Melissa Harris Perry 'Risk' Rant: 'I'm Sick of the Idea It's Risky to be Wealthy'
Melissa Harris-Perry has exploded saying that she is "sick" of the idea that it is a risk to be wealthy. The outburst came in front of a guest on her Saturday morning show when they were discussing welfare.
Harris-Perry was discussing a new book titled "Why Americans Hate Welfare" which was written by Princeton professor Martin Gilens.
The book carries out an analysis of public opinion surveys that found that Americans approve "spending for the social good." However, the same surveys found that those same Americans opposed such spending when it is labeled as "welfare." Harris-Perry said, "The answer, according to Gilens...[is] that Americans hate welfare because media, at the behest of conservative politicians, have relentlessly linked welfare with black people, and have hammered home the idea that welfare recipients are undeserving."
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"It does feel to me [that] part of the American story is class mobility. If there is no class mobility, we are not America, right?..And data now shows that in our current moment, class mobility is very low," Harris-Perry said. "I just feel like, from the bottom, you have to be able to say, 'I deserve the ability for class mobility.'"
The guest on her show was financial expert Monica Mehta, who claimed that class mobility is enabled by "taking risk."
However, that stoked up Harris-Perry who immediately blurted out: "What is riskier than living poor in America? Seriously?"
She continued: "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'm sick of the idea that being wealthy is risky."
She added: "No, there's a huge safety net, that whenever you fail, we'll 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. We cannot do that."
