Leland Melvin blasted into space twice. But in a new interview with Bill Nye, the former NASA astronaut described an egregiously racist experience that could have almost certainly derailed his life.
Early on in an expansive one hour dialogue (about spaceflight, racial injustice, and science) presented by The Planetary Society, Nye asked Melvin [at 4:38] about the ongoing protests against systemic racism in the U.S. Melvin, who is black, recounted his own grim encounter with racist policing: On the night of his high school graduation, a state trooper grabbed Melvin’s girlfriend from their car. Then, the officer tried to bully her into fabricating that Melvin “was raping her because he wanted [Melvin] to go to jail.” Read more…
More about Nasa, Racial Justice, Protest, Science, and Activism
https://mashable.com/video/nasa-astronaut-leland-melvin-racism/