MSNBC's Joy Reid on Friday had a sparring match with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice on the nationwide debate of what books should or should not be available in public schools.
The liberal host began by asking Justice, who had been outspoken on protecting "parental rights," whether "liberal" parents, "African American" parents, and "LGBTQ" parents have those same rights, which Justice repeated "every parent" has.
She then pressed why a select few of activist parents like the ones belonging to Moms for Liberty "get to decide what books tens of thousands of children get to read? Justice responded by saying those parents probably saw the content that was in the books, which often involves sexually explicit and graphic material.
Justice pushed back at Reid's notion that books were being "banned."
"No one is banning books," Justice said. "Write the book, print the book, publish the book put the book in the public library, sell the book, right? We're talking about a public school library.'
"Children don't have unfettered access to the internet at school. I did a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request. And I wanted to see what kinds of internet sites are banned in schools- we're talking about banning, right? And the subject matter in the books that moms are concerned about are the same things that kids don't have access to on the internet. So it just feels very hypocritical, right? Why is no one out there protesting for, you know, 'free the internet?'"
Reid then went on to list books that were allegedly removed from schools like "The Diary of Anne Frank," "Gender Queer" and "Martin Luther King and the March on Washington." Justice clarified that Moms For Liberty doesn't have a "national book list" it advocates against, insisting parents should seek their own information about the content in the books from their children's school library.
The MSNBC host went on to suggest that parents are targeting books by finding content that was taken out of context using the website Book Looks that relies on key word searches.
"In what context is a strap-on dildo acceptable for public schools?" Justice fired back. "Tell me what the context around a strap-on dildo or the rape of a minor child by a teen."
The two of them continued shouting over each other with Reid repeatedly asking why liberal parents don't have the right to keep certain books in schools that conservative parents are targeting.
"Again, we're talking about incest, rape and pedophilia," Justice said.
"No, no, no," Reid scolded her. "Each parent has to decide what is appropriate for their child. So I want you to answer… what is your right to tell a parent who wants their child to… feel seen by this story? Why don't they have the right as a parent to say, ‘My child can have access to this?’"
The only point of agreement between Reid and Justice was on the subject of having an "opt-out form" available at schools for parents who don't want their children to take books out of their library without parental permission. Justice called that a "wonderful step in the right direction."
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"Maybe we can just put all the books with all the graphic sexual content," Justice said, "the dildos, the raping-"
"I'm so sorry, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me!" Reid shouted. "I have seen tapes of what Moms For Liberty does, and you all go into school board meetings and you read graphic stuff."
"Joy, this is a disingenuous conversation," Justice said. "America used to understand that there's a thing called age-appropriate content."
