Making a donation online or text donate 415 3294231 text the word donate to that number also to the Ocean Foundation for supporting todays event it is my pleasure right now overwhelming deeply i cannot even in tell you how much i love this woman to welcome my very dear friend sunny hostin Emmy Awardwinning journalist occur. The view i have worked with her for many years we fight but its like all of i am the truth in revealing look at her incredible story growing up in the south bronx and through hard work and determination in support of her parents and family she obtained a law degree and became a federal prosecutor and was soon recognized for prosecuting crimes against women and children she is a fighter and to do good. And she went to Notre Dame Law School by the way after the court ruled made Television Legal Analyst for the First National reporters to cover the Treyvon Martin death and playground and continues to be an advocate for social justice to provide a powerful voice to those voiceless people of this world. Im so thrilled to be here today to discuss her story as a quick reminder we will take audience questions we may do it at the end door throughout interwoven if something is related to what we are talking about so please submit your questions and the chat box. We have so much to talk about my friend how are you. I will am so happy to be here with you even though it is virtual they wish we were there in the same room that i am happy to be on this journey with you. Why did you decide to write this . The truth of it all is you do for the power and you know i have always believe that and i think at this time we are in the middle of a pandemic and an economic crisis and the debate over policing what i believe is the delayed reckoning systemic racism i have been writing and they said if not now, when . And i have spoken to Justice Sotomayor your which sounds like a huge name drop but it is the truth about sharing my story and as you know that has more failures and success and i thought it was time to share that warts and all because my story is painful you grew up with teenage parents and you want to share all that is it aspirational enough and she said you have to share because it is and then promise me one thing you do in spanish and english because it so those people who are struggling because of a second language and that is my second language so to do that for the little girl and the little boy. And you think what people will learn from me . When you have that humility and you are humble nobody will care about what i write to you said you have more failures than and success. Thats how life goes those are the building blocks. Why did you feel that way that you have all these failures and did you struggle . Absolutely. With the age of social media i get feedback every time im on the show. And to be a voice for the voiceless so to talk about income inequality and policy but you dont know anything about it that people dont know my story. They dont know how hard it has been. They see you on the view and think your overnight success but you have been doing this for decades. Ive been a lawyer 25 years. I bet on television a long time but there have been so many failures. What did you learn from those . I like to you lose my hate as motivators but what did you learn . I learned a tremendous amount of resilience, my father used to say you have to go twice as hard to go off as far some of the time i have been fired or my contract was not renewed, i knew i had done my best, i was excellent i could leave with my head up. I certainly learned that and that there would be another day. I learned to use my voice and it is okay. I also learned recently i am not good at sticking up for myself as i am for sticking up for other people. Who told you that quick. My husband did, you did. [laughter] office is used to be across from each other we would look to each other for advice and comfort and feedback. You often said lean and. You dont stick up for yourself and it so true and i write in the book how its easy to stick up for other people and tell other people stories it was hard for me to tell the story i tell the story of my parents my mother story she did not speak to me for a week after she read the book actually attack about addiction and Mental Health and i found i did not want to talk about discrimination or raise my hand to say this is happening to me. Is this true . I should be valued more. I did not want to do those things. I found that out about myself it was a little bit shocking. I can defend other people and prosecute cases and stand up for victims but its hard for me to do it myself. To ask you about the title of the book because being where we are in this business not just in this business but professional life anywhere to say you would not stick up for yourself often times there are very few kinds of these jobs then you worry if i do that will i lose my platform and therefore there wont be anyone like me. Was that part of it . There isnt a day that goes by that i dont get an email for a tweet from others or young people who say thank you for being who you are you represent me and that meant a lot and then i thought if i stick my neck out even for myself it wont be someone like me i remember i write about in the book one of the reasons and television when i was growing up i had one television in the house so what we did watch were 60 minutes religiously i would tend to be one of the reporters but there werent any that looks like me my parents say dont do that i remember the power of representation thinking that i would take a chance to be the representation to stop me on the street i remember asking my family but it just poured out of me and i remember thinking is this smart . I showed it to my husband and said this is professional suicide . [laughter] i will lose my job . He said maybe. [laughter] i did it anyway. So i did lean in like you often tell me because pandemic, economic crisis National Debate over policing. And i dont have the courage to do word i talked about everyday on the show i am from a privileged position and i would be a hypocrite. There you go. I knew i could relate to you because do you remember when i came out how