A woman fired back against men who made tasteless comments about her race and how she looked while reporting on TV.
Spectrum News 1 reporter Brianna Hamblin was waiting for the start of her regular report in Rochester, New York, when two men approached her, with one saying that she looked ‘nice’ while the other said she was ‘beautiful as hell’.
The reporter is seen trying to not make a big deal about it by simply saying ‘thank you’ while looking at her phone, but the second man apparently didn’t have a problem with disturbing her as he went on to ask her why she was on TV.
She then tells him to ‘go find a TV and watch Spectrum News’, to which he replies by saying:
“See that’s why I can’t be left alone with a Black woman.”
WARNING: CRUDE LANGUAGE
Being hit on and harassed as a woman, especially as a woman reporter out in the field, happens so often you learn how to roll with it or ignore it. This time it happened to be recorded only seconds before my hit. There are A LOT of things wrong with this. pic.twitter.com/5Ok58Vm7e0— Brianna Hamblin (@BriReports) July 23, 2021
He then goes on to say that he just couldn’t stand ‘these f*cking white girls’.
Hamblin then hesitantly brings the report to an end by saying:
“All right, we are done here. Have a great rest of your day.”
But the man just keeps going…
“You are sexy as f*ck.”
Sharing the footage on social media, the reporter explained:
“Being hit on and harassed as a woman, especially as a woman reporter out in the field, happens so often you learn how to roll with it or ignore it.”
She added:
“This time it happened to be recorded only seconds before my hit. There are A LOT of things wrong with this.”
1.If you don’t want to be on camera, simply avoid it or ask nicely to not be on camera. Don’t walk towards it or make a scene. Who said this was about you?
— Brianna Hamblin (@BriReports) July 23, 2021
Hamblin went on to say that while the first man’s approach was ‘fine’, the second one ‘took this to another disgusting level it didn’t need to be’.
She wrote:
“The audacity of the things men say to me never ceases to amaze me. What makes you think women want to be talked to that way? In no way is this endearing. It’s uncomfortable. It’s gross.
Being a Black woman in this industry has its own headaches, but talking down on one group of women to “praise” another group is NEVER okay. It just shows you have a disgusting fetish based on stereotypes, which is just as racist.”
The reporter also noted that she was ‘lucky’ to have male colleagues with her during the incident, adding that she was subjected to similar scenarios alone, describing it as ‘not safe’ and ‘scary’.
OH WAIT! One more thing: I was LUCKY I had @barstow_scott with me. At my last job, I had to deal with this type of stuff ALONE, like most women MMJs. It’s not safe. It’s scary. But the convo about the dangers of reporters working alone is for another day
— Brianna Hamblin (@BriReports) July 23, 2021
Hamblin’s video has been viewed more than 5 million times since she posted it on July 23, and the reporter thanked everyone for their support in the wake of the harassment.
Thank you to all who have said such kind things to me. I see it and I appreciate it so much ❤️. To all the women who related to this, I’m sorry and want to give you a big virtual hug. Thank you for sharing your own experiences too so men realize how common and unwanted this is
— Brianna Hamblin (@BriReports) July 24, 2021
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