Nazi Germany"? Come on.

Laslo Spatula said...

"Ridiculous though it may be, my dominant fear was that if this man maimed or killed me my students would fail to achieve the learning outcome of the Wake the Vote program, which is charged with helping them hone tools of democratic deliberation, perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and civic engagement in diverse settings."

Noble, in the way that after-the-fact self-serving Bullshit usually is.

I am Laslo.

tim in vermont said...

And I can’t hear all the words. But I catch “Nazi Germany” and I catch “rise to power.” But I can’t move. I am lulled by a familiar powerlessness, muteness, that comes powerfully and unexpectedly. It grips me.

She is describing the words that came out of the mouth of a viewer of MSNBC. Do those words really sound implausible in that context? This is the brew MSNBC purveys, it is unsurprising.

Sebastian said...

"After it's over, the question is, what, if any, kind of essay do you write about it?" If you are a Prog drama queen, you write that you were in mortal danger while on a noble mission. If not, not.

tim maguire said...

Who's Melissa Harris-Perry? Have I heard of her? The name sounds familiar, but those three-name people all sound kind of the same. I'm guessing from the comments that she has something to do with MSNBC.

Ken B said...

Could "this" be talking to her this way? He isn't just making small talk with a stranger, he's challenging her because he doesn't like her work.

Brando said...

Well, an intelligent person--i.e. NOT Melissa HP--would consider why she had such a fear impulse over a man confronting her, and then compare that to a white person having a fear impulse when confronted by a strange black man. Then she might think maybe we let our prejudices affect us, and where do we go from here?

But then we are talking about one of the emptiest of empty-heads.

Quinn Satterwaite said...



What about this pronouncement of MHP?

"It is not an exaggeration to say my students may have saved my life."


To any sane person it appear to be a complete exaggeration. Consequently MHP isnt a sane person.

Curious George said...

"Ridiculous though it may be, my dominant fear was that if this man maimed or killed me my students would fail to achieve the learning outcome of the Wake the Vote program, which is charged with helping them hone tools of democratic deliberation, perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and civic engagement in diverse settings. It was the fear of a ruined lesson plan that propelled me out of my seat and away from the potential attacker."

What a steaming pile.

tim maguire said...

Having read it now, I can see her being creeped out, even a little alarmed, but good lord! She's a semi-celebrity, people are going to not like her. Strangers are going to approach her in public places. If she can't handle that, she needs to maintain a more private life.

Anonymous said...

LOL, we all quickly came here to comment on the "hot mess' that was this para:

Ridiculous though it may be, my dominant fear was that if this man maimed or killed me my students would fail to achieve the learning outcome of the Wake the Vote program, which is charged with helping them hone tools of democratic deliberation, perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and civic engagement in diverse settings. It was the fear of a ruined lesson plan that propelled me out of my seat and away from the potential attacker.

Jon said...

Hey, sister:

If you really feel this way, get a license, and CARRY A GUN. Or just shut up.

Mark said...

I can only assume that people here will respond the same way they did when Ann felt threatened at the WI Capitol protests, right?

Big Mike said...

After it's over, the question is, what, if any, kind of essay do you write about it?

@Althouse, "if any" is right. Was there a way to write an essay that didn't make Prof. Harris-Perry look ridiculous? If so, she didn't find it.

ganderson said...

Sounds a bit fishy to me. Did it happen? And that white shit kicker of a dirt person Dwight Yoakum (Pikeville KY via Columbus, OH)was smart enough to write:

"Take a rock, tie a rope
Throw it down in the sea
Let it fall to the bottom
Nobody knows how deep
Stare real hard through the water
And you might just perceive
The distance between you and me
Yeah, the distance between you and me"

Lewis Wetzel said...

There is something genuinely creepy about a strange man saying to a woman "I just want you to know why I am doing this" when she has no idea what "this" refers to. The fear instinct belongs there and she's right to assume she needs to protect herself.
Let me get this straight. Are you talking about a biological woman or a transgender women?
There are no significant differences between the sexes. That card has been played out.

Rob said...

Recommending avoidance of "between he and I" is all very nice, but how about censuring it as the absurd misusage it is? Of course, even our highly educated grammarian-in-chief speaks of things being given "to Michelle and I." So we're doomed.

Bob Ellison said...

Deadlines.

Wince said...

