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Talking Race And Respect With April Ryan

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President Barack Obama interviewed by April Ryan aboard Air Force One en route to Air Force Base Waterkloof in South Africa, June 28, 2013. (Pete Souza/White House)
President Barack Obama interviewed by April Ryan aboard Air Force One en route to Air Force Base Waterkloof in South Africa, June 28, 2013. (Pete Souza/White House)

Race and respect clashed this week at the White House during an exchange between veteran journalist April Ryan and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Those few minutes in the briefing room became national news when Spicer told Ryan, "Please stop shaking your head again."

The comment, along with FOX News host Bill O'Reilly 's jab about U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters’ hair, set off a conversation about racism and sexism in Washington. We spoke with April Ryan on our air to sort out how her experience represents larger issues about the treatment of black women.

Ryan, who is in her 20th year as the Washington bureau chief for the American Urban Radio Networks, is no stranger to the White House's Ryan Briefing Room. But Ryan says the relationship in this administration has become significantly more adversarial.

"I hate to say this, but we're kind of numb to this a little bit as journalists," Ryan said. She was hesitant to call out the Secretary explicitly for his comments, but she did express concern about the gendered nature of her interaction with Spicer.

"It's unfortunate that we're seeing glimpses of sexism, and I'm not going to go as far as racism as of yet," Ryan said. "But I'm going to say sexism for sure."

Twitter activists were quick to take this incident, and O'Reilly's comments about Rep. Waters, as an impetus to spur the hashtag #BlackWomenAtWork. The hashtag was meant as a way for black women to share similar experiences of poor treatment in their own workplaces, and it ended up trending for a period of time throughout the week.

Ryan told us that, though she knew her exchange with Spicer was significant, she did not expect it to take off like it did.

"It makes for a good story in [my] next book, though," Ryan said.

This segment aired on March 30, 2017.

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