What Val News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> 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 they're from the hood or from, you know, or not. it doesn't 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 driver's licenses, chris, said look, if you ever get pulled over by a cop, and you likely will, roll down all four windows, turn on the dome li...

Realized that he could have been trayvon martin and didn't 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 professional african-american man. as the zimmerman verdict sparks a nationwide conversation on race, coul...

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 don't usually do television, but you make it possible by being one of the executives here. tell us, especially white people who don't know the world as fully as you know it, what happened to you as a teenager? >> interesting. when i was younger, a...

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 there's 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 lot of other customers in the store, but i was the only one with a gun on me. i want let me go to ...

>> 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 they're from the hood or from, you know, or not. it doesn't 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 driver's licenses, chris, said look, if you ever get pulled over by a cop, and you likely will, roll down all four windows, turn on the dome li...