*TRIGGER WARNING* I love love love this country but we are so deeply divided. I ran to the local grocery store and was met by and verbally assaulted by this woman who repeatedly told me I do not belong here. The confrontation continued into the parking lot where I was able to pic.twitter.com/kzSoxCVJ2x
— Gisele Barreto Fetterman (@giselefetterman) October 11, 2020
Warning: the video includes the racial slur.
Gisele Barreto Fetterman, the wife of the Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania, said Sunday that she was the victim of a racist incident. As seen on video, a white woman called her the N-word from outside her car.
“You’re a n*****,” the woman said.
“I love love love this country but we are so deeply divided,” Fetterman wrote on Twitter. “I ran to the local grocery store and was met by and verbally assaulted by this woman who repeatedly told me I do not belong here. The confrontation continued into the parking lot where I was able to finally capture it after the crying winded down. This behavior and this hatred is taught. If you know her, if she is your neighbor or relative, please, please teach her love instead.”
Fetterman, the wife of Lt. Governor John Fetterman (D), told The New York Times she made a last minute stop to a grocery store to pick up golden kiwis. Once there, she was standing in line when a woman stared at her, according to her account.
The woman said “‘Oh, there is that N-word that Fetterman married,'” according the Pennsylvania Second Lady, who was born in Brazil. Fetterman explained that the other woman used the uncensored version of the slur. In her story, the other woman repeated, “You don’t belong here.”
State Troopers normally protect Fetterman, but were not with her because of the sudden nature of the grocery store trip, she said.
Fetterman said she returned to her car after paying, and encountered the woman again. That’s when she recorded the incident. She said Pennsylvania State Police identified the woman and were investigating.
“The ethnic intimidation and hate speech spewed at the Second Lady of Pennsylvania is shameful and unacceptable,” Gov. Tom Wolf (D) said on Twitter. “Racism is always unacceptable and unworthy of Pennsylvanians. No one should ever be made to feel unwelcome in our commonwealth because of their race or ethnicity. Gisele Fetterman spends much of her time making our state and world a better place and she — and every Pennsylvanian — deserves our respect, not the hatred too often displayed by people who seek only to further divide this country at a time when unity is so desperately needed. The Second Lady has my and Frances’s full support and gratitude for her tireless work to make Pennsylvania the diverse, inclusive place it is today, even in the face of such ignorance and adversity.”
[Screengrab via Gisele Barreto Fetterman]
