Pennsylvania’s Second Lady Target Of Racist Tirade

Gisele Fetterman, wife of Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, recorded her troubling encounter with a woman who berated her with racist insults as she shopped for groceries. WPXI's Sarafina James reports.

(WPXI/NBC News) — Pennsylvania’s Second Lady, Gisele Fetterman, says she was harassed and called a racial slur during a weekend trip to the grocery store.

Fetterman, whose husband John Fetterman is Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, says she went to the Aldi in Forest Hills to pick up a few things without her usual security.

While in the store, Fetterman said a woman approached her and started calling her different names, including the N-word. Other customers heard what was going on and asked Fetterman if she was okay, and she felt safe enough to leave.

However, the woman then followed Fetterman to her car and again called her names. At that point, Fetterman recorded a short video of the woman using the N-word toward her.

“I started to cry and I was shaking,” she says. “For someone to yell at you that you don’t belong or you’re this … in public is so bold. I was immediately like an 8-year-old girl, just terrified.”

Fetterman says as a native of Brazil, she is no stranger to racism.

“Growing up as a young immigrant in this country, I was undocumented and we really had this journey where I felt I didn’t belong for a long time,” she says.

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