If a black guy did the same exact thing to Althouse, I suspect she'd wouldn't write about it out of fear.

Fear of being called a racist, that is.

David Begley said...

MHP, Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow.

The Three Stooges is too kind of a description.

Laslo Spatula said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Browndog said...

If you felt inclined to understand the thought process of someone that proudly wore tampons as earrings live on national television, this essay will provide a few insights.

chickelit said...

Mark said...I can only assume that people here will respond the same way they did when Ann felt threatened at the WI Capitol protests, right?

I assume you're referring to what sleeveless Mr. Red did to Althouse and her camera way back then. No, I don't see the similarity, Mark. One was a verbal confrontation; the other was a verbal confrontation plus physical.

Perhaps Althouse could rehash that incident for the sake of compare and contrast.

Laslo Spatula said...

It was a Living Hell too horrible to even contemplate: I was alone, unprotected, and this White Man forcibly held me down with his words, words that would surely leave bruises if they were more than words.

“But why you? Why would they pick you?” he said, his words biting into my skin like words with teeth would do.

"No!" I feebly pushed back. "What about my students? They will surely fail to achieve the learning outcome of the Wake the Vote program!"

But my words did not stop him. Indeed, they only seemed to encourage him, as he brutally forced the words "Nazi Germany" into me again and again, "Nazi Germany" with each invading thrust of vocabulary.

Then he verbally turned me over and pushed his words into me from behind: "Rise to Power, Rise to Power," he said, his consonants unlubricated and raw...

Finally it was over, but his words still cover me like scars. But time has let me grow proud of these scars, because: The Students.

I am Laslo.

Rae said...

I'm glad I don't watch MSNBC. As do most people on the planet.

Known Unknown said...

She can add fabulist to her resume.

Her fear can be legitimate, but this ridiculous passage does not indeed legitimize it.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I bet that guy watched too many Romantic Comedies

Known Unknown said...

Maybe the guy was just a hard worker, like Paul Ryan.

Mark said...

Chickelit, I don't recall her saying that she only felt threatened one single time.

You can cherry pick the worst incident, but I recall discussions of fear for a while thereafter.

It's good to know that you would have no issue if I did the same to Althouse, or you. I have seen Ann in public a couple times, I am sure she will chime in telling me to go ahead an accost her randomly on the street as I could never cause her legitimate fear just with words.

Mike Sylwester said...

I have been watching The Bachelor for 12 years, and on that show the only grammar is ...

between him and I

... or ...

between her and I

... as the case may be.

CWJ said...

I went into a Starbucks, and ordered from the barista. "I don’t know if he was there to kill me." But he gave me my coffee instead.

I gave him some money and he angrily told me I had underpaid. "I don’t know if he was there to kill me." So I paid him the remainder.

On my way to a chair, I spilled the hot coffee on a man who became angry. "I don’t know if he was there to kill me." So I said I was sorry.

As I went out the door, a panhandler aggressively asked me for money. "I don’t know if he was there to kill me." So I gave him my change.

As I left, another driver flipped me the "bird" because I cut him off. "I don’t know if he was there to kill me." So I sheepishly waved and drove off.

garage mahal said...

THIS GUY IS PROBABLY A REPUBLICAN. THEREFORE, HE DID NOTHING WRONG AT ALL.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

*him and me*. Just sayin', perfessor Harris-Perry.

Tank said...

This guy sounds creepy.

The article is also creepy and full of BS.

She is a small woman. She can be concerned. I don't blame her. That situation, if accurate, could easily have escalated.

Let's face it, this doesn't change anyone's attitude toward her intellect or views.

Bill said...

Those tampon earrings pushed him to the brink.

Michael K said...

"the phrase "between he and I."

That phrase is usually used by people who don't know grammar and that is what they imagine proper usage to be.

"Him and Me", proper grammar, doesn't sound right to them and,since they don't know the rules, they make one up.

Either that or they use Microsoft Word grammar checker, which was written by people who never learned English properly.

Karen of Texas said...

Talk about wanting to appear "sophisticated"... I've found many people use the incorrect form after that pesky preposition because I think *they* think it makes them appear high-brow. Kind of like a British accent.

It grates on me. Every. Time. And also if they put the pronoun that refers to them first, it just assaults my eardrums. Damn nuns.

cubanbob said...

NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENS TO MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY EXCEPT THAT, IN A CROWDED HOTEL LOBBY, SHE MEETS SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T LIKE HER WORK. Naturally, she concocts tremendous “what if he’s here to kill me” drama out of thin air"

We should be so lucky. No doubt MHP is suffering from PTSD from the time she and Hillary were under fire in Bosnia.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA

LOOK AT MEEEEEEEE!!!

DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA

Sorry, but that absurdly breathless tone--my seventh grader would advise against that opening sentence as laying it on a little too thick--not to mention the multiple grammar errors and typos completely undermine whatever credibility she might have had.

I'd file that one under "yeah, that totally happened, just as written, every particle is true, sure."

Karen of Texas said...

Oh, and what Brando said so I'm not entirely in grammar Nazi mode...

HoodlumDoodlum said...

How did she know the person in question self identifies as a man, or as white? It seems awfully presumptuous to just assume that, doesn't it?

Bob Ellison said...

The rule is: if at the end of a sentence, and a singular pronoun, use "I".

CORRECT: "Him and me got into a fight, and the winner was I."

INCORRECT: "That rat-bastard stole my cheeseburger, so I told him it was he or me."

CORRECT: "If I'm calling it, it's beers all around for everyone, including we."

INCORRECT: "That guy's a loosa. Nobody likes him. Not even us."

Shouting Thomas said...

Odds she made it all up?

Bob Ellison said...

Shouting Thomas, I'd put those odds at 10:1 in favor of fabrication.

Ann Althouse said...

It is the worst kind of grammar mistake, over correction. You're resisting normal instinct, straining after something that seems like what higher class people would say. You may know that "it's me" is technically a mistake, a mistake that you feel like saying naturally, and instead of just doing that, you train yourself to think the word "me" should be avoided. You'd never say "he gave it to I," but you take to saying "he gave it to she and I" or "her and I."

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Distinctions are important!

Never mix up "Do I?" and "Do me!"

Alex said...

So now we know. Every feminist or race hustler gets the "benefit of the doubt" from Ann Althouse. Because, reasons.

Alex said...

Notice Ann is scared shitless by the potential charge of racism. I guess she doesn't want the fate of that poor Yale prof.

eric said...

Men bad. Women good.

Anonymous said...

I thought she would feel flattered even to be recognized in flyover country.

Amadeus 48 said...

M. Harris -Perry has been named "our foremost public intellectual" by Ta-Nahesi Coates, or whatever the hell his name is. Who would think that such a person would be grammar-challenged? I smell a rat!

mccullough said...

Strangers going up to famous people in crowded hotel lobbies. Stop the presses.

Personally, I'd hate being famous because you can't be anonymous. But this type of stuff, fans and critics approaching you in public, is common.

This wasn't Play Misty For Me

Lewis Wetzel said...

Tank wrote:
"She is a small woman. She can be concerned. I don't blame her."
Are you Kidding? Do not assume that a woman is at a physical disadvantage in a contest with a man. Women can be marines or special forces. Like men, they can be taught to kill other peoples' children on command and without remorse.

rhhardin said...

Between he and I adds a note of austerity. Tone is everything.

Black Dog said...

Perhaps she was wearing her tampon earrings.

Bob Ellison said...

Real men swarm to protect an attacked woman.

pdug said...

Glenn is OTT in criticizing her on this, but i do find it interesting MHP felt like she was in
"a trance of survivor submission" and she was "lulled by a familiar powerlessness, muteness, that comes powerfully and unexpectedly. It grips me"

But then her proxy-children, her students, they give her the energy to rear up like a mamma bear and defend them from the potential loss of their motherly figure.

Truly, you don't own your kids. MHP owns them, and needs them to overcome her survivor submission.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Ann Althouse said...It is the worst kind of grammar mistake, over correction. You're resisting normal instinct, straining after something that seems like what higher class people would say.

I used to assiduously use "shall" where appropriate in my speech (in any future-tense "I" or "we" that involves an "I" as a quick rule) but was informed that it sounded false, so I have mostly dropped the habit. The same is true to a lesser degree to avoiding ending sentences with a preposition (a holdover from grammar instruction based on Latin, I know), so the inverse of the problem you identify ("under" correcting) exists, too, although I guess that's more about style than accuracy.

glenn said...

Nothing wrong with Missey that following crops for a couple of years wouldn't cure.

Dan Hossley said...

Was she wearing her tampon earrings? That makes all the difference.

