A Rochester reporter has gone viral after sharing a video of herself being verbally harassed before shooting a segment for Spectrum News 1.
Brianna Hamblin shared the clip on Friday, which was recorded moments before her live shot, where a man began making crude comments to her as she was waiting for the camera to roll.
“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,” Hamblin tweeted. “This time it happened to be recorded only seconds before my hit. There are A LOT of things wrong with this.”
The clip shows Hamblin standing in front of the camera on a sidewalk, as a passerby begins to call her beautiful, says he “better not be on mother fucking camera,” and asks her what she’s filming.
“See that’s why I can’t be left alone with a Black woman,” the man says. “Because I can’t stand these fucking white girls.”
Hamblin remains professional throughout, tells the man to watch the news to see what they’re reporting on, and says “we are done here” when things continue to get worse.
“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,” she continued on Twitter. “It just shows you have a disgusting fetish based on stereotypes, which is just as racist.”
Hamblin closed her thread by writing that she was grateful for the influx of support she received from those following along: “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.”
