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>> let me go to michael steele. what is your reaction to hearing that story? >> you know, it is a story of a lot of young african-american males. whether theyre from the hood or from, you know, or not. it doesnt matter. >> exactly. >> what val, myself, and so many others have in common is black skin. and a lot of the perceptions that go along with that. and as i tell my young boys, my two sons were in their early 20s, particularly when they got their drivers licenses, chris, said look, if you ev...

Realized that he could have been trayvon martin and didnt even know it. he says, quote, 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. i had completely forgotten about those incidents, but the zimmerman verdict opened that door again. well, val nicholas strongly believes that race plays a role in decisions people make every day. and he has his own experiences to prove it and show it. growing up as a successful profess...

African-american man. as the zimmerman verdict sparks a nationwide conversation on race, could something positive perhaps comes from this verdict for all of us, regardless from race? joining mess to discuss this is val nicholas. also with us is msnbc political analyst michael steele. i asked him to stay over and join in in this conversation. val, you dont usually do television, but you make it possible by being one of the executives here. tell us, especially white people who dont know the world ...

Shotgun at the back of my head. it turned out what it was was the guy -- the clerk had accidentally stepped on the switch that calls the police when theres a robbery, and so they responded. what i was thinking the whole time is oh, my god, this is the only money i have, maybe i should try to sneak it out and stick it into the sfak thing. if i would have done that, i would have been dead instantly, because i turned around and it was a police officer. what really got me at the time is there were a...

>> let me go to michael steele. what is your reaction to hearing that story? >> you know, it is a story of a lot of young african-american males. whether theyre from the hood or from, you know, or not. it doesnt matter. >> exactly. >> what val, myself, and so many others have in common is black skin. and a lot of the perceptions that go along with that. and as i tell my young boys, my two sons were in their early 20s, particularly when they got their drivers licenses, chris, said look, if you ev...