This Saturday on MHP: the latest on the Charleston massacre. As the country comes to grips with the worst hate crime in recent memory, we will explore what this means for the black community and take a moment to mourn the nine lives lost.
We will get to know the grieving community rooted in the landmark Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and discuss the history of the church as a center for activism as well as faith.
In Washington, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch opened a hate-crime investigation into the shooting, while President Obama called for sensible gun policies. GOP leaders, meanwhile, sidestepped the issue of race entirely, despite confessed killer Dylann Roof’s blatant support for white supremacy. We will talk about the language surrounding the killing, and what steps need to be taken moving forward.
Joining Melissa Harris-Perry to discuss the South Carolina shooting:
- Jonathan Metzl, Director, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, Professor of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
- Yolanda Pierce, Associate Professor of African American Religion & Literature, Princeton Theological Seminary
- Isaiah Pickens, NYC Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Joe Watkins, Republican Strategist, Former George HW Bush White House Aide
- Dr. Lonnie Randolph, S.C. State Conference President, NAACP
- Dot Scott, President of the NAACP, Charleston Branch
- Jelani Cobb, Associate Professor, UConn, Staff Writer, Newyorker.com
- Bakari Sellers, former Democratic state representative from South Carolina
- Cleveland Sellers, President, Voorhees College
Then, we count down to the Supreme Court’s highly anticipated Affordable Care Act ruling. With a decision due before the end of the month, the GOP faces quite a dilemma. Republicans who have been hoping that the Supreme Court would overturn President Obama’s health care law are now confronting an urgent and uncomfortable question: What if they win? And, we’ll take a look at the life or death situation in Kansas, as more twenty-one states have refused to expand Medicaid, leaving millions of Americans without decent healthcare.
Joining the Affordable Care Act roundtable are:
- Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University
- Kavita Patel, Primary Care Doctor, Johns Hopkins Medicine
- Joe Watkins, Republican Strategist, Former George HW Bush White House Aide
Then, we’ll talk with the directors of “Requiem for the Dead”, a new HBO documentary on gun violence. Directors Nick Doob and Shari Cookson stop by Nerdland to discuss the film.
Tune in to MHP this Saturday at 10am ET on msnbc. Join the conversation—share your thoughts about these issues on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #nerdland.