Sunday’s news that MSNBC is officially severing ties with host Melissa Harris-Perry raised a question: What took so long? (In fairness, if her ratings are any indication, it’s possible NBC execs were simply unaware the show existed.)

On Friday Harris-Perry released an open letter accusing her employer of racism and announced a boycott of her own program. “I am not a token,” she wrote, “or a little brown bobble head. I am not owned by Lack, Griffin, or MSNBC.”


On Sunday, MSNBC said it was ”parting ways” with its anchor.

Harris-Perry, whose eponymous program entailed progressive personalities sharing their perspectives on the news, is no stranger to inviting controversy upon her employer.


Here are ten of her most unusual, embarrassing, and confusing TV moments:

10. When a guest praised Paul Ryan’s “hard work,” she cut him off, chastising him for using the phrase, which she implied was racist.

9. In an actual MSNBC promo, she argued for state ownership of children.

8. After the George Zimmerman verdict, she stated her wish her sons didn’t exist (as America is “not safe”).

7. At the height of the Ebola crisis, she said she finds police scarier than ISIS or Ebola.

6. After the Baltimore riots, she made the case that “arson and looting” are not violent acts.


5. When the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, told an interviewer he walks away from people on the street who appear menacing, Harris-Perry used that as a news peg to liken the NBA to slavery.

4. During a recent segment on Star Wars, she lamented the racist undertones of the entire series.

3. After President Obama announced “normalization” of relations with Cuba, she worried Cuba might be ruined . . . by American tourists.

2. After a Muslim Oklahoman, who had unsuccessfully attempted to convert his office to Islam, attacked his colleagues and beheaded his boss, Harris-Perry said it was a case of “workplace violence.”

1. The moment that will cement her legacy in the basement of MSNBC’s ratings cellar: After then-state-senator Wendy Davis filibustered proposed regulations on Texas abortion providers, Harris-Perry showed her solidarity by . . . wearing tampons as earrings. Check out the montage above to hear her explain the reasoning.