Rutgers gender and Africana studies professor suggests Ma'Khia Bryant was shot because she was having a 'bad day' and 'not being perfect'

A Rutgers professor appeared on MSNBC's "ReidOut" talk show Thursday night, where she came to the overwhelming defense of Ma'Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old who was shot by a police officer as she was lunging with a knife at another girl.

A panel discussion about the Columbus, Ohio, shooting on "ReidOut" featured the Rev. Al Sharpton, psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff, and Brittney Cooper, who is a Rutgers University associate professor of gender and Africana studies.

"The argument for our movements has never been that black people have to be perfect in order for them to deserve dignity, for us to have good policing, for us to be viewed with humanity, for cops to take a breath before they literally get out of the car guns blazing," Cooper told host Joy Reid.

Cooper claimed that the prosecution of Derek Chauvin had to be "impeccable" to get a conviction against the former police officer, who was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.

"And if that is the standard, then no black person is really, truly going to be safe if we cannot be having a bad day, if we cannot defend ourselves when we think we are going to get jumped, if we call the cops and they can't show up and tell who the victim is and who the perpetrators are and they can't use their training to adjudicate regular, old, everyday community conflict," Cooper said.

Coincidentally, Cooper lashed out last month at a police spokesperson who relayed a message from the Atlanta spa shooter who said in his own words that he was having a "bad day." Cooper attributed the "bad day" quote to the police spokesperson, but he was paraphrasing the murderer, as Reason reported.

"'Yesterday was a bad day for him.' There is no end to the capacity of law enforcement to empathize with murderous white terrorists," Cooper wrote on Twitter. "WTF!"

Cooper then argued that girls like Bryant are misunderstood, and she was "adultified."

"What are we going to do about the way that we don't understand black girls as girls. Ma'Khia Bryant was a child like Tamir Rice was a child," Cooper said. "And the way that she has been talked about as this, you know, because she was a big girl, right, and so people just see her as the aggressor.

"They don't see her humanity. They have adultified her," Cooper claimed. "We turn black girls into grown women, before they even are able to vote and then, you know, and are unable to see them as children until I have watched folks across the political spectrum really defend this and say – and empathize with the officer, say that he didn't have any other set of choices.

"If you can't figure out how to de-escalate a 16-year-old even with a kitchen knife when you have a gun and you're a grown man, you shouldn't be a cop," Cooper ranted on the cable talk show.

Cooper has received notoriety for making controversial, and at times outrageous remarks. Last April, Cooper proclaimed that Trump supporters are to blame for COVID-19 deaths. In 2019, Cooper claimed that former President Donald Trump's policies and racism are responsible for overweight black women. In 2015, Cooper asserted that Jesus Christ was "potentially queer."