To be honest: I disliked Joy Reid during the Clinton versus Sanders 2016 primary "war" because I was in the Bernie camp. Nevertheless, nowadays when I wake up on saturdays, when I get a chance I turn on MSNBC and watch her show.
I watch her show because I agree with Joy Reid most of the time. But most importantly, because I believe her political views as a second-generation immigrant & as a person of color are needed in the Trump era.
When I first heard the accusations against Reid I thought they were bullshit: just projection from closet Trump fans against an effective voice from the moderate left. But this article from the "Atlantic" made me question my initial reaction:
In the article there is a link to the twitter user who began this controversy.
So
I read with interest the controversial blog posts from Joy Reid (allegedly) from 2005 and 2006:
After reading the "Atlantic" article & the '05-'06 posts on Twitter, I still can't decide if they were written by Reid or not. And If I eventually do believe the posts were indeed written by her, I don't know if it's just my 2016 bias towards her making me arrive at that conclusion.
It also makes me think; If I had written a political post in 2005-2006 about homosexuality, who knows what it would say?
Even in this present day, I still hear people (online & in real-life) speaking in a derogatory manner towards gay people & sometimes I fail to speak up against it.
As far as me, I don't believe I have ever expressed any anti-gay views over the years, but comments which might seem insensitive (at this moment in time): again, who knows?
Even if the posts were written by Reid, I don't think MSNBC should fire her. There are very few people of color on TV with their own political shows, and the message it would send (though making many on the right happy) would negatively affect MSNBC with their own audience.
In addition, firing her would not solve anything. Instead, IF the posts were written by her (there's still the possibility her account could have been hacked) Joy Reid could respond to this incident with a mea culpa. & use it as a teachable moment in the continuing acceptance of gay people in our society, and how far we have moved in just one decade. Cenk Uygur had a similar incident recently with very old blog posts which were deemed sexist by today's standards. Uygur aknowledged and apologized. Reid could do the same (again if she did write the posts) but time is running out.
