Gisele Barreto Fattermann, the wife of a Lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, went to the grocery store on Sunday to pick up some golden kiwis.
It was a last-ditch dash, so he headed to the local Aldi store in the usual places without having to go to the state to protect it. Three Kiwi boxes in hand X, Ms. Fitterman was standing in line to give money when a woman stopped to look in front of him.
“Oh, there’s an n-word that Fatrum doesn’t marry,” Mrs Fitterman told a woman in her interview, emphasizing that the woman used it without summarizing the racial ambiguity. Mrs. Fitterman is the wife of Democrat, Lieutenant Governing John Fitterman.
Ms. Faterman, j Shared an account of the encounter on Twitter On Sunday night, he said frozen. The woman kept repeating, “You’re not here.”
Shaken, Mrs. Fitterman paid for her product and drove to her car. The woman reappeared, pulling down her purple mask and re-drawing the racist obscurity to Ms. Faterman, who noted the encounter and shared it with her followers on social media.
“I love that this country is loved, but we are very divided and deeply divided,” Ms. Fitterman wrote.
“This behavior and this hatred are taught,” he added. “If you know her, if she’s your neighbor or relative, please teach her love instead.”
Word of the encounter spread just three weeks before the presidential election in which Pennsylvania is poised to reassert its role as an important war state. President Trump challenged his Democratic counterpart, former Vice President Joseph R., in almost every poll. .
Ms. Faterman said in an interview that Pennsylvania State Police identified the woman in the video and are investigating.
A native of Brazil, Ms. Fitterman, 38, is a former undocumented immigrant who came to New York City with her mother and brother before she turned 8. She said she received her green card in 2004 and became a citizen in 2009.
She and Mr. Fitterman were married in 2008 and have three children. He lives in a borough east of Pittsburgh, Braddock, PA, where Mr. Fitterman was previously mayor. He said the grocery store is about two minutes away from his home.
She said she was the target of hateful comments online and in emails, but Sunday’s encounter was the first time her face had been attacked.
He said, “I hate myself. “I have learned to get used to them and to tell the truth. It has become normal for me. It was never on my face in public. No one is immune to it. ”
His tweet, which was viewed more than 300,000 times by Monday afternoon, drew reactions from legislators on social media.
Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said, “It’s up to us to teach our children kindness, acceptance and inclusion, and to condemn hatred whenever and wherever we want it.” Wrote on Twitter. Other Pennsylvania Democrats, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Said on Twitter That “hate has no place here.”
Ms. Faterman said he hopes people in the grocery store will teach the woman who accused him “compassionately and differently.”
He said, “I know I wasn’t the first to finish this, but I hope she’s the last one.”
