Hillary Clinton has black voters to thank for carrying her to several primary victories, but some are now wondering if a comment aimed at black listeners on 105.1's The Breakfast Club maybe went too far:
Clinton told TBC that she always carries hot sauce with her in her bag, a possible nod to a Beyoncé lyric in "Formation" when Bey sings, "I keep hot sauce in my bag, swag." According to The Source, though, "Hillary then hinted at the fact that she might just be saying that to make herself more relatable to The Breakfast Club‘s demo, which listeners also picked up on."
The song "Formation" is an anthem and celebration of Southern blackness, and the hot sauce line is not an exception. As Mikki Kendall explained in Eater, the lyric itself is actually deeply rooted in Southern black culture:
There may be white Beyoncé fans who also carry around their own personal bottles of hot sauce, but hearing her say she has hot sauce in her bag isn't a shout-out to them. [Beyoncé is] talking to the Southern and Great Migration Black Americans listening — to them, to us, it hearkens to home. To childhoods spent at fish frys, church picnics, and visiting relatives. It's a reference to a cultural connection, one that spans the diaspora of Black American identity. [Eater]
Clinton also got herself into hot water last week when she participated in a racist joke at a comedy show. You can watch Clinton discuss her hot sauce love at the 25-minute mark in the video below. Jeva Lange