hard that was i thought it would lose my job and say i will never work in this business again but i leaned in and it was the total right thing to do having people walk in their own truth you are living in your own truth i am these truths . Yes i came up with the title of the book after it was written in my home office where i do the writing and they are quotations from the constitution is to keep a copy of that on my desk. That we hold these truths to be selfevident all men are created equal so i just started to think about and systemic racism and these are my truths and i thought i am the truth. That is where it came from because it is very powerful because we are equal and refold power for the distance. And like immigrants you are the american story so when someone tries to other ias because it is the work people of color did slavery and all of those things so when people try to make you feel you are not an american is that infuriating for you . It is painful. Used to make me angry but now it is painful. And one of the things i thought about when i was writing the book people still question my background so why is that so odd we have just come up to interview a family on the show which is a Spanish Speaking family and a grandmother did not speak english so i conducted the interview with her in spanish and translate to the audience i got the obnoxious date she mush be spanish today why is she speaking with a spanish accent . But i was pronouncing them properly my parents were married one year after the decision they were allowed to be married as a white hispanic also jewish dissent and my father was a black guy. So when they got married and had just become legal i was the unicorn there were people that looks like me. They would stay with her family and that was crazy and the kkk ran them out of town. So i have been otherwise my entire life even if i am in my fifties so that is why have lived that life of the struggle love identity so 50 years later people still question it they want to put you in a box. They have to categorize something to be comfortable i can understand a little bit but not as much as you because i talk about the experience of the brown paper bag so in the winter i was lightskinned but then in the summer i was dark skinned so it was a weird color thing but i remember when we had this conversation you realize the people on cnn they dont realize im latina and i said then let them know its okay because you felt stuck in that world of no mans land in my good or bad or do i have to choose one. And for a lot of reasons we were right next to see an and a spaniel they never asked me to do reporting. [laughter] and one of the reasons and i blame myself is i change my nam name. Could you make it more cuter or friendlier . The story is in my friends from back in the day when i was in college a couple of people would say no so what about sunshine . Okay so i started to doing court tv with nancy grace she cannot pronounce my name it was real the struggle was joining me today. [laughter] you can see it she said can i Say Something to you . I said yes nancy she said this name thing i cant pronounce it i said what would you like me to do about my name nancy . She said do you have a nickname . And i felt the pressure at that point this legal legend this name will not cut it i said a lot of people call me sonny and right then she said change it. I even have the spelling threat she changed it and i went with it just to be honest. I like it but i went with it and after that my career took off. She knows tv. Sometimes people get offended sometimes they are just looking out for your wellbeing and she said this will work for you because i know tv. Thats what she told me so she told me that and said you will make it in this business i have not seen anyone do this as well as you put that name will hold you back people cannot remember it because she was right but a feel like i sold a piece of myself my grandmother never forgave me because i was named after her sister. They would say hi sonny. And then at cnn then people would know my identity so i did that to myself and do it again i wouldnt change my name. You would not. No i would not go i would no not. No. Everybody knows me now. For when i was a reporter went to birmingham and she said she didnt like the last name lemmon and i knew if its snappy of something people can remember that it is great my thats a name that people change their name to like john clark or don johnson something simple but they will remember don lemon thats they remember sonny. We know who you are but you talk about you or to lightskinned for the black community and people didnt get it but the test of a firstrate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time. Why do you think its so hard for people that someone cannot be black and latina . It is fascinating. The president is half black and half white. And a lot of that has to do with the history of this country if you are one drop black you were considered black. So i remember growing up. And that one drop because you could be 99. Nine Something Else but just the smidge you were back. Because of the history legal documents reflect that. So my Life Experience reflected that. On my birth certificate says black which is also hispanic and is his mother is right interesting. But you fill out any standardized test you have to choose black or white or hispanic sometimes i would try to circle everything. And i think again it goes back to history of our country in the way people are indoctrinated. And i remember feeling if they choose one my mother doesnt exist does that mean my father doesnt exist who im and all my complexity . I really believe it is unique to this country because i have traveled a lot of places i expected more complexity in those places than im here. That is an american thing. That personifies we are going through right now they have to put you in a box. So even now everyone is so divided there is no nuance people cannot understand when we were on cnn together to just go add it on tv and then have a drink later that people can do that anymore what is it about the country and society that cannot hold two thoughts at the same time . Now it is the worst that