US Election 2016: Activist confronted Clinton over a racial Statement made 20 years ago

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Black voters are the linchpin of Hillary Clinton's strategy for winning the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, and as a result, her campaign has put racial justice issues at the forefront of her agenda. But at an event on Wednesday night, Clinton was vocally confronted by an activist questioning her past support for policies that had a disproportionately negative effect on African Americans.
Ashley Williams, a 23-year-old activist from Charlotte, interrupted Clinton during a private fundraiser in Charleston on Wednesday night. Williams stood and demanded an apology from Clinton for the high incarceration rate for black Americans, and confronted her with the words of a speech Clinton delivered 20 years ago voicing support for the now-debunked theory of "super-predators."
"They are often the kinds of kids that are called 'super-predators,' " Clinton said in 1996, at the height of anxiety during her husband's administration about high rates of crime and violence. "No conscience, no empathy, we can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel."
The last part of the quote was written on a makeshift sign that Williams held up as Clinton spoke to her donors and supporters.
In an interview on Thursday, Williams said that she wanted Clinton to address her past role in supporting the country's current system of mass incarceration, and Williams sought an apology from Clinton for the "damage that she’s done to black communities."
"I thought that quote was important not only because it was her own words, but because that was her pathologizing black youth as these criminal, animal people," Williams told The Washington Post. "And we know that’s not right and we know that’s really racist."
"I wanted her to be confronted with that very racist thing she said," Williams said.
A video of the Charleston encounter on YouTube showed that as Williams stood, unfurled the sign and confronted her, Clinton became irritated.
After first telling Williams "we'll talk about it," Clinton became annoyed as Williams continued to heckle her.
"You're being very rude," Clinton said.
"As a black queer person, I understand how I don’t always get to be in control of how I’m perceived in spaces," Williams said. "I’m especially not always in control of the way I'm perceived when I'm raising my voice to speak out against injustices. So I’m not surprised that I was told that I was being rude."
Clinton also said that no one had ever asked her about those 1996 comments, something Williams said was hard to believe.
"She’s had 20 years to respond to my question," Williams said. "And so her inability to do it last night to me is just kind of representative of how she has been absent in terms of racial justice in a meaningful way, in a material way."
The evening fundraising event was not disclosed by the Clinton campaign, although the campaign has voluntarily released information about other fundraisers in the past. The event also was not advertised to news outlets covering Clinton as she campaigns ahead of the primary vote Saturday.
Williams is an "independent organizer for the movement for black lives" and not part of Black Lives Matter organizations. Williams added that someone paid $500 to allow the activists to gain access to the fundraising event. Williams would not specify who contributed the money to the protest action.
Clinton has called for an end to "the era of mass incarceration" and disavowed much of the 1994 crime law signed by her husband, former president Bill Clinton. It was the disproportionate effect of that law on black people that was the protesters' main complaint.
The Clinton campaign has also pointed to her presidential primary opponent Bernie Sanders's vote in favor of that law.
Williams, who is working on a master's degree at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, wants all candidates -- including Sanders -- to be held accountable for their past actions and statements about racial justice.
"All the candidates who are running for president need to be held to the same kind of scrutiny in terms of the way that they have been complicit in mass incarceration and damaging communities of color across the United States," Williams said. "Bernie can get it, too. They can all get it."
The Clinton campaign could not immediately be reached for comment.