"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin is not thrilled with what she found out about her family's history during an appearance on PBS' "Finding Your Roots" hosted by Henry Louis Jr. Specifically, that she's a descendant of slave traders.
Sharing the revelation on Thursday's installment of "The View" on ABC, Hostin said she was "reluctant" to dig into her family's past because she was worried the results would be "disappointing" or "negative" — but went ahead with the research for "Finding Your Roots" so her kids could find out about their family history. It turns out that Hostin's concerns were well-founded.
"What I found out was that my mother's family, whilst they are Puerto Rican, they actually originate from Spain," Hostin explained of what she learned. "And the reason that they moved to Puerto Rico is because the slave trade had been sort of canceled in Spain, and then Curaçao, and then they moved all of their slaves to Puerto Rico," continued Hostin. "The family business — I had been told that they were printers and journalists — but they were, in fact, enslavers."
BREAKING: Staunchly racist Sunny Hostin did a genealogy test and family history background check and discovered that her family were SLAVE OWNERS.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 8, 2024
She admits "the family business" was "enslavers" and it was "deeply disappointing" to learn the TRUTH. pic.twitter.com/Y2qUHDdIzn
"I think at first I was deeply disappointed," Hostin said later in the discussion of learning about her family's slave trading venture.
"The slave thing is a bummer," interjected co-host Joy Behar with all the tact of a rabid raccoon at high tea. "It's a bummer," Hostin agreed. What?
"I still believe in reparations, by the way," Hostin insisted. "So y'all can stop texting me and emailing me and saying that I'm a white girl and that I don't deserve reparations." Apparently, despite her family being, in her words, "enslavers," she still believes she deserves reparations for slavery.
"I still believe this country has a lot to do in terms of racial justice," Hostin said, ticking off the virtue-signaling box, but contradictorily claimed she's "enriched by knowing that my family has come so far from being enslavers to my mother marrying my father in 1968."
Sara Haines presses Hostin to talk about how this might have upended her race-baiting shtick.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 8, 2024
Hostin calls the revelations "a bummer" but that she'll still demand "reparations."
She lashes out, telling critics to "stop" saying she "doesn't deserve reparations." pic.twitter.com/B2S8EJzcen
Hostin has previously said on "The View" that "we," speaking as part of the "black community...want our reparations!" Yet, based on what she learned of her ancestry, the reparations would not be owed to her but owed by her family. And somehow, because her descended-from-slave-traders mother married a black man, progress has been achieved and the situation is a "bummer" but enriching — yet the United States has not yet done enough "in terms of racial justice."
It's all illogical nonsense, but what else could be expected to erupt from "The View."
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