Gisele Barreto Fetterman, the wife of Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, has shared a video showing a White woman hurling a racial slur at her in a grocery store parking lot.
“*TRIGGER WARNING* I love love love this country but we are so deeply divided,” Mrs. Barreto Fetterman, a U.S. citizen from Brazil, tweeted Sunday. “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,” she added. “This behavior and this hatred is taught. If you know her, if she is your neighbor or relative, please, please teach her love instead.”
The 2-second video shows a White woman pulling her face mask down and saying, “You’re a [N-word].” The video appears to be taken from inside the Pensylvania second lady’s vehicle.
Mrs. Fetterman immigrated to New York City with her family illegally as a child, achieved green card status in 2004 and became a citizen five years later. She told Fox News Monday that the racist incident felt all too familiar.
“I lived in the shadows as much as I could,” she said. “My mom would actually say to me, ‘I love you, have a good day, be invisible’ – that was something I heard every day of my life.”
“I was immediately brought back to being that 9-year-old undocumented girl. Being told you don’t belong — I’ve gotten used to receiving this kind of hatred, but it’s through comments on Facebook,” she continued. “I’ve gotten used to that over the years being in a more visible position and more outspoken about my past, but to hear it to my face, and so aggressive, it’s an entirely different thing.”
Mrs. Fetterman told CNN that the confrontation began in the checkout line at the store and continued into the parking lot after the woman recognized her as the wife of the lieutenant governor, who is a Democrat.
“I think people are more comfortable now being so bold in their bigotry and their hatred,” she said.
“It was a hard reminder for me that it doesn’t matter what I’ve overcome, what I’ve achieved,” she said. “To some, I will always be viewed as inferior, simply because I was not born in this country.”
Gov. Tom Wolf tweeted a statement in support of the second lady.
“The ethnic intimidation and hate speech spewed at the Second Lady of Pennsylvania is shameful and unacceptable,” he wrote, in part. “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.”
