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Apollo Uptown Hall - Hear Our Voices, Count Our Votes: MLK's March Continues

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At a recent Atlantic forum about gender in the 2016 presidential election, Wake Forest University professor and former MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry said she wasn’t surprised that Donald Trump’s was elected in spite of his racism and sexism.

She doubled down on her statements saying to hold that bias was a “prerequisite” to win the presidency for most of American history.

I am not even vaguely surprised by the idea that sexual assault would not be a disqualifier for the American presidency,” Harris-Perry said during the discussion about how Trump’s infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” Access Hollywood tape didn’t seem to affect the outcome of the electionVox noted

She added: “In fact I was mostly irritated every time people would say, ‘Oh God, we can’t have a racist be the American president.’ Because I kept wondering, ‘Since when? In fact, for most of American history, racism has been a prerequisite to win the American presidency. One had to actually demonstrate one’s racism in order to become the American president. And the same was certainly true of sexism, and even of sexual assault.

PREACH!

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For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.