Hillary Clinton jumped back into politics Tuesday when she decided to comment on two incidents that critics are calling sexist attacks on African-American women. She made the comments to an audience in Los Angeles at a diversity conference organized by the Professional BusinessWomen of California.
"Where everyday sexism and structural barriers were once blatant," Clinton noted, "today they're sometimes harder to spot, but make no mistake they're still with us."
"Just look at all that's happened in the last few days to women who were simply doing their jobs," she told the crowd. "April Ryan, a respected journalist with unrivaled integrity, was doing her job just this afternoon in the White House press room, when she was patronized and cut off — trying to ask a question."
She referred to a contentious exchange between White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Ryan of the Nation Urban Radio Network about the Trump administration's alleged ties to Russia.
"One of your own California congresswomen," Clinton recounted, "Maxine Waters, was taunted with a racist joke about her hair."
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly apologized for a joke he made about Rep. Waters (D-Calif.) Tuesday while a guest on "Fox and Friends." Some called it racially charged because he mocked her hair, comparing it to that of James Brown. O'Reilly admitted it was a "dumb" jest.
"Now too many women, especially women of color have had a lifetime of practice taking precisely these kind of indignities in stride. But why should we have to?" Clinton asked. "And any woman who thinks it couldn't be directed at her is living in a dream world."
Clinton also talked about President Donald Trump's inaugural address, saying, "Where some see a dark vision of carnage, I see a light shining on creativity and opportunity." She offered the audience a mantra to encourage them in opposing Trump: "Resist, insist, persist, enlist."
Clinton won the popular vote by millions, but lost a narrow electoral victory to Trump, with some analysts calculating that as few as 80,000 votes in three states could have overturned the election to the former secretary of state.
And yet Hillary may not be done with presidential campaigns completely, if her former campaign manager can be believed.
