MSNBC Host Compares Gitmo Detainees to American Slaves

Sunday on MSNBC, host Melissa Harris-Perry compared Guantanamo Bay detainees to American slaves during the 19^th century. “This is the time to reaffirm our Americanness,” she said in response to a hunger strike by the terror suspects.

She continued: “I also appreciate that the hunger strikers are not trying to die. They’re trying to generate autonomy in the context of something that strips their humanity – something we certainly know about from the experience of American slavery. And that the language of before I would be a slave, I’d be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free. Just that idea of creating human freedom within the context of horrible human conditions.”