Following the Trayvon Martin case, Chris Matthews had a serious discussion about racial profiling on his MSNBC show, Hardball With Chris Matthews, on Thursday. During a segment of his cable news program, he spoke with NBC News Vice President Val Nicholas and former RNC chairman Michael Steele.
Nicholas wrote an op-ed for MSNBC.com titled “I Could Have Been Trayvon Martin,” where he recalled that “twice as a teen, I ended up looking down the barrel of police guns for no other reason than I happened to be a black teenager.”
Steele had similar experiences of being judged solely by his race. “It is a story of a lot of young African-American males. What Val, myself, and so many others have in common is our black skin, and a lot of the perceptions that come with that,” Steele said.
Matthews reacted to his colleagues’ stories by saying, “I’ll just tell you one thing, and I’m speaking now for all white people but especially people that have tried to change over the past 50 or 60 years, and a lot of them have really tried to change: I’m sorry for this stuff.”
Although Matthews’ willingness to work on the country’s racial issues is commendable, there’s probably a lot of white Americans out there who wouldn’t appreciate him speaking on their behalf.
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