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“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin suggested Monday that her children faced racism while attending “predominantly White” private schools.
Hostin brought up the topic while discussing 1619 Project founder and The New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, who recently admitted she regretted aspects of her decision to send her daughter to predominantly Black, high-poverty public schools in Brooklyn in an effort to challenge educational inequality.
Hostin empathized with Hannah-Jones’ situation but suggested there were additional problems with sending Black children to “predominantly White” private schools.
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Sunny Hostin said that her children were bullied while attending “predominantly White” private schools as kids during “The View.” (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Bezos Courage and Civility Awards)
“I think that this is a decision broadly that all parents make when it comes to educating their kids, but … this is a very difficult decision for Black parents, in particular, because I made a very different decision,” Hostin said. “I sent my children to private schools, a predominantly White private school. So, while they didn’t suffer academically, they excelled, but it was a well-funded school, a private school, well-resourced school, they suffered a different type of pain.”
“There was psychological trauma, there was racism that they experienced,” she added. “They were bullied. There was, you know, trauma around their identity. My daughter wears a big afro, kids were trying to stick pencils in her hair. Boys were calling her butter face, meaning she looked good, but her face, and she is a beautiful girl.”
While Hostin conceded that her children “did not struggle academically” like Hannah-Jones’ daughter reported, she expressed concerns about the “systemic problem” affecting predominantly non-White school districts.
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1619 Project architect Nikole Hannah-Jones admitted on Sunday that she regretted sending her daughter to a predominantly Black public school. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)
“So I think the real question here is, nationally, schools in predominantly non-White districts receive $23 billion less in annual funding than their White counterparts. Underfunded schools versus well-funded schools. So public schools are funded from property taxes. So we need to look at the systemic problem that’s happening in this country around public education,” Hostin said.
Fox News Digital reached out to ABC and Ethical Culture Fieldston School, where Hostin previously sent her children, for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
In a comment to Fox News Digital, Hannah-Jones said that the broader focus should remain on families who lack the resources to pursue better educational options for their children, rather than her decisions for her children.
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“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin agreed with Hannah-Jones that there needed to be more focus on public education for Black children. (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)
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“I hope people concerned about the choice my husband and I made for our daughter will have equal or more outrage for the thousands of Black children whose parents don’t have the resources to send them to better schools,” she said. “As I write in the piece, there is no absolution to be had for any of us.”
Fox News’ CJ Womack contributed to this report.