You might have heard about some recent controversial comments made by MSNBC commentator and Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry regarding the rearing of children. Of course, since she’s on MSNBC, it’s entirely possible that you haven’t heard about these comments or about the existence of Ms. Harris-Perry in general, so I think I’ll let her speak for herself:
Now, among certain people (teabagging racists and the like, mostly) this has caused a bit of a stir. Again, I’ll let Ms. Harris-Perry tell you about it:
The trolls have been really busy the past two weeks calling me disgusting, evil & communist. #MustBeDoingSomethingRight
— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) April 6, 2013
It’s nice to see that she’s not letting the critics get her down. That said, in spite of the fact that we should really be taking a hard look at notions of collective responsibility in this age of Shared Sacrifice™ there are some people who bitterly cling to their progeny even tighter than their guns or their religion. (See, again, racist teabaggers).
So I would like to propose that we start with something a tad less controversial. Namely, the bathroom. Specifically, her bathroom. Hear me out…
Melissa Harris-Perry has never invested as much in public restrooms as she should have because Melissa Harris-Perry has always had this notion that her bathroom belongs to her. She hasn’t had this collective notion that “This is our bathroom.” So, part of it is, she has to break through this notion that her bathroom belongs to her, or belongs to her family, and recognize that the bathroom belongs to the whole community. Once it’s the whole community’s responsibility, and not just the household’s, then she starts making better investments.
So there you go, Melissa. The ball is in your court. Oh, and we’re out of toilet paper, the crapper is clogged, the mirror is covered in graffiti, someone stole the taps from the sink, and there are a bunch of used condoms and needles in the corner.
Yeah.


