During the show, it came to light that Hostin's maternal ancestors hailed from Spain and were likely slave owners themselves. This discovery has rocked Sunny to her core, with reports indicating that even her mother was brought to tears upon hearing the news.
Witnessing Sunny's reaction in the accompanying video, it's clear she's grappling with a profound identity crisis. Suddenly confronted with the realization that her own lineage is entwined with the troubling legacy of slavery, she's visibly taken aback. This unexpected twist has undoubtedly shifted the narrative for Hostin, challenging her preconceptions and prompting introspection on her own familial history.
Watch the video:
The View host Sunny Hostin is a staunch proponent of slavery reparations.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 8, 2024
She went on PBS to explore her ancestry.
Turns out, she is the descendant of slave-owners from Spain who owned Africans.
This was her reaction when she found out: pic.twitter.com/yFBgjMOSGc
From People:
That her third great-grandfather was "the son of a merchant who was likely involved in the slave trade" and had owned at least one person was just one of many "surprising revelations about my family history," Hostin said on The View. While telling the panelelist that her forebears from Galicia, Spain, had moved to Puerto Rico as "enslavers," Hostin also revealed that she'd learned on the PBS genealogy series that she is only 7 percent indigenous Puerto Rican.
"It was deeply disappointing, because my mother really identified as Puerto Rican. She was part of the civil rights movement, and she was deeply ingrained in Black culture and identified herself as Black race but Hispanic for ethnicity, but her race is white — she’s European," Hostin explained.
"I know, it’s weird, because when you look at her, my mother’s blonde and she has light eyes, and my whole family looks like that. I think inside, I sort of knew that this was my history and that’s probably why I didn’t want to do it."
