After President Obama ascended to the Oval Office, my experiences as a black American did not dramatically improve overnight, or even over the next eight years. If anything, Obama’s term in office has highlighted the vast amount of work needed to be done within this country to provide equality for all of its citizens. The severity and depths of racially biased arguments and challenges to his policies by Congress (as well as a certain population of ignorant and fearful white Americans) confirmed as much.

Likewise, the idea of diversity of experience does not automatically translate between all types of women. My life as a young black woman in a world steadfast in its desire to both sexualize and demean my body is not the same as that of a young white woman’s. My life is multi-layered. My feminism is defined by intersectionalism. My blackness and womanhood are not mutually exclusive. Instead, each identifier works in conjunction with the other, creating a rich and ever-evolving experience that only speaks to my specific lived experience.

Albright and Steinem’s remarks are a smack in the face of the sort of agency and individual intelligence that millennial woman own. Access to information about the candidates (as well as about the financial, social, and racial issues that hold significant precedence in the 2016 election cycle) is more available than ever. The young women they criticize and bemoan are perhaps more informed than any other generation. We’ve seen this in the past two presidential election cycles, with more young people voting than ever before.