The problem of course is that for the last 32 years, Republicans have been relentlessly tying the word "welfare" to black Americans. Melissa is joined by Bob Franken, Nancy Giles, David Coates, and Monica Mehta and the discussion is certainly worth your ten minutes to watch. Do so. At one point Melissa uncharacteristically blows a gasket about the notion that the reward of being rich is sufficiently cosmically balanced by the risk of investment.
“What is riskier than living poor in America?” Harris-Perry demanded. “Seriously! What in the world is riskier than being a poor person in America? I live in a neighborhood where people are shot on my street corner. I live in a neighborhood where people have to figure out how to get their kid into school because maybe it will be a good school and maybe it won’t. I am sick of the idea that being wealthy is risky. No. There is a huge safety net that whenever you fail will catch you and catch you and catch you. Being poor is what is risky. We have to create a safety net for poor people. And when we won’t, because they happen to look different from us, it is the pervasive ugliness.”
And it needed to be said a thousand times more. Thank you, Melissa.
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