it has ever been and i remember when i prosecuted the cases at the Justice Department i write about it in the book that i would argue to the death in the room you knew when i walked in and if there was a defense attorney i had to win because i was prosecuting a child sex crime and you are in my way. And i went to the wall so we would argue and go out for drinks even my closest friends and we would battle . Like we do on the view even though we may battle it out , we can go out and drink later and unfortunately that that kind of respect is gone and it requires this relationship that we have that requires a respect for a difference of opinion. A level of forgiveness to be curious. It definitely requires curiosity and a lot of people unfortunately dont have that. They certainly dont have the respect for difference of opinion and talk about intellectual curiosity my view is why is this person saying that and what experience and they always value in a different opinion and with that opposite opinion and then for some reason we cannot do that anymore. I was pointing to the relationship of Peter Ginsburg and justice scalia. Thats a very important part your dad in the seventies and here you are the 2000 did you talk about that quick. There are all thes words for it. You know where its weird when you talk to people one way but then you get to a certain position it becomes one thing it is just more natural i told chris the other night you are stupid. [laughter] thats how we talk to each other. Sorry. [laughter] its true but my parents and my father is coming up the early seventies and this interracial couple trying to get an apartment in manhattan my school cant teach me properly when uncle was stabbed in front of me we have to get out of the project and then we interviewed together for an apartment then we show up its no longer available so my mother realizes if i change those are two rows in the fathers name is cummings and they show up with my white hair and light i use i will get the apartment. With mother realizes he says are his resume for it if he uses his name to Bill Cummings he will get the job so he changed his name and my mom changed first. We got the apartment in manhattan and he got the job. And that is just the way it was. Was sad and my dad is we still do it today and it shouldnt be that way. There is a little bit of difference i understand how you feel about your name especially because of your grandmother and they are proud of you as you say as a black tina and they want you to be a success but you did it because it was easy and it was perfect and it fits but i understand now looking back having the success that you have you would have to change your name and its a different time now. We always say what you go back and tell your younger self . About fair treatment with medicine reckoning a call the summer of george floyd. If you to go back and tell your younger self what word you tell yourself when you were about Treyvon Martin what would you say to that sunny . Thats a tough one i didnt know you were that. But when i tell my younger self . When i was younger i definitely thought if you did the excellent work that you word succeed and i think that was a simplistic way to look at things. If im being honest to tell my younger self about the america talk or see it isnt just working really hard and being excellent. Those things help. They help but not just the meritocracy and you do have to look out for those goals and play the game to be more strategic. You always have to be 100. You are a fighter and activist and i say thats great you have to be strategic. Certainly be more of an advocate for yourself i think i would tell myself. Is not only about the work there is a Bigger Picture there as we say now with the Work Life Balance what i admire about you is your fighting spirit and with the kind of mom that you are you are a wellrounded women are the smarter and most successful to bring home the bacon and juggle the home and raise kids and produce children so now i went to go to some of you were questions this is from cuba. And the time of Racial Injustice how can we channel our anger and despair into positive action . And what do you admire from one another how do you channel your anger and despair i am always on 100 and i got the book out to say i was born in 1968 the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement with the mlk junior and i was born into that and i really feel that we need people and we do the power so people are powerless know what do i do so if you feel angry and to channel that anger like being a worker to make sure appropriately it could be as simple as making sure you go to your local meeting to make sure they are doing right by the kids and it could be protecting the protest getting a group of friends together and virtually planning something there are so many ways to harness that anger in a positive way to affect change and this is an partisan if you are a hillary person you decided not to vote because you didnt thank you would count hillary lost michigan by 11000 votes in some districts it was seven votes. Seven imagine if one person made a difference that would have been the difference thats how i feel they challenge channel the energy and to do something. Just something. It doesnt always have to be 100 something that involves the legal system i had an experience recently going through the george floyd thing that i wanted to buy something he said you cant come in because of covid which i understood but as i was walking back i sought a woman inside the store, a white lady and i said whats going on and he said she is training i didnt want to go to 100 because i wasnt sure but i asked him what was going on and he knew from the work that i gave him he got it my returned the items are not comfortable doing this so he got it. He had his lesson in that moment without it being a big deal so you are right you have to figure out how to do that with the appropriate steps. It can be however small i told you would i. E. Admire about you but your ambition in the right way and i like that you are able to revolve and these evolutions i told you will sigh admired about you. I admire a lot of things about you what a lot