‘I can’t be left alone with a Black woman’: Reporter harassed while on the job in Rochester, shares video

A Black woman journalist trying to do her job was harassed by two men in Rochester, and the incident was caught on camera.

Brianna Hamblin, a reporter with Spectrum News Rochester, shared the footage Friday on Twitter.

As she was preparing for a report, one man told Hamblin, “You look nice by the way,” and she responded, “Thank you.” The second man jumped in to say, “You beautiful as hell.” Hamblin calmly thanked him too.

After a short conversation about Hamblin’s job, one man said, “See that’s why I can’t be left alone with a Black woman. Or a mulatto, s---. Cause I can’t stand these f---ing white girls.”

“Alright, we are done here,” Hamblin replied. “Have a great rest of your day.”

“You are sexy as f---,” one man said anyway. “Sexy!”

“Oh my God,” Hamblin said to herself at the end of the clip.

“The audacity of the things men say to me never ceases to amaze me,” Hamblin wrote Friday on Twitter. “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.”

She also noted that she was lucky to have a crew with her, as solo women broadcasters are put in dangerous positions and must deal with harassment alone.

Despite the best efforts of the men to disrupt her day, Hamblin completed her report about free food deliveries to families in Rochester.