Joy Reid once again has her own Sunday show and she spent a notable portion speaking ill of North Carolina for their controversial bathroom law. Reid teased the segment by issuing a dire warning for the state’s lawmakers, “you have until tomorrow to do something about that terrible law or the justice department is coming for you.” After coming back from a commercial break she leapt right into insulting North Carolina.
Reid was giddy that the federal government issued the state a hard deadline, of Monday May 9, to indicate if the state was going to enforce the law. ““Remedy these violations including by confirming that the state will not comply with or implement H.B. 2,” or be prepared to face the consequences of defying federal law,” Reid read with delight from the Department of Justice’s letter.
As a guess, Reid brought on Serena Sebring who works for Southerners on New Ground, an activist group which opposes the law. Reid kicked off her questions by jumping to the absurd, “Are there people monitoring rest rooms in the state?”
Sebring admitted her group has not heard of bathroom monitors being implemented but she stated that they fear things could become dangerous:
We expect that it emboldens people from all walks of life, the people we go to school, with the people we go to church with, the people on our block, to take up acts of discrimination and violence against folks in the soon or long term.
The host made an Evel Knievel style leap to also claim the legislation was not only transphobic but also anti-worker. “[It] prevents cities from raising local minimum wages. This is also an anti-working class North Carolina citizen bill,” Reid exclaimed to the audience.
Reid went on to besmirch not only North Carolina but the entire southern United States with another ridiculous question:
I think we've been trained to think it's South Carolina and Mississippi and other southern states as the ground zeros on these kinds of issues. When did North Carolina become the state that was the leading edge of trying to re-inculcate discrimination into its laws?
Partial transcript below:
MSNBC
Joy Reid
May 8, 2016
10:10:53 AM Eastern[Segment Tease]
JOY REID: North Carolina lawmakers, you have until tomorrow to do something about that terrible law or the justice department is coming for you. That’s next.
10:14:17 AM Eastern
[Segment]
We're less than 24 hours away from deadline day in North Carolina. Because the justice department has warned the state that H.B. 2, the so-called bathroom law which targets transgender people, is in violation of the 1964 civil rights act.
This week the DOJ sent a letter putting North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory on notice that the state has until Monday, that will be tomorrow, to tell the department whether or not it will quote, “remedy these violations including by confirming that the state will not comply with or implement H.B. 2,” or be prepared to face the consequences of defying federal law.
The DOJ sent the University of North Carolina system a similar letter with the same Monday deadline. The response from North Carolina's Republican-led government has been mixed. As the L.A. Time reported this week, Republican leaders in the state legislature issued a resounding “hell no,” saying they will take no action on the law and won't be, “quote, bullied by the Obama administration.” But in an interview Thursday, Governor McCrory struck a more conciliatory tone telling CBS that North Carolina, “definitely will have a response by Monday.”
And joining me now from Washington, DC is Wade Henderson, President of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and from Raleigh, North Carolina is Serena Sebring Campaign Organizer for Southerners on New Ground.
And Serena, I'll start with you and I’ll ask you first whether or not your group has been able to tell whether North Carolina is enforcing this law at this point. Are there people monitoring rest rooms in the state?
SERINA SEBRING: We have not heard reports of police monitoring restrooms but we still know this is an attempt to push our people back into the closets and back into the shadows by restricting access to public spaces. And so, we expect that it emboldens people from all walks of life, the people we go to school, with the people we go to church with, the people on our block, to take up acts of discrimination and violence against folks in the soon or long term.
REID: And Wade, I'm going to come back to you about what the consequences could be of violating the civil rights act of '64. But I want to remind our viewers that, and I think it’s always good to remind people that, H.B. 2 does not just discriminate against transgender people, it does a lot more. It’s also -- Not only does it prevent transgender people from using restrooms that match their gender identity, it eliminates the right to sue in state court for discrimination. And it also prevents cities from enforcing LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances against the private sector. And he’s the other one, that effects everyone who is a low income worker in North Carolina! Prevents cities from raising local minimum wages. This is also an anti-working class North Carolina citizen bill.
…
REID: And so Serena, when you see this sort of wrapping a broader assault on working people, on poor people essentially in north Carolina, in this sort of paranoia, what I call bathroom panic. Did you and other activists even see this coming? I mean, I think we've been trained to think it's South Carolina and Mississippi and other southern states as the ground zeros on these kinds of issues. When did North Carolina become the state that was the leading edge of trying to re-inculcate discrimination into its laws?
