A man ranting about Nazi Germany had a strange encounter with MSNBC host and college professor Melissa Harris-Perry at the Iowa caucuses this week. Perry was with some of her students in a hotel lobby in Des Moines where a man she doesn t remember ever speaking to came up to her and began speaking, oddly acting as if they were in mid-conversation.Harris-Perry wrote about the odd incident on her website.When he started he speaking it was like he was picking up in the middle of sentence, finishing a conversation we had begun earlier, but I couldn t remember ever meeting him. So what is it that you teach? I am a professor of political science. My wife is a professor of communications. Does she teach here in Iowa? What I want to know is how you got credentialed to be on MSNBC. I am not sure if it is how he spat the word credentialed, or if it is how he took another half step toward me, or if it is how he didn t respond to my question, but the hairs on my arm stood on end. I ignored it. Told myself everything was ok. Well. It is not exactly a credential  I began. But why you? Why would they pick you? Perry said the man now sounded angry and began to get closer to her. As the victim of a previous violent crime, she became more upset and agitated at the provocation. The situation escalated:I freeze. He speaks. And moves closer. Is there a knife under the coat? A gun? Worse?And I can t hear all the words. But I catch  Nazi Germany  and I catch  rise to power.  But I can t move. I am lulled by a familiar powerlessness, muteness, that comes powerfully and unexpectedly. It grips me. Everything is falling away. Until in my peripheral vision I catch sight of a ponytail, the movement of an arm, the sound of familiar young voices and I remember  my students.She jumped up and rejoined her students, telling the hotel authorities about the bizarre encounter, though they don t appear to have taken any action.While he only got second place in the caucuses, Donald Trump s campaign has made an appeal to extremist racists and bigots, speaking in a racist manner that was previously only done behind closed doors. Now they re coming out into the light, and apparently trying to intimidate progressive figures like Harris-Perry, who have often been the target of attacks and ridicule by conservative and conservative media outlets like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.Featured image via YouTube