A white woman was recorded spewing a racial epithet at the wife of Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor while she was out shopping for groceries this past Sunday, according to CNN. In the 2-second video, you can hear the white woman say to her, “You a n****r” as she walks by her vehicle.
The woman, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, who is married to Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, stated that the incident took place Sunday evening. With a short video that was recorded on her phone, Fetterman posted the encounter to her Twitter account. The white woman, as she is walking past the window of Fetterman’s car, is seen lowering her mask and clearly saying, “You’re a n****r.”
Fetterman, based on her Twitter account is “a formerly undocumented immigrant.”
“A woman walks past me and stops and looks at me, and then says, ‘Ugh, there’s that n-word that Fetterman married. And, she said you don’t belong here, and she called me a thief and uttered some other ramblings. And, (she) kept walking, went to the other aisle, came back, said a few more things,” Fetterman tells CNN.
“Even though I’m 38, I’m second lady and I have a family and a career, I was immediately again, a scared 9-year-old undocumented little girl in that grocery line,” she told CNN’s John Berman.
“I was still kind of crying and shaken, and that’s when I was able to record the final few seconds of her tirade, as I drove off. So you can see in the video, my car is actually moving. I was trying to leave where I was.”
“She didn’t hide from it,” Fetterman said. “I think people are more comfortable now being so bold in their bigotry or their hatred.”
The incident took place at the Forest Hills Aldi location. In a statement, Aldi criticized the woman’s actions and said she is “no longer welcome” to shop at its stores.
“We must stand together against racism in America. We absolutely do not tolerate harassment, discrimination, or mistreatment of our customers or employees, and we condemn it in all forms,” according to the grocery chain’s statement. “We are reaching out to the Second Lady today to reiterate our stance, and ensure she feels safe and welcome in our stores anytime.”
Pennsylvania’s Gov. Tom Wolf released the following statement:
“The ethnic intimidation and racist speech spewed at the Second Lady of Pennsylvania is shameful and unacceptable. Racism and hate speech are always unacceptable and unworthy of Pennsylvanians. No Pennsylvanian should ever be made to feel unwelcome in our commonwealth because of their race or ethnicity. Gisele Fetterman spends much of her time devoted to 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.”