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Sunny Hostin Accused of ‘Race Baiting’ After Responding to Newly Released Philando Castile Video

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While reacting to the newly released footage of Philando Castile’s killing, Sunny Hostin knew she would receive a flurry of tweets accusing her of making “everything about race.”

And she was right.

Hostin began by explaining that the footage, which was released after the jury decided to acquit former St. Anthony, Minn., police Officer Jeronimo Yanez in Castile’s murder, was released by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. She said Castile announcing he had a firearm was doing “more than what was needed,” meaning he went above and beyond to prove he wasn’t a threat to Yanez.

“As the mother of a Black kid — a Black boy — I’m trying to figure out why there is no way of responding, as a Black man during a traffic stop, that is genuinely safe,” she says on “The View” Thursday, June 22.

After co-panelists Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar discuss the explanation Yanez gave for why he shot Castile seven times, Hostin asked the audience to imagine how it would be if the race of the victim and bystanders, including a 4-year-old, were different.

“I know I’m gonna get all the tweets: ‘Sunny makes everything about race, Sunny’s racist,'” she says. “Close your eyes and imagine the occupants in that car being white,” she says. “We would not be talking about this and it’s the fear of the Black family, it’s the fear of the Black man in the car.”

On Twitter, many latched on to Hostin’s statement and accused her of playing the race card … and being racist.

Hostin responded to some.

And she had some backers, too.

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