‘The View’ co-host Sunny Hostin laments ‘I suddenly feel unsafe’ in neighborhoods with American flags
"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin repeated her assertion from 2021 that she feels uncomfortable or unsafe while visiting neighborhoods where homes are flying the American flag.
While discussing celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary and the state of the country, Hostin recalled a previous occasion in 2021 when she said on the show that she feels uncomfortable in neighborhoods with lots of American flags.
"I said this on this show many, many years ago, because this is my tenth year on the show," Hostin recalled. "I said there are times when I walk into a community and I see American flags all over the community and I suddenly feel unsafe because there’s a section of this country that has co-opted the American flag, and they equate being an American or an American flag with White supremacy and that should never be the symbol of White supremacy, but they have weaponized."
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Hostin's comment came after the panel discussed a viral image of uniformed White nationalists riding the Washington, D.C., Metro as a Black woman sits on the same train with a blank expression. The group held a march in DC over the weekend.
"That, for me, was a defining image of modern America for Black Americans," Hostin said, condemning the American-flag-style insignias on their caps.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin took the opportunity to blast fringe activists on both sides of the political spectrum, but guest host Michelle Buteau, who had celebrated 4th of July by eating a cake that said "America, Do Better B----" argued this was an indictment of the nation as a whole.
"When you say it’s the best nation. The best nation for who? Because if we are celebrating 250 years, what are we exactly celebrating? Is what I want to know," Buteau said. "So I’m really glad that picture was taken, because that picture is how we feel walking into many rooms, down the street. That picture is how we feel and nobody will believe us. So look at that picture and understand how it feels."
"The flag belongs to all of us," Griffin replied.
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In 2021, Hostin spoke on "The View" about the phenomenon of Black Americans feeling uncomfortable in neighborhoods with American flags, defending MSNBC analyst Mara Gay for her controversial admission that she felt it "disturbing" to see American flags, Trump flags, and condemnations of then-President Joe Biden in Long Island, New York.
"When someone of color, a Black woman, is telling you her feelings, people need to listen and not, you know, repudiate it and not say, 'Well, that can’t be true,'" Hostin had said at the time, later adding, "When I drive into a neighborhood, and it’s not July 4th, and I’m not in a predominantly military household neighborhood and there are flags, American flags, everywhere, alongside Trump flags, alongside flags with stars in a circle, I feel threatened."
"Because the message is very clear," she continued. "It’s a message of White supremacy. It’s a message of racism, and it’s a message of their country, not my country. I don’t understand why that would receive backlash. People need to listen when I am saying this is how I feel. This is my experience in this country."
