Pennsylvania's Second Lady Shares Video Of Woman Calling Her The N-Word

Source: Gov. Tom Wolf / Flickr

Pennsylvania’s Second Lady Gisele Barreto Fetterman shared a racist attack directed at her on social media, in what has become a routine experience for Black people and people of color in America due to an emboldened base represented in America’s president.

Fetterman, who is married to Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, tweeted a distorting video of a white woman who followed her outside of her local grocery store on Sunday, hurling racial slurs.

She identifies as Latina and is an accomplished human rights activist who migrated with her mother to the states from Brazil, settling in New York City in the 1980’s. The family later moved to New Jersey.

Fetterman, 38, told Newsweek that she left the house without her security detail on Sunday to visit the local Aldi market located in Braddock, Pennsylvania.

“Security are assigned to me who are wonderful and keep me safe and I’m so grateful to them, but I snuck out,” she said. “I just wanted to be normal for a few minutes and I just wanted to buy some kiwis.”

https://twitter.com/giselefetterman/status/1315419117919383552?s=20

While waiting in the checkout line Fetterman said a woman in the store began insulting her and yelling racial slurs.

“She said, ‘There’s that n-word that Fetterman married.’ She called me a thief. There was a woman behind me who said, ‘Are you alone? Please don’t walk to the car by yourself, I walk you,’ She was very lovely.”

“I was just kind of frozen in that moment,” she told The Washington Post. “I was shaking. I was so nervous.”

While Fetterman was backing out of her parking spot, the woman approached her car and began yelling at her, calling her the n-word again.

“*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 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 wrote on Twitter sharing the video of the woman yelling into her car.

When she’s not caring for her three children, Fetterman spends her time focusing on 412 Food Rescue, a non-profit organization she founded dedicated to eliminating food insecurity in the U.S.  Fetterman is also an advocate for immigration reform, propelled by her experience in the states as former undocumented immigrant.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf publicly condemned the incident calling it “shameful and unacceptable.”

“People will follow the mood of the country,” Fetterman said. “And I think if we have high leadership levels who are very comfortable saying terrible things about people, that might embolden some people.”

“I don’t know what her motivation was, or influenced her. But I just hope that she isn’t raising children or grandchildren and passing this hate on.”