North Carolina Jim Crow And The Justice Department’s Response

Remember this?

Again we have yet another Republican Governor and state legislature working to regress life in their state via discrimination against Transgender people. From poisoning Flint Michigan’s  water supply  (to save money), through overt efforts to instill state law soundly grounded in discrimination. 

Will rational “Americans ever recognize the GOP and many of its conservative supporters for what they are: regressive social deviants with an abundance of white male privilege? As we watch Donald Trump assume the reigns of GOP leadership we should remind ourselves of past examples of political parties leading social regression which often ends in national horrors and disgrace.  We are potentially witnessing similar evolution and it is replete with full support from American white supremacists. Trump has offended just about every segment of the population with an exception for white males and the ever-present and nascent gleeful white supremacist who actively support Trump.

As we consider North Carolina’s efforts to enact a modern-day version of Jim Crow, we must recall our not so distant past: 

MARTIN NIEMÖLLER: “FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE SOCIALISTS…”

Martin Niemöller, a prominent Protestant pastor who opposed the Nazi regime. He spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. Germany, 1937.

— Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesit

Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:

First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— 

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— 

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

As we add Transgender people to the list of groups offended by or discriminated against by the GOP, let’s consider 13 groups Donald Trump has offended (Liberal America post). While the list was published in December 2015, I posit the list should be amended to include even deeper offenses against African-Americans and American Jews via Trumps refusal to denounce growing support from “white supremacists.”

Time to review North Carolina’s HB-2 (Transgender Bathroom Law)

In response to a Justice Department order to repeal the law, this morning (the day of the deadline) the state’s governor took to the airways and doubled-down regarding the law. He even reached to pull other states into his and his state’s web of bias and discrimination.

TPM LIVEWIRE

“Used with permission from the TPM websites, a service of TPM Media LLC.” 

North Carolina Guv Files Suit Against DOJ Over Anti-LGBT Law

Image Via WITN. com

ByKATHERINE KRUEGERPublishedMAY 9, 2016, 10:19 AM EDT

On the deadline for North Carolina to respond to a Justice Department letter saying its sweeping new anti-LGBT law violates civil rights, Gov. Pat McCrory (R) announced Monday he was suing the federal government. 

In his response to a letter sent last week by the DOJ, McCrory called it “an attempt to rewrite long-established federal civil rights law in a way that’s completely inconsistent with the intent of Congress,” according to NBC News. 

McCrory also argues in the lawsuit that transgender individuals are not a protected class under civil rights law.
Read more via TPM LIVE WIRE

The Justice Department and its Civil Rights Division added icing to the today’s legal point-counter point via speaking clearly, forcefully, and eloquently regarding North Carolina’s effort to enact a circa 2016 form of Jim Crow law.

Mediaite

Loretta Lynch Denounces NC Bathroom Bill by Likening It to Jim Crow Laws

by Josh Feldman | 4:31 pm, May 9th, 2016

Shortly after the DOJ filed a lawsuit against North Carolina over its bathroom bill, Attorney GeneralLoretta Lynch spoke out at a press conference and likened it to similar ways civil rights have been trampled on before.

“We saw it in the Jim Crow laws that followed the Emancipation Proclamation,” Lynch said. “We saw it in the fierce and widespread resistance to Brown v. Board of Education.”

She went on to tear into “bill after bill in state after state taking aim at the LGBT community,” which she said is borne out of “fear of the unknown” and a discomfort for change.

Loretta Lynch denounces North Carolina bathroom bill by likening it to Jim Crow Laws

Lynch squared in on North Carolina and said states should not be in the business of “legislating identity” and force transgender people to not be who they are.

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

Will American ever actually awaken to the horror of the GOP?