Today in Youngstown, OH, a woman asked: “This is an area that, across all demographics, has been depressed because of the loss of industry and the opioid crisis. What do you have to say to people in this area about so-called white privilege?”

Here’s what I answered: pic.twitter.com/M8Ld5yjVE6

— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) July 12, 2019

In one of the few clips that caught fire from her campaign, Gillibrand responds to a white Ohio voter who asked about “so-called white privilege” in light of economic hardships felt “across all demographics.” Gillibrand distinguishes the suffering of the white working class from that caused by “institutional racism,” explaining, “Institutional racism is real. It doesn’t take away your pain or suffering. It’s just a different issue. Your suffering is just as important as a Black or Brown person’s suffering but to fix the problems that are happening in a Black community you need far more transformational efforts that target for real racism that exists every day. … A white woman like me who is a senator and running for president of the United States has to lift up their voice just as much as I would lift up yours. That’s all it means. It doesn’t take away from you at all. It just means we have to recognize suffering in all its forms and solve it in each place intentionally and with knowledge about what we are up against.”