Nicole Humphrey explaining she is 'definitely not a racist'

PBS Newshour

‘I’m not a racist, but’: Woman says she doesn’t want affordable housing in her neighborhood in resurfaced video

The 2017 clip recently went viral.

 

Samira Sadeque

IRL

Posted on Oct 1, 2020   Updated on Oct 1, 2020, 8:00 pm CDT

A woman has gone viral for saying she “100%” stereotypes people living in affordable housing, however, she insists she isn’t racist.

Nicole Humphrey was interviewed by PBS in 2017 on why she’s against Section 8 housing in her neighborhood. In the interview, she claims that she’s “definitely not a bigot.”

A clip of the hour-long segment resurfaced on Twitter Thursday and has gone viral because people definitely think she’s “a bigot”

The video received more than 2 million views within the first 18 hours of being posted. It shows the journalist asking Humphrey why she doesn’t want affordable housing in her neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. 

Humphrey tells the interviewer that people in the neighborhood aren’t in the same class as her.

“What is your concern when it comes to Section 8 and low income?” the interviewer asks. 

“The lifestyle that goes with Section 8 is usually working-class, single moms, or people who are struggling to keep their heads above water. And it’s not,” she laughs. “I feel so bad saying that. It’s not just people who are, I guess, in the same class as us, which sounds bad, but I don’t mean that in a bad way.

The interviewer challenges Humphrey by saying that many people just want their children to have the same opportunities that Humphrey’s children have had, all because they live in the neighborhood, to which she responds: “I don’t look at multi-millionaires and think ‘why don’t I have a yacht, why don’t I have private jet?’”

“It’s the mindset, I feel like,” she says. 

She even admits she is “100% stereotyping,” claiming the stereotyping goes “both ways.”

“I am definitely not a racist. I’m not a bigot. I just have a stigma against people who are different,” she says before the clip ends. 

The clip is featured toward the end of a documentary that investigates how deeply people were affected by the housing crisis in 2017—and how Black people were affected disproportionately. 

After Twitter user @almaqah posted the clip on Wednesday, people began calling the woman both a bigot and a racist.

“This woman is struggling not to say ‘I don’t want black people here,” wrote Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times columnist.  

Humphrey’s yacht comparison also especially struck a nerve for viewers.

“She compared affordable housing to yachts and private jets. Lol,” wrote one user. 

“She compared kids getting a decent education with her getting a yacht,” wrote another.


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*First Published: Oct 1, 2020, 7:59 pm CDT