Sean Spicer Scolds Veteran Reporter April Ryan, Twitter Responds With #BlackWomenAtWork Hashtag

It was a banner day for disrespectful old white men.

First, this morning, Bill O’Reilly publicly disrespected Rep. Maxine Waters on live TV, saying that he was distracted by her “James Brown hair.” Then, hours later, during the White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer ridiculously scolded April Ryan, a correspondent for the American Urban Radio Networks.

The testy moment came when Ryan tried to ask a question about Russia. Spicer wasn’t having it, constantly interrupting her. Ryan tried to follow up with a question about President Donald Trump making amends with Condoleezza Rice. That’s when Spicer said this:

“April, hold on, it seems like you’re hell-bent on trying to make sure that whatever image you want to tell about this White House stays.”

And then came the phrase that is going to follow Spicer for a long time.

“I’m sorry, please stop shaking your head again,”

The video quickly went viral. Most people were outraged, including Hillary Clinton. Ryan summed up the incident succinctly in one tweet

The fact that this publicly happened to Waters and Ryan within a couple of minutes was not lost on Twitter. User Brittany Packnett started the #BlackWomenAtWork hashtag, which quickly started trending. Using the hashtag, various black women tweeted out the many microaggressions they’ve experienced in the work place.

We highly recommend you look through the hashtag.

What it’s like to be a black woman in the workplace