Melissa Harris-Perry Promo About Raising Children ‘Collectively’ Becomes News

[Street Knowledge]

MSNBC released another of its Lean Forward promos, this time featuring Melissa Harris-Perry, who hosts a weekend show on the network. The promo features Harris-Perry talking about society raising children “collectively”:

The promo did exactly what a good promo should: it got everyone talking about it. Former Fox News contributor Sarah Palin commented on it multiple times. It has spread virally online, to both conservative and liberal websites, and Fox News has ran no fewer than five segments on the ad, according to TVEyes. Five segments about a 30 second ad for a competing network.


One MSNBC staffer told TVNewser that they were “giddy” with the response, which has people talking about Harris-Perry’s weekend show in a way that has not happened since it launched. While many of the conservative critics of the ad are unlikely to watch her program in the first place, by amplifying it, it is likely reaching a much wider audience than it would have otherwise.

Melissa Harris-Perry Promo About Raising Children ‘Collectively’ Becomes News - TVNewser

[ame=http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa9temz_Cxw]Lean Forward... Collectively: Melissa Harris-Perry's MSNBC Ad Says All Of Your Children Belong To Us - YouTube[/ame]

 

[GetInTheTruck]

what a disgusting human being

 

[newworldafro]

Her wording has me on the fence.........before Bubba's wife made a book out of the term "It Takes a Village"...this African proverb was all the rage in the black community about going back to the earlier days in the U.S. where even your neighbor could fuss out your mischievious kids....hence it "Takes a Village". to raise a child.....so I can't call it......although, from what I have heard from her on a bunch of issues........she is sorta dense ... or plays dense anyway...

 

[MeachTheMonster]

I agree. People have fallen into the "blame the parents" line of thinking to explain the failings of society/community. But in reality we are all responsible for society/communty and the kids are the future of that, therefore we are all responsible for the kids.

 

[CACtain Planet]

Harris-Perry smh

 

[KingpinOG]

I agree. People have fallen into the "blame the parents" line of thinking to explain the failings of society/community. But in reality we are all responsible for society/communty and the kids are the future of that, therefore we are all responsible for the kids.

It isn't my job to raise somebody else's kid. It is the job of that kid's mother and father.

The reason society, especially in black inner cities, is crumbling is because of the breakdown of the traditional family. When 70% of baby births are illegitimate there is a huge problem. Left wingers would rather blame society instead of addressing the real problem which is so many fathers having no part in their lives of their children. Liberals hate the idea of personal responsibility.

 

[KingpinOG]

Melissa Harris Perry is an idiot.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

It doesn't matter how bad a society/community is. If a child has a good mother and father in their life their chances of being a success are greatly improved.

The reason society, especially in black inner cities, is crumbling is because of the breakdown of the traditional family. When 70% of baby births are illegitimate there is a huge problem. Left wingers would rather blame society instead of addressing the real problem which is so many fathers having no part in their lives of their children. Liberals hate the idea of personal responsibility.

Nope that's just the same old republican talking points used to justify the continued unfair treatment of inner-city people. That 70% number is misleading and has nothing to do with the condition of poor neighborhoods in America. It is a symptom of the problem, not the cause.

You take a kid, you start him out from the absolute bottom, you give him the least resources and opportunities, then you put up extra barriers on top of that. Then if he doesn't make it to the same success as a kid that was given everything you tell him "you should have tried harder" FOH with that.

Personal responsibilty is important. But successful people in America are not "personally responsible" for that success. An infrastructure has been created and maintained to offer success to some, and to hinder it for others.

 

[The Real]

The ironic thing about all this is that Conservatives have traditionally championed causes that can only be described as collective parenting- legislating morality by censoring things for all children under a certain age, campaigns and PSAs about negative music, movies, videogames, religious propaganda, waging "culture wars," complaining that secularization means "no holidays for the children," etc. One of the most common Conservative arguments against the mainstreaming of homosexuality and gay marriage is that "our kids shouldn't have to see that," as if they can speak for all parents.

Furthermore, old-fashioned American and most old world immigrant values encourage exactly this attitude- people's neighbors did and still do tell them about their own kids, discipline them, etc. But of course, this ad isn't referring to any of the above.

Hyping up this ad and twisting its message into some kind of hivemind propaganda or anti-individualist screed is ridiculous, though. The message should be agreeable to most. Hyperindividualist Margaret Thatcher-style "there is no society, only individuals and their families" attitudes are fundamentally wrong and negative. Some robust notion of community is important, and a general investment in the future, for the sake of each individual, necessarily involves including that notion of community, and therefore children in general, in it. Individualism quite literally ignores itself when it forgets community.

I want to see children in general succeed, not just the one who are related to me, and part of what her idea entails is creating a proper culture of parenthood in society that all families, especially those in the Black community, could benefit from- it's not actually at odds with Conservatism at all, unless you twist it far out of proportion.

It isn't my job to raise somebody else's kid. It is the job of that kid's mother and father.

The reason society, especially in black inner cities, is crumbling is because of the breakdown of the traditional family.

No, that's only part of the picture. The other part, which itself contributes to that breakdown, is neoliberal economic policy that's based on a hyperindividualist notion of the citizen and an ignorance and demonization of any and all forms of collectivity that aren't "the market" (as if that's even really a collective endeavor in free market theory.) It destroyed everything that was good about the social programs and services in Black neighborhoods. That nonsense is precisely the problem.

 

[Berniewood Hogan]

It isn't my job to raise somebody else's kid.

BEING A HUMAN ISN'T A JOB, BROTHER!

 

[MeachTheMonster]

It isn't my job to raise somebody else's kid. It is the job of that kid's mother and father.

It wasn't the job of the people that came before you to put you in a postion for success, but they did and you enjoyed the benefits of society.

We are all part of society therefore responsible for the outcome of society. You complain when fukked up kids grow into even more fukked up adults, so why don't you do what you can to help the kids?

 

[No1]

I'll say this, this notion is pervasive in immigrant families that make it to the United States and they outperform the average American significantly on the educational front. It might not be a widespread collective community identity per se, but the lending a hand to other families or having a close family member or friend essentially raise a child that you don't have the means to is very common. Seeing how, cultural, racial and socioeconomic lines will prevent that type of system from ever becoming widespread in the United States, the allocation of resources and mandatory mixed school among socioeconomic lines is probably what we need (for public schools). I can't say that she's wrong in principle.

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

How much more money can we throw at education? We continually throw more and more at it. And I'm sure you can show me some skewed stats about local govts cutting education.

If we didn't have to be the police of the world we could educate people

 

[MeachTheMonster]

How much more money can we throw at education? We continually throw more and more at it. And I'm sure you can show me some skewed stats about local govts cutting education.

If we didn't have to be the police of the world we could educate people

Not nearly as much as we throw at plenty of other things. And the money that we do spend is not being spent in the places it is needed most.

 

[jackswstd]

One of my conservative friends posted a rant about this on facebook and of course it's all this guy's fault and he also said it was something Hitler would say.