Melissa Harris-Perry, former MSNBC host obsessed with race and gender issues has found her new niche as Editor-at-Large at Elle.com covering race, gender, politics, fashion, and the “often-overlooked stories of women and girls of color.”
Harris-Perry, a professor at Wake Forest University is sure to add her liberal feminist touch to her coverage at Elle, just as she did on her MSNBC show, which she began hosting in 2012. She had a nasty break with the network almost two months ago.
Trouble started for Harris-Perry when MSNBC made the MPH show do primary election coverage in Iowa and then pre-empted it two weeks in a row. The network said the changes were temporary, but Harris-Perry refused to go on air again until full editorial autonomy was restored. MSNBC finally cancelled the show in February.
“Our show was taken — without comment or discussion or notice — in the midst of an election season,” Harris-Perry wrote in an email to her staff, adding that she felt “worthless” to MSNBC. “After four years of building an audience, developing a brand, and developing trust with our viewers, we were effectively and utterly silenced.”
“I will not be used as a tool for their purposes,” she went on. “I am not a token, mammy, or little brown bobble head.”
Perhaps MSNBC was unfair to Harris-Perry, but that will not stop her from continuing to push a liberal agenda that includes promoting the violent Black Lives Matter message and late-term abortion. Her push for the latter involved wearing tampon earrings.
“Joining Elle.com is an opportunity to combine my expertise as a scholar, my commitments as a public intellectual, and my interests as a woman,” Harris-Perry commented in a statement on her new position. “I am thrilled to tell my loyal television audience where they can find me and to introduce myself to brand new audiences, all while telling the stories of extraordinary women and girls.”
Perry tweeted late Monday the respect she has for Elle.com’s treatment of race issues. “Elle.com is already producing smart and important reporting about women of color in the U.S. Honored to join their team.”
Harris-Perry remained true to her feminist brand with her first Elle story on Monday headlined: “Where Are the Rest of the Black Feminists in HBO’s ‘Confirmation’?” “Confirmation” is a new TV movie about Anita Hill, a lawyer and academic who testified in 1991 that Justice Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her.
“We have forgotten black women's stories of vulnerability at the hands of both black and white men,” she wrote. “Confirmation helps us remember Anita Hill, and how she was treated, and who was responsible.”
Leah Chernikoff, Elle.com’s site director said she is excited to have Harris-Perry attacking controversial issues in the culture and that she brings an expert voice to Elle.com.
“She will, as her work has always done, highlight the stories of women and girls — a reader might get to see an interview with a prominent female politician, a Black Lives Matter activist, or a celebrity,” remarked Chernikoff. “Or they might read Melissa's writings on topics ranging from feminism, intersectionality, and motherhood, to fashion and even gardening.”
Harris-Perry will write columns, produce videos, perform interviews and host live events named “Nerdland Forever” the first of which is being held in New York on Tuesday.
