--- title: Hillary Clinton Apologizes for 'Superpredator' Remark description: Hillary Clinton apologized on Thursday for using the word "superpredators" to describe kids who committed crimes in a 1996 speech canonical: https://time.com/4238230/hillary-clinton-black-lives-matter-superpredator/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-26T00:43:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:24:02.475Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Apologizes for 'Superpredator' Remark og:description: "Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today" og:url: https://time.com/4238230/hillary-clinton-black-lives-matter-superpredator/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt203bb99e48145f78/69887f345f570fc42fb1fcd0/hillary-clinton16.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton Holds Campaign Event With Cory Booker In South Carolina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Apologizes for 'Superpredator' Remark twitter:description: "Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt203bb99e48145f78/69887f345f570fc42fb1fcd0/hillary-clinton16.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Apologizes for 'Superpredator' Remark  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 26, 2016 12:43 AM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a Breaking Down Barriers Town Hall with Sen. Cory Booker on Feb. 25, 2016 in Florence, S.C. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a Breaking Down Barriers Town Hall with Sen. Cory Booker on Feb. 25, 2016 in Florence, S.C.Mark Makela/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 26, 2016 12:43 AM UTC Hillary Clinton [apologized on Thursday](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/02/25/hillary-clinton-responds-to-activist-who-demanded-apology-for-superpredator-remarks/) for remarks she made in a 1996 speech, in which she used the word _superpredators_ to describe kids with “no conscience, no empathy” who committed crimes. A Black Lives Matter activist [interrupted Clinton at a private event in South Carolina on Wednesday](http://time.com/4237111/black-lives-matter-hillary-clinton-protest/), asking the former Secretary of State to answer for the remarks and apologize to black people for mass incarceration. The activist, Ashley Williams, was escorted from the event after Clinton said she’d never been asked about the speech and would be happy to address it. “In that speech, I was talking about the impact violent crime and vicious drug cartels were having on communities across the country and the particular danger they posed to children and families,” Clinton [told the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/02/25/hillary-clinton-responds-to-activist-who-demanded-apology-for-superpredator-remarks/) on Thursday. “Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today.” Clinton said she has devoted her life’s work to helping underserved children, too many of whom, she said, are in African-American communities. “We haven’t done right by them. We need to,” she said. “We need to end the school to prison pipeline and replace it with a cradle-to-college pipeline.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4238230/hillary-clinton-black-lives-matter-superpredator/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4238230/hillary-clinton-black-lives-matter-superpredator/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Apologizes for 'Superpredator' Remark","datePublished":"2016-02-26T00:43:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:24:02.475Z","description":"\"Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today\"","url":"https://time.com/4238230/hillary-clinton-black-lives-matter-superpredator/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt203bb99e48145f78/69887f345f570fc42fb1fcd0/hillary-clinton16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt203bb99e48145f78/69887f345f570fc42fb1fcd0/hillary-clinton16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton Holds Campaign Event With Cory Booker In South Carolina","caption":"Hillary Clinton Holds Campaign Event With Cory Booker In South Carolina","creditText":"Mark Makela/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4238230/hillary-clinton-black-lives-matter-superpredator/","name":"Hillary Clinton Apologizes for 'Superpredator' Remark"}}]}] ```