Stacey Dash Is Running For Congress. Here Are Some Ridiculous Things She Has Said.

America is all about reinvention, and Stacey Dash knows that very well. After her acting career went south, she put on a red bathing suit and threw her support behind Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. Boom. Suddenly, she was a Fox News contributor known for calling for an end to Black History Month and BET. In what seems like a hot minute, she penned a memoir called There Goes My Social Life: From Clueless to Conservative.

People have suggested that Dash's jumping on the Fox News train (and later, on the Trump train) was opportunistic. "African-American women who are on the liberal side are a dime a dozen," Jasmyne Cannick, a political and social commentator in L.A., said in a 2016 Broadly profile of Dash. "If you want to stand out, be a Black conservative [who has] no problem self-hating and hating on your people, and you will be loved by all Fox [News] viewers — she has found a niche."

Whatever your opinion on the actress-commentator still best known as the buggin' BFF of Cher from 1995's Clueless, she does have a knack for turning over a new leaf, a sort of brashness that dares you to contend with it. Her heartbreakingly rough childhood in the South Bronx — drug-addicted parents, abuse — has undoubtedly contributed to it.

After her Fox News contract wasn't renewed last year, she's in the midst of yet another reinvention — running for Congress in California's 44th district. CNN reported that she filed the paperwork on Monday. The district, where she said she lives, includes Compton, Watts, San Pedro, and North Long Beach, and Hillary Clinton won 83% of the vote there during the 2016 presidential election, while Trump only got 12%.

She hasn't made any formal statements about her campaign yet, but on Monday she did tweet, "Come to my account for the straight news. Formal statements coming."

Dash is known for making statements that harm other African-Americans, women, trans people, immigrants, and more — and, unfortunately, there's no sign that she plans to stop during her campaign. Here's a reminder of some of the more ridiculous things she's said.

In recent years, America has been having a necessary, long-awaited conversation about the lack of diversity and representation at the Oscars. After no actors of color were nominated in any of the acting categories in 2016, #OscarsSoWhite was once again in the media.

Here's what Stacey Dash had to say about this on Fox News in January 2016: "Either we want to have segregation or integration. And if we don't want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the [NAACP] Image Awards, where you're only awarded if you're Black. If it were the other way around, we would be up in arms. It's a double standard." She also said, "There shouldn’t be a Black History Month. We're Americans. Period."

Dash has appeared in music videos that aired on the channel. (BET Jams even trolled her by playing music videos she was in with the hashtag #NeverForget.)

The actress later made fun of herself in a brief, but cringe-worthy, Oscars appearance that caused Chrissy Teigen to make this face.

America has taken both major steps forward and huge steps back on trans rights in recent years. On Entertainment Tonight in 2016, Dash made comments that were transphobic, vile, and ignorant. The conversation was about trans people's right to use their own gender's bathroom, and Dash said: "Why do I have to suffer because you can't decide what you want to be that day?" The host, Nischelle Turner, helpfully interjected, "But is it a decision?" to which Dash responded, "It's your body! So, it's your decision, right? We all make choices."

When Turner patiently responded that transgender people don't choose their gender, it is who they are, Dash said, "Okay, then go to the bushes. I don't know what to tell you, but I'm not gonna put my child's life at risk because you want to change a law. So that you can be comfortable with your beliefs — which means I have to change my beliefs and my rights? No."

Clearly, Dash has some reading, growing, and talking to actual trans people to do. While there have been no known instances of violence from trans women in public bathrooms, violence against trans women — especially trans women of color — happens every single day.

In a 2015 interview with Meredith Vieira, Dash threw out a typical Republican-woman talking point about how she doesn't want to be a "victim" and thus women should just buck up and work harder instead of complaining about the gender wage gap. Which she admitted exists! ("No, I know that the numbers are true.") "It's the same thing as with race. It's an excuse. Stop making excuses," she said. It's more like a quantifiable fact that we're fighting to fix every day. Join us, Stacey.

In the same ET interview, Dash claimed that feminism is ruining men. "What we're doing is we're chipping away at what it is to be a woman and to be feminine," she said. "And what it is to be a man and be masculine. We're chipping away at that. I wish we could go back to Mad Men days. I love those days. Men were men."

There are so many things wrong with that statement. But we're exhausted.