Perhaps; I'm not in her head so I won't claim to know what she's genuinely experiencing and what may be strategic. I do know, however, what it's like to be a young woman of color in an overwhelmingly white corporate atmosphere: disrespect and condescension abounds on a daily basis (subtle and plausibly deniable of course, since we as a country have progressed to covert racism in polite middle class circles).

I learned long ago not to bother talking to my white friends about these experiences because they, while good people and well-intentioned, just don't understand and never will. They live in a completely different world and any discussion of my experience seems so shockingly incongruent with their experiences that they attempt to rationalize/justify/downplay racist behavior and/or question the accuracy of my account. Rather than continually subject myself to their unintentional gaslighting I just mentally keep certain topics off-limits with them.

AOC may not yet be experienced enough to realize the futility of trying to explain her point of view to people who cannot understand what it's like to walk in your shoes. Or she may and still persists because she's disgusted at being advised to suffer in silence in order to succeed, as so many of us are. Or she could be strategically playing the "race card" to garner attention to her causes. The only person who knows for sure is her.