Two seconds. That’s the amount of time it took for two Cleveland, Ohio police officers to pull their car up to where 12-year-old Tamir Rice stood and shoot him fatally. Rice was playing with a pellet gun. Video footage of the shooting was released to the public this week.
Our guests will discuss the police’s use of deadly force in the wake of this latest tragedy, and just how much of a difference it makes to have police wear body cameras. Panelists include:
- Nina Turner, Ohio State Senator (D-25)
- Chloe Angyal, senior columnist at Feministing.com and opinion columnist at Reuters
- Raul Reyes, attorney and NBC News contributor
- Salamishah Tillet, professor of English and Africana Studies at University of Pennsylvania
- Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
On Monday, St. Louis prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced that there would be no charges filed against Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. The announcement sparked nationwide protests, including vandalism and arson in Ferguson. Protestors across the nation halted traffic on freeways and bridges and withheld their dollars as they boycotted Black Friday. We will bring you the latest developments out of Ferguson throughout the program.
We’ve seen images out of Ferguson since early August, when protestors took the streets and police officers responded with a heavy-hand of force. Images like a protester hurling a canister of tear gas back at police and the juxtaposition of a “Season’s Greetings” message framed by rising smoke have become iconic. Pictures are worth a thousand words; few know this better than Ozier Muhammad. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer will join his son, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, for a discussion about his work, Ferguson, movement building, and the power of the picture.
A wrenching new Rolling Stone feature has the University of Virginia facing harsh realities about its campus sexual assault problem. That article’s author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, will join us to discuss the findings in her report and the university’s suspension of fraternities until January.
In the second hour, we’ll take a much-needed emotional break and turn to food! As we relish traditional meals this time of year, host Melissa Harris-Perry will be joined by UConn professor Jelani Cobb, a contributor to NewYorker.com; Sunny Anderson, host of Food Network’s “Cooking for Real”; and Psyche A. Williams, author of Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs, will discuss food’s connection to our identities and culture. All that, plus, former South Carolina Republican Party chairm Katon Dawson joins us to discuss “the big blue wall”: the reason why some GOP legislators are toying with the idea of changing the way electoral votes are allocated. Be sure to read what we’ve linked above, and watch Melissa Harris-Perry Saturday at 10am ET on msnbc. Join the conversation—share your thoughts about these issues on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #nerdland. Your tweets and comments might even appear on the show!
Victoria Asbury Recommended