Don’t Buy It said...

Poor Melissa obviously suffers from Confirmation Bias. In a perfect world, no one would be allowed to disagree with her.

Seeing Red said...

If I was there and realized who she was I would have joined in!

Goldenpause said...

If there were ever any doubt that she is a certified (and certifiable) world class loon, she has now removed it with her latest missive.

rhhardin said...

It is the worst kind of grammar mistake, over correction.

Hypercorrection, it's called.

David said...

"I am lulled by a familiar powerlessness, muteness, that comes powerfully and unexpectedly. It grips me. Everything is falling away. Until in my peripheral vision I catch sight of a ponytail, the movement of an arm, the sound of familiar young voices and I remember… my students."

She's not their mommy. They are her mommy.

This is the woman who ranted at some hapless guest on her TV show for calling Paul Ryan a "hard worker." Apparently it was a racist thing to say, because black people once worked hard picking cotton. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2015/10/28/msnbcs-melissa-harris-perry-and-her-hard-work-history/

I can't work up much sympathy for her. She needs to get a grip, but I don't think she ever will.

David said...

Another way to express "him and I" would be "us."

Perhaps she sensed that "us" might show some human affinity with the boorish slob who said this to her? Must-Keep-The-Barrier-Up.

Grammar lessons are fine and dandy. But both these people needed a manners lesson.

Michael K said...

"Grammar lessons are fine and dandy."

But only by nuns. That way you remember it forever.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I'll just confine myself to recommending avoidance of the phrase "between he and I."

That be Ebonics. Check your privilege Althouse.

Quaestor said...

NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENS TO MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY EXCEPT THAT, IN A CROWDED HOTEL LOBBY, SHE MEETS SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T LIKE HER WORK.

That seems to me a perfectly adequate capsule description of the situation except that Reynolds is being gentlemanly about Miss Harris-Perry's avocation.

furious_a said...

When in doubt, try "I" or "she" or "they" after another preposition like "at" or "under" and hear how it sounds.

One would expect a Professor of Grievance Studies at Wake Forest to know this, but maybe MHP was tenured under a quota.

Drago said...

If this guy had been a muslim and actually sexually assaulted melissa, this incident would never have made it into the media and if it had, garage would have applauded his courage.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

THIS GUY IS PROBABLY A REPUBLICAN. THEREFORE, HE DID NOTHING WRONG AT ALL.

Or maybe he is just, I don't know, a nut. She is a celebrity of a sort. She is on television. He probably wanted to discuss the frequency since he doesn't see Kenneth on tv much any more.

Bruce Hayden said...

@Bob Ellisn - it looks like you got it exactly backwards.

I think that t was during the 19th Century, or, thereabouts, there was an attempt to make English more uniform and standardized, and the people behind that were trained in Latin and maybe Greek. So, they kinda utilized Latin as a model. Moreover, English incorporated a lot of French, thanks to being conquered by pseudo-French 950 years ago (this year). Latin has 5 cases (nominative, genative, dative, accusative, and ablative). The first two translated to English fairly easily: nominative essentially covers subjects of sentences (as well as the equivalent to a direct object for "be" verbs), and the genative case covers possessives. Every thing else pretty much requires the objective case. Notably, this covers indirect objects (dative), direct objects (accusative), and bucks of prepositions (mostly ablative). With the exception of possessives, we mostly see different cases only with pronouns in modern Englsh.

In Bob's case, English sentences typically are . This means that in most cases, you will have nominative case first, followed by verb, followed by objective case. Thus, "she hit him", and not "her hit he". There are a couple of exceptions to this. First, order can be reversed in some cases, often by use of the passive voice: "he was hit by her". The other involve the realization that "be" verbs don't take direct objects, since no action is involved", but traditionally, rather, a predicate nominative "it is I" instead of "it is me". However this seems to be rapidly fading.

Getting to the original question - "between" is most often a preposition, which means that the objective case of pronouns is proper in most cases (sometimes the word can instead be an adverb). And that is the case here - Perry used nominative case pronouns as the objects of the preposition "between". She should have used objective case pronouns.

Hope this didn't insult anyone here, I assume most of us here know these rules, even if MHP appears not to.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Oh, and I woke up next to my wife this morning and since I didn't know if she was going to kill me, I made coffee, cause if I hadn't, she might have.

Sydney said...

