Melissa Harris-Perry Receives A Whooping On Twitter Over Her Awful Rachel Dolezal Interview

Melissa Harris-Perry Receives A Whooping On Twitter Over Her Awful Rachel Dolezal Interview

Fraudulent narcissist Rachel Dolezal had the time of her life Tuesday as she got not one, not two, not three, but four interviews with NBC to discuss the story of her posing as a black woman while she served as a chapter president of the NAACP. After Today’s Matt Lauer handled her with kid gloves in his conversation with the Al Jolson of social activism, hope was held out that MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry would go all in on her and give her the harsh criticism and treatment she deserves.

Instead, MHP was perhaps even more gentle than Lauer, and later told colleague Chris Hayes that she sympathized with her and was genuinely intrigued by Dolezal. It seemed for all the world that Harris-Perry was buying the notion that a person can be “transracial” and she didn’t seem all that concerned with the lengths to which Dolezal kept up her charade, such as sending herself fake hate mail or passing some random old black dude as her dad. She also didn’t necessarily press her hard on the issues surrounding her lawsuit with Howard University over white discrimination or other false claims she’s made in the past.

Below is video of part one of the interview, courtesy of MSNBC:

 

 

While preview clips of the interview had been released prior to its airing Tuesday, it wasn’t until the whole thing aired that anger started to develop from the Twittersphere over MHP’s handling of Dolezal. The consensus opinion was that Harris-Perry not only gave Dolezal a pass, but provided her a platform to bask in the glow of her own narcissism and attempt to convince others that she is deserving of attention and empathy. Heck, Harris-Perry treated Dolezal as if the two were longtime pals as they spent more time talking about their hairstyles than Dolezal’s fraudulent actions.

Below are some of the more critical tweets sent MHP’s direction:

 

It is going to take some doing for Harris-Perry to get back in the good graces of much of her core audience. Based on the reactions on Twitter and other social media, many of those who had looked up to her and felt she was a real journalist who wouldn’t back away from tough topics and issues are sorely disappointed in her now and may not give her another chance. It seems like she seriously underestimated how going the sympathetic route with Dolezal would be taken.

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the founder/publisher of Contemptor and a contributor to The Daily Beast. He was previously the Cable News Correspondent for Mediaite and prior to starting Contemptor, he worked on the editorial staff of PoliticusUSA. During that time, he had his work quoted by USA Today and BBC News, among others. Justin began his published career as a political writer for 411Mania. He resides in St. Louis, MO with his wife and pets.