On Sunday during a dinner party hosted by Katy Perry, Amanda Seales came for Caitlyn Jenner.
Jenner had been reportedly quiet seated at the table with Democratic commentator Van Jones, comic Margaret Cho, commentator Sally Kohn, Republican strategist Ana Navarro and DJ-producer Yung Skeeter, a.k.a. Trevor McFedries. But Seales wasn’t quiet about her beliefs or her passions in the least.
“The reason I am so passionate — and I’m not hostile, I’m passionate — the reason I am so passionate is because I’ve had such a different experience in this country than you,” Seales said, adding that “For me, it’s an insult to me that you don’t want to speak, because you’re not listening to what I’m saying.”
“As a Black woman, the government is so much in my life, and it always has been,” Seales explained, going on to reference the man-in-the-house rule, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1968: “The government literally said that Black men could not even be in the house or else women couldn’t get welfare.”
“That’s a big reason why there’s such a chasm between Black women and Black men in this generation,” she added.
When Jenner tried to interject by saying “I just said I believe in this country,” Seales wasn’t having it.
“You can say that in a way that I cannot,” she said. “Because you had a different experience. Because this country is here for you. This country ain’t here for me in the same way, sis. It isn’t.”
She also called Jenner out by pointing out that America has not “been there for trans” people either.
Seales posted a clip of the interaction on Instagram after the fact, writing, “Made my momma proud last night.”
“As a Black woman they will far too often consider your intellect a threat and your passion a problem,” she wrote. “I hope I inspired others last night to live in your truth no matter who is at the table.”