I did not know who Melissa Harris-Perry was, so I googled her. Astonished to learn she is a professor. She was even once a professor at Princeton. Should know better than to write, let alone say, "between he and I."

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Not a morning person, my wife.

Sydney said...

And her bachelor's degree was in English. What?!

Bruce Hayden said...

Please excuse the obvious word choice problems with the previous post (e.g. "buck" for "object"), and indeed many of my posts here. I often post using an iPad and Apple iOS has a very aggressive spell checker. As with many IOS device Serbs, I often find the result nonsensical. I know to proof read anything I write on an iPad, but sometimes am in too much of a hurry to do that adequately.

Bob Ellison said...

Bruce Hayden, about 25 years ago I read a book of some kind that said most of the European languages attempted Latinization several hundred years ago, in the sense that Latin rules of grammar and what-all were imposed (in this case, on Dutch, a really made-from-earth language).

That explains the split-infinitive rule (to truly write), which makes no sense in English.

mikeski said...

Kripke: "Gave it to her good, didn't ya?"

Sheldon: "No, I gave it her well"

Bob Ellison said...

Word order is another weird thing. In German, you pretty much put the infinitive at the end of the sentence. "Begun, the clone wars have." Or something like that. German is strange.

And in Thai, men say "krap" and women say "ka" at the end of statements. That's crazy. It's considered polite. What would Jenner say?

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Oh, and I woke up next to my wife this morning and since I didn't know if she was going to kill me, I made coffee, cause if I hadn't, she might have.

Even with the coffee I bet it was a close call...

Jason said...

I majored in English. They don't teach grammar. They teach critical thinking and analysis and evidence-based reasoning.

Well, not to this lady, apparently.

Jason said...

I keep hearing she was justified in feeling threatened and cornered because she's a woman and she's small.

But I also keep hearing from libtards that woman will just fine in the infantry, so what's the problem?

Chubfuddler said...

I find it weird that she manages to use the objective case correctly two sentences earlier in the same paragraph:

"Instead of sitting still as he tells me what he is going to do and why, I jump up. I move. I put space – a table – between him and me. My friend jumps too. It is breathtaking how fearlessly – almost recklessly – she throws herself between he and I."

tim in vermont said...

It's probably from being corrected so many times as a child for phrases like "Him and me went to the store..."

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Instead of sitting still as he tells me what he is going to do and why, I jump up. I move. I put space – a table – between him and me.

I think that action is perfectly reasonable. She is semi-famous, a public figure. And therefore, being cautious when approached by kooky sounding strangers in public is a necessity. But the resulting essay is self-indulgent emotional twaddle.

ganderson said...

I don't get too upset at "It's me". It is an idiomatic expression often used in speech. "Between he and I" though..... Yikes!

Michael K said...

"Him and me went to the store..."

One of the reasons why I like Stephen Pinker's books on language is his explanation of how babies learn to talk. We are born with grammar rules, or at least the way to learn them with any language we learn. Babies use rules that don't include irregular verbs that are common in English.

For example, the verb "went" is the past tense of the ancient English verb, "Wend." That verb is seen only in unusual places or in poetry like "Grey's Elegy in a Country Churchyard."

The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,

Interesting that a modern version of the poem omits the "wends" verb. "Wind" is not the singular so that site doesn't use correct grammar even as it changes an archaic form.

Anyway, the baby uses "Go" and "goed" instead of "Go" and "Went" as we do. They regularize the verb.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Here is the Readers Digest version.

I was approached by a man in the lobby at my hotel. Some of the things he said made me think that he might not be stable. Therefore, I moved away from him. A friend who I am traveling with then moved between him and me and together we raised a fuss which caused him to leave the lobby, get in his car, and drive off.

We then tried to explain to security that I am a "VIP" who gets nasty emails. However, since they are just hotel security there is not a damn thing they can do about what just happened. I decided not to call the police because even I know that they aren't going to do anything about a complaint that amounts to, "a guy said kooky sounding things to me and then left when my friend and I confronted him."

So instead I am going to write a humble-brag version of the incident that makes me look like Sojourner Truth.

madAsHell said...

Isn't this the woman with the tampon ear rings?

Beth B said...

