‘The View’ host has this to say about compensation after finding out she’s the child of a slave owner

Despite his family coming from slaves, “The View” host Sunny Hostin declared “I still believe in reparations!”

On Thursday’s episode of the ABC daytime talk show, Hostin addressed his recent appearance on the PBS documentary show “Finding Your Roots.” Show host Henry Louis Gates Jr. told Hostin that one of his ancestors on his maternal side was probably involved in the slave trade in colonial Spain and “owned at least one human being.”

Although she acknowledged the news to the panel, she insisted she was still “entitled” to compensation.

“By the way, I still believe in reparations. So, you all can stop texting and emailing me and saying that I’m a white girl and I don’t deserve reparations!” Hostin said.

She further said, “I still believe in reparations. I still believe this country has a lot of work to do in terms of racial justice.”

Despite initially feeling “deep disappointment” at the revelations, Hostin commented that she now feels “enriched” knowing her family’s history.

“I am enriched to know that my family has come so far from being slaves since my mother married my father in 1968,” Hostin said.

Behar responded, “You’re not responsible for what they did.”

During the show, Hostin also told his mother’s reaction.

“She was very disappointed. She actually cried about it. And then she said maybe that’s why I’m so connected to black culture because it’s the atonement for my soul. And I got it. I also found out – and in our family, there were slaves on both sides, mother and father. But we are seven percent indigenous Puerto Ricans!” Hostin said.

He said that before the news his mother had been identified as “actually Puerto Rican”, but Hostin now argues that the findings prove she was “white”.

“It’s very frustrating because my mom actually identified as Puerto Rican. She was part of the civil rights movement, and she was deeply rooted in black culture, and identifies as black for race, but Hispanic for ethnicity… but her race is white. He is European. I know,” she said.

“It’s weird because when you look at it, my mom is blonde, and she has light eyes and my whole family looks like that. So, I think deep down I knew that was my history and maybe that’s why I didn’t want to do it,” Hostin said.

Hostin also learned that his third great-grandfather had registered to vote in Georgia in 1867, despite being born into slavery in 1835.