MSNBC’s Joy Reid freaked out on her Thursday show that Republicans are seeking to take away another supposed right from the American people: the right to for sexually explicit material in school or as she put it “children’s right to read.”
During a segment with author Nikki Grimes, Reid wondered, “It has been a red state phenomenon. But what have you made of the blue state pushback? Because you are seeing states like Illinois, New Jersey, and California, push back. Are we moving to two Americas when it comes to children's right to read, just as we are moving to two Americas when it comes to women's rights over their own bodies?”
Reid’s logic states that if a book is not in a school library it is banned. Putting aside the fact that most “banned” books have not been banned even by Reid’s incorrect definition, if one was to apply that logic equally, any library that does not have books arguing against gender ideology has banned it and anyone opposed to putting it in the library might as well be a Nazi book burner.
As for Grimes, she responded, “I certainly don’t hope so. I mean that’s what it looks like at this point, but that’s why it's an all hands on deck, kind of, situation right now, where across the country we need to be fighting back to put a stop these bans.”
Trying to get specific, Reid followed up, “Let me put up a note of the most banned books because we know Toni Morrison all almost always appears on this list, another book Gender Queer appears a lot, a lot, a lot, and it is notable that most of the books that are banned to have to do with either race or gender, and LGBTQ books are starting to pick up steam as the thing most banned.”
Gender Queer has been deemed to inappropriate for school board meetings, live TV, caused an online firestorm when read in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and even its own author says it is not appropriate for children, but Reid claims anyone who does not want it in elementary schools is against the “right to read.”
Here is a transcript for the October 5 show:
MSNBC The ReidOut
10/5/2023
7:50 PM ET
JOY REID: It has been a red state phenomenon. But what have you made of the blue state pushback? Because you are seeing states like Illinois, New Jersey, and California, push back. Are we moving to two Americas when it comes to children's right to read, just as we are moving to two Americas when it comes to women's rights over their own bodies?
NIKKI GRIMES: I certainly don’t hope so. I mean that’s what it looks like at this point, but that’s why it's an all hands on deck, kind of, situation right now, where across the country we need to be fighting back to put a stop—
REID: And I just—go ahead.
GRIMES: these bans. No, that’s fine.
REID: I apologize for that; I didn't mean to interrupt you. Let me put up a note of the most banned books because we know Toni Morrison all almost always appears on this list, another book Gender Queer appears a lot, a lot, a lot, and it is notable that most of the books that are banned to have to do with either race or gender, and LGBTQ books are starting to pick up steam as the thing most banned.
What do you make of these people’s fear of children reading? Your books have been banned as well. A Texas lawmaker put your book among 850 books, which is your memoir Ordinary Hazards targeted in Texas because they say these books might make kids feel uneasy. I thought just being a kid makes kids feel uneasy, but what are your thoughts?
GRIMES: I don’t know, especially disturbing to me are the number of memoirs that are on these lists. So, what is the message here? We're going to disallow the true life stories of authors? To what end? I mean, we write these books in order to help readers understand that they are not all alone in the world.
REID: Yes.
GRIMES: In order to plant seeds of empathy and compassion and the books are having that kind of effect. And so we want to continue to be able to do that. I get letters from readers all the time. One who wrote from Holland, Pennsylvania, thanking me for Bronze Masquerade, which taught him that no matter how, even though we look different on the outside, we’re all pretty much the same on the inside. Isn't that a lesson we want all readers to learn across the country, no matter what color they are? It's just preposterous that these books are being removed from the shelves where they belonged. School library, public library shelves. And not only removed from young readers, but they're being removed period. So that means adults don't have access to them either. All hands on deck, as I said, across the country.