Gotta agree this story is a bit of a humble-brag. There's something icky about the way she's trying to tie in Maya Angelou at the end, like she's claiming some sort of legacy there.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I'm just shocked someone feels comfortable bragging about how they jumped to conclusions and OTHER-ized someone else. A woman who subconsciously clutches her purse when a strange man gets on the elevator is a hateful racist bigot, but this woman is ok telling everyone she felt threatened by someone of a different race and gender (presumably!) who did not in fact take actions to harm her? It's shameful, is what it is. I count at least 3 microaggressions in her attitude and actions towards him (well, hers and her brave friends'), and that's got to be worth at least a full aggression.

My theory: this particular guy was just following our beloved President's directive back in 2008 to argue with your fellow citizens over political issues, to "get in their face(s)," but when this guy does exactly that somehow it's wrong. Baffling.


Quoth the current President:
"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face," he said.

n.n said...

Perry is reacting to dreams of an abortionist or, worse, planned cannibalism.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

When a Leftist accosts you on the street, smacks your camera, calls for "some muscle" to haul you away, shouts in your ear, pickets your house, and targets your children, it's just evidence of a vibrant democracy, of true believers, of principled citizens who feel duty-bound to take action. Hell, it's beautiful, in a way.

When a non-Leftist dares to speak to our foremost public intellectual without prior permission or introduction and in a less-than-polite manner it's evidence of just how unhinged and dangerous the non-Left is. It's scary, really, and there out to be a law.


Me, I'm against rudeness. That's a blanket rule. It's sometimes funny to see someone have to deal with rudeness, and obviously being rude can be useful, but on the whole I think people ought to treat each other respectfully. Respect, of course, is a two-way street, and when one's a member of a political tribe that gleefully uses all sorts of rude and intimidating tactics frequently I'll tend to care less than I otherwise would about their complaints of being subject to rudeness. For myself I try to keep a pleasant tone, a smile on my face, and a weapon suitable for self-defense on my person when in public. It's worked for me so far...but then again I'm not a published author and TV personality.

Original Mike said...

tim maguire said..."Who's Melissa Harris-Perry? Have I heard of her? The name sounds familiar, but those three-name people all sound kind of the same. I'm guessing from the comments that she has something to do with MSNBC."

You're pulling our leg, right? How can you not know America's foremost public intellectual?

Original Mike said...

"Ridiculous though it may be, my dominant fear was that if this man maimed or killed me my students would fail to achieve the learning outcome of the Wake the Vote program, which is charged with helping them hone tools of democratic deliberation, perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and civic engagement in diverse settings. It was the fear of a ruined lesson plan that propelled me out of my seat and away from the potential attacker."

Mellisa Hart-Perry is teaching "perspective-taking"? That's rich.

Quaestor said...

Bob Ellison wrote And in Thai, men say "krap" and women say "ka" at the end of statements. That's crazy. It's considered polite. What would Jenner say?

Just imagine Hillary appending "crap" to the end of all she statements. Not crazy, and the most polite thing she could possibly say.

Beaumont said...

NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENS TO MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY EXCEPT THAT, IN A CROWDED HOTEL LOBBY, SHE MEETS SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T LIKE HER WORK. Naturally, she concocts tremendous “what if he’s here to kill me” drama out of thin air. As always, everything is about her, and her dramatic struggle against people of the wrong race and gender.

While Reynolds comments may or may not characterize Harris-Perry, they also appear to reveal the stereotypical lens through which Reynolds seems to view this individual.

Drago said...

When I hear stories of people "just walking" up to others, I think, that's clearly a micro-aggression because no people ever had to "just walk" more than slaves.

Jupiter said...

Drago said...
"If this guy had been a muslim and actually sexually assaulted melissa, this incident would never have made it into the media and if it had, garage would have applauded his courage."

So would I.

jg said...

fake. chances are something inspiring her account happened, but there's little chance she's rendered it accurately. she has a history.

Henry said...

She's scared of rhymes.

Drago said...

Jupiter: "So would I."

Ha!

Well played sir.

Michael McNeil said...

Bruce Hayden: Why not turn off auto correct?

Anonymous said...

So like Holden Caulfield, Prof. Althouse picked up just enough education to hate people who say, "It's the difference between you and I."

bbkingfish said...

Blogging as money for nothing...

Melissa says nothing.

Then Anne brings nothing to the attention of her readers, and provides extensive analysis of the totally inconsequential, all cruelly neutral, of course.

Dozens of commenters flock to agree...that Melissa sure is silly.

Cha-ching!