Melissa Harris-Perry Is Back Where She Belongs: Covering Politics on TV

Nerdland residents, rejoice -- Melissa Harris-Perry will be back on the airwaves this month, helping lead election coverage for BET News.

Three months after Harris-Perry tersely parted ways with MSNBC, the outspoken LGBT ally secured a new on-camera position, joining BET News as a special correspondent.

The Wake Forest University professor will co-anchor BET's coverage of the 2016 conventions with Marc Lamont Hill, a fellow straight person of color who in 2013 won a GLAAD Media Award for his unparalleled reporting on the trial, incarceration, and eventual release of black trans woman CeCe McDonald for Ebony.

Harris-Perry and Hill will cohost an hour-long recap of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland at 11 a.m. July 24, reports Deadline. The Democratic National Convention begins July 25 in Philadelphia.

Days before the announcement of her new gig at BET News, the ever-thoughtful anchor shared the text of a powerful performance piece she had performed at New York City's Sidewalk Cafe. In the piece, titled "My Revolutionary Suicide Note," Harris-Perry unapologetically calls out white privilege and media bias, evoking Henry David Thoreau's famous book Walden, which was, among other things, about the joys of solitude in nature.

"I am not writing that note here by my Walden," writes Harris-Perry. "Here I am not a mule. Here Donald Trump will never be president and I don't have to be with Hillary. Ever. Here I don't have to pretend Bernie cares about black folks or that Ms. Warren is Cherokee."

"Here by my Walden they didn't cancel Nerdland or Doc McStuffins and they ain't coming for Shonda cause green-eyed Jesse spoke a fraction of truth," she continued.

Her piece concluded:

"This is the suicide note. If you are reading it, I am already dead.
Dead to oppression.
Dead to patriarchy.
Dead to sexism.
Dead to racism.
Dead to homophobia.
Dead to hatred.
Dead to nativism.
Dead to partisanship.
Dead to small-mindedness.
Dead to violence and ignorance.
This is the suicide note. If you are reading it, I am already dead. Already free."

Back in April, Harris-Perry joined the staff of Elle.com as the site's editor at large. Her work for the women-centric outlet focuses on issues of race and gender, through the lens of storytelling by women and girls of color.