Jemele Hill Praises Black Women’s Role in DNC Convention, Says Trump Has Proven Her ‘White Supremacist’ Accusation ‘More Right Every Single Day’
The Atlantic writer Jemele Hill offered her praise for the “humanity” on display at the just-concluded Democratic National Convention and said, by contrast, President Donald Trump has proven her controversial labeling of him as a “white supremacist” back in 2017 “more right every single day.”
Speaking with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, Hill agreed with then Deadline: White House host that Black women played a key role in turning around Joe Biden’s political fortunes in the 2020 primary. And she noted how that demographic helped shape the look of the party at its virtual convention.
“I do think that the scope of the Democratic Party is really changed because black women not only have kind of taken the mantle just becoming more prominent and seizing and walking into their own power,” Hill said. “That’s very appropriate considering Kamala Harris is now the vice presidential nominee.”
“Frankly, there’s a lot of black women, a lot of people of color, period, who are still very disappointed at the lack of response in saying that was shown by white women in this last election. Many of them who decided to vote for Donald Trump,” Hill said, referencing the fact that Trump won 55% of the vote from white women in 2016. “I think there was a lot of women who decided they were not going to leave this up for chance, that they would be strong throughout this to show other women that we don’t have to have a president that devalues us and humiliates us.”
Wallace then said she has debated whether Trump’s racism or misogyny is worse and alluded to the public admonition Hill received from her then-employer ESPN when she called Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter three years ago.
“I know you have paid a price in your career for being blunt about Donald Trump and race,” Wallace pointed out. “You make of the fact that the issues are so out in front now.”
“[I] got into a lot of trouble for doing that while I was still at ESPN,” Hill acknowledged. “I thought then that people understood that the president was a white supremacist and racist. There were people who did not understand that. Over the course of time all he has done has proven me right and more right every single day. This is not something I wanted to be right about.”
“Donald Trump seems to be more desperate, I hope they are very aware of a lot of the dog whistles he’s continuing to use,” Hill added of the president’s recent comments trafficking in tropes about urban crime. “Propagating fear, going after the suburbs and spelling out that he’s going to make that a place where certain people — and we know what he means by certain people — don’t belong there. Continuing to just shout into this megaphone of racism and xenophobia and these other things he’s trying stop the will of the people. I know there’s a lot of challenges. Your last block you talked about voter suppression, which is real. There will be a lot of challenges to get him out.”
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.
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