Zerlina Maxwell (born November 16, 1981[1][2]) is an American cable television host, political analyst, commentator, speaker, and writer. She writes and speaks about culture, gender inequity, sexual consent, racism, and similar topics from a liberal perspective.[3][4] She describes herself as a survivor of sexual assault and a "survivor activist".[3][5]

Zerlina Maxwell
Maxwell in 2018
Born (1981-11-16) November 16, 1981 (age 43)
Education
Occupations
  • Author
  • political analyst

Education

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Maxwell holds a J.D. degree from Rutgers Law School and a B.A. in international relations from Tufts University.[6]

Career

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Maxwell worked as a field organizer for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign,[7] and was director of Progressive Media for the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign.[8] She is the current director of Progressive Programming for SiriusXM, and hosts a weekly radio show on SiriusXM, Signal Boost.[8] In September 2017, Maxwell interviewed Hillary Clinton for a SiriusXM Progress Town Hall.[9] In October 2020, Maxwell began hosting the daily news show Zerlina on Peacock TV. On September 6, 2022, Maxwell announced her show would air its last episode on September 15, and that she would be leaving her position on MSNBC.[10]

Maxwell has appeared frequently on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC as a commentator and has written for The Washington Post, Jet, The American Prospect, Black Enterprise, CNN.com, The Huffington Post, Salon, and Ebony.[11][12][8] Her Twitter account was named by The New York Times as a "Twitter Voice to Follow" in 2012,[13] as one of "Salon's Twitter 50" in 2012,[14] and one of Time's 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2014.[15] The Cut magazine's Kaitlin Menza said that Maxwell "has built a career around expressing her political opinions with wit and intelligence."[8]

Personal life

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In 2014, Maxwell disclosed that she was sexually assaulted by a roommate's boyfriend. The incident took place in her dorm room when she was a college student.[16] She also expressed concerns about support she received from the university when she reported the incident.[16]

References

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  1. ^ Inman, DeMicia (2020-12-07). "Zerlina Maxwell talks new book, race and why she's encouraged by the Biden-Harris win". TheGrio. Retrieved 2021-09-17. After working as a field organizer for President Barack Obama's presidential campaign and as a staffer for Hillary Clinton, Maxwell, 39, continued her career on television.
  2. ^ Politico Staff (16 November 2020). "Birthday of the Day: Zerlina Maxwell, host of 'Zerlina' on Peacock, MSNBC analyst and co-host of 'Signal Boost Show' on Sirius XM". Politico. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b Sachdeva, Surbhi (2017-11-20). "Q&A: Zerlina Maxwell on rape culture and sexual assault". Stanford Daily. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  4. ^ Bliss, Mark (2017-02-16). "Former Clinton aide: Trump campaign normalized racism, sexism". Southeast Missourian. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  5. ^ Galo, Sarah (2015-02-23). "Zerlina Maxwell: 'I'm making a pitch for more public male allies'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  6. ^ "2015 Event - Challenging Rape Culture". Columbia College. Archived from the original on 2020-06-13. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  7. ^ "Zerlina Maxwell '13: Gaining Influence in the Political Conversation". Rutgers School of Law–Newark, S.I. Newhouse Center for Law and Justice. 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  8. ^ a b c d Menza, Kaitlin (2017-12-18). "How I Get It Done: Zerlina Maxwell". The Cut. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  9. ^ "WATCH: Hillary Clinton on combating sexism in politics". Hear & Now. 2017-09-26. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  10. ^ @ZerlinaMaxwell (September 6, 2022). "Personal News: My last episode of @zerlinashow on 9/15 next week will also be my last day at @msnbc" (Tweet). Retrieved October 24, 2022 – via Twitter.
  11. ^ Intrabartola, Lisa (2013-03-22). "Rutgers Law Student, Rape Survivor, Takes on Sean Hannity and Victim-Blaming". Rutgers Today. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  12. ^ "Zerlina Maxwell". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  13. ^ Smith, Ben (2012-07-10). "A Twitter Voice to Follow". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  14. ^ Rayfield, Jillian (2012-10-03). "Political must reads: Salon's Twitter 50". Salon. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  15. ^ "Zerlina Maxwell on TIME's 140 Best Twitter Feeds List". TIME. 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  16. ^ a b Maxwell, Zerlina. "Rape Culture Is Real". Time. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
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