The View co-host Sunny Hostin shares terrifying experience with racism where "violent kids" called her the n-word
Sunny Hostin, co-host of The View, recently opened up about a terrifying experience of discrimination where she was subjected to racial slur by a group of children, who called her the n-word and threaatened violence against her and her family.
Sharing the video footage of the aftermath, the talk show host spoke up about the incident on the show, on Monday. “You also cannot play charades while black on July 4th,” said the 49-year-old.
“My family as I said have rented this house in a predominantly African American community. It has real history, it’s the only place blacks were allowed to buy beachfront property in the country. We were there celebrating and some kids, about 20 of them, ran in front of our home and started yelling the n-word at us.”
As per Hostin's recount of the incident, the kids were yelling thing like, “This is America! We are patriots! This is our holiday!” and then they went on to break her paddle board. “They were kind of violent,” she shared.
Hostin - who's also an attorney and television commentator - shared the video footage of the aftermath, where she asks a group of people, “Were you the ones yelling the n-word? Because that’s harassment.” To that a boy was heard in the clip, denying any involvement in the act, and also referencing a group of “thirty people” who seemed to have recently left the scene.
What followed was Hostin and her friends filing a report with the Sag Harbor Police Department - whom she made a point to praise for being “wonderful,” and also for having responsive officers who were “just as outraged as we were.”
A spokesperson for the police department has since shared with Newsday, “She called in a police report referencing fireworks and foul language” and “Upon arrival she was interviewed and said that while she was in her yard with a guest a group of teenagers walked past on the beach using foul language. Officers checked the surrounding area with negative results.”
Hostin explained, “The African American community does have this feeling on July 4th, because African Americans weren’t emancipated on July 4th, so they weren’t independent then, but this area is supposed to be a safe haven, it’s a place of pride and we found out later they targeted us specifically because of that community. They came from outside of the area. Some from Jersey, some from other parts of Long Island…”
Hostin's co-host Whoopi Goldberg also remarked: “Racism is in pockets, it’s in places, and all you can do is face it when it hits you.”
Joy Behar added: “But it seems to me that a lot of this verbiage has been unleashed by certain people — and you know who they are.”