At the Risk of Sounding Angry: On Melissa Harris-Perry’s Eloquent Rage « The Crunk Feminist Collective
1. I love Melissa Harris-Perry. 2. “Niceness counts for nothing,” is a quote from Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series that rang like an internal bell for me, when I read it. The quote refers is spoken to Michael Tolliver by the man he is acting as an AIDS-buddy to. Niceness is all well and good, when you’re on level ground with the person you’re speaking with. It is not our responsibility to be nice to people who refuse to admit we are even equal human beings. It is not our responsibility to be nice to people who grind us into dust, intentionally or not. It is not our responsibility to be nice to people who refuse to see that our very lives are on the line. It is not our responsibility to be nice to people who think we are less than.
3. I made friends with my inner bitch a long time ago, I am a lot more effective in owning my rage than I was pleading for mercy from an establishment that would rather pretend I don’t exist. Whether it’s class, race, gender, sexuality, ability, or any other marginalizing factor that the establishment says makes us lesser: FUCK THAT NOISE. I don’t ask for your permission to be an equal human being, I demand your recognition that I am an equal human being. If you don’t like it, step the fuck off.
We aren’t post-anything, and I want more rage, more outrage, and more calling of bullshit.
