The View co-host Sunny Hostin got a bit emotional on Monday discussing racially derogatory remarks reportedly made by a top ABC News executive about her and several other Black employees, saying they left her “saddened and hurt.”
Over the weekend, HuffPost reported that ABC News senior vice president of talent and business affairs Barbara Fedida has a long history of making racist comments about Black anchors and hosts, prompting the network to place Fedida on administrative leave as they investigate the claims. According to reports, Fedida also smeared Hostin, calling her “low rent.”
At the top of Monday’s broadcast of ABC talk show The View, after co-host Whoopi Goldberg noted that Fedida says the claims of her conduct are “incredibly misleading,” Hostin addressed the allegations against the senior executive.
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“It was a tough weekend for me,” Hostin said. “And I was really disappointed and saddened and hurt when I learned about the racist comments that were made allegedly about me, my colleagues, and my dear friends.”
Referencing several other racist comments Fedida is accused of making, Hostin went on to say that this report tells her that “systemic racism touches everything and everyone in our society regardless of social stature” and that “no one is immune” to it.
“It’s the type of racism that black people deal with every single day, and it has to stop, and I look forward to the results of what I hear is going to be an independent, external investigation, and I felt very loved and supported by my colleagues,” she said, adding that “this has got to stop.”
Hostin’s co-hosts Joy Behar and Meghan McCain both expressed support for Hostin, with McCain pointing out that “when you attack one of us, you’re attacking all of us.”
Goldberg, meanwhile, concluded by saying she’s known Fedida a long time and doesn’t “think she’s racist” but that they need to go through an investigation to find out the truth behind the reports.
“Let’s find out, because if it’s true, she’s gone, but if it’s not, let’s find out what’s going on, and an independent investigation is what this needs because, you know, the days of systemic racism are ending,” she added. “Those walls are coming down, and we’re pulling them down.”
