She explains it here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/05/comment-6543 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/05/comment-6543 tldr: It's complic

She explains it here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/05/comment-6543 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/05/comment-6543 tldr: It's complicated. But to over-simplify: the Clintons had black friends, seemed to genuinely believe that black people were just as qualified for prestigious/important jobs as anyone else, and Bill Clinton had both a personal background and expressed himself in ways that resonated with many black Americans. None of that had ever been even a little bit true of an American President before. And it was a big deal. All of that is easy to forget, now, after we elected an actual black person President. But man, the 1990s were a different time. Lots of things are bad (really, really bad) now. But lots of things have changed in the last 25 years, too.