Mary J. Blige launched her new interview series, "The 411," by sitting down with Hillary Clinton and asking the question that has dogged her political aspirations for years _ why does she struggle to bridge the gap between how she wants to be perceived and the way people perceive her?
"I've always been the same person," Clinton said. "When you're in the public eye, whether it's in entertainment or politics, you do have the challenge of presenting yourself and have people perceive you as you think you are."
She added, "I think some of the misperception is manufactured, and some of it I take responsibility for, that I'm not communicating clearly enough what I care about and what I do."
Asked by Blige if it's hard to be seen as both tough and likable as a woman, Clinton laughed and said, "Yes, I think it's really hard, to be honest.
"I think it's rooted in tens of thousands of years of how people's lives have been defined, what it's meant to be a woman or a man," she said. "For women to be assuming leading roles ... it still is not fully understood because there's no blueprint for doing it."
The interview had already gained some notoriety for a preview clip showing Blige singing to Clinton.
The song, "American Skin (41 Shots)" by Bruce Springsteen, was written about a 1999 police shooting in New York.
"This is how I believe people feel," Blige told Clinton about recent killings of unarmed black men by police.
"I have been so heartbroken about what's going on," Clinton responded.
"There needs to be a greater opening of our hearts to one another, we've got to put ourselves in each other's shoes, feel the pain that a mother and a father feels when their son and daughter can go out the door, and they don't know what's going to happen to them," Clinton said. "I particularly want white people to understand what that's like, and feel like they must be part of the solution."
