Text and donate, here is the number 415 3294231. And you can text the word donate to that number. Would also like to thank the osha foundation for supporting todays good lid event. I like the name of that. It is my pleasure right now, my just overwhelming deep, deeply i cannot even tell you how much i love this woman. It is my pleasure to my very dear friend sunny hostin in the Award Winning journalist and cohost of the view. I have worked with sonny for many years. We he talked about sisters and brothers, we fightut it is all love. Her new book i called, here it is, i am the truth. It is a memoir of identity justice and living between worlds. It is a revealing look at her really incredible sto. Sunny grew up in the south bronx. And through hardork, through determination come for the suort of her parents and family she obtained a l degr. She went on to become a federal prosecutor massoud recognize for stellar work prosecuting crimes against women and children. She is a fighter she is in it to do good. By the way she went to notre dame lawchool so she is amazing. After the law school she became a televisn an analyst and she became one of the First National report is to covid trade on martins death. She is an advocate for socl justice and a powerful voi to the marginalized and voicess people of this world rely. I am so thrilled to be here today to discuss h story. Im going to dig into the things she explores throughou her boo book. Just reminder we willake audience questns. We may do it throughout woven and, sunny hostin a welcome. Weave so much to talk about my friend, how are you . Select i am well and happy to be here with you. Even though the virtual i wish we were there in the same room. I am happy to be on this journey with you my friend. Im looking for my book here. So tell me, why did you decide to write i am tse truths . Guest i feel that the truth of these all is you do hold the power to be the difference. And you know that i always believed that. And i think that at this time, we are in the middle of a pandemic and economic crisis. A National Debate over policing. A belated what i think is a delayed reckoning of systemic racism. And i have been journaling for so long, and i have been writin writing. And i thought if not now, when . Right . When i have spoke to justice it sounds like a hug name drop. [laughter] but it is the truth. I have spoken to her a lot about sharing my story. And my stories you know, don, has more failures than success. And i thought it was time to share that. Warts and all. My story is painful. You grow up in the south project with teenage parents. Do you want to share all of that . Is it hopeful enough . Is it aspirational enough . She said youve got to share it because it is. It can be a story for other people. And promise me one thing you do in spanish and in english. Because it is so important for those people that may be struggling with english as a second language. An english is my second languag language. With everything thats going on in the world, do that for the little girl, the little boy who will read it in spanish. Im sure you thought like you thought what is everyone going to learn from this . Everyone writes a book especially when you have the humility when youre as humble as you are you are like is anybody going to care about what i right . But i have to offer . You said you have more failures that you have successes. But people do not realize thats how life goes. You take those failures and those are Building Blocks to the success. Why did you feel that way . Why didnt you feel you had all of these failures . I did you struggle with thinking no one is going to care . Absolutely. It is the age of social media. So i get immediate feedback every time im on the show. I would get, i try to be a voice for the voiceless. Because that st on the view is very important. I would get these messages, you are talk aut income inequaty or talk about poverty, your talk about the ruggle. You are sitting on the view, you are wealthy you dont kw anything about it. And i just remembered thinking, they dont know. Likeeople dont know my story. They dont know how hard it has been. Screw it they see her on the ew they think overnight success. You been working at this for dedes. Guest decades for it ive been a lyer for over 25 years. Ve been on television for a long time. This is success youre seeing that youre not seeing the failures. There have just been so many of them. Ht what did you learn from us failures . So as peoplere listening. What did you learn from that . I like tose my haters as tivators. What did you learn from us failures . Guest you know iave learned a tremendous amount of resilience. I have learned, my father ud to always say that you have to be twice as good to go hal as far. I have learned that none can take excellence from you. So ery time i have been fired. [laughter] and there been many times but you know at cnn, my contract was not renewed. But i knew that i had done my best. That i had been excellent. And so i could leave with my head up. And i certainly learned about. And i learned there would be another day. I learned to use my voice, that it was okay. I learned that humility is okay. I actually also learned recently that i am not as good at sticking up for myself as i am for sticking up for other pele. Student at sticking up for other people who tol you that . Guest my husband told me that, you did ht our offices used to be right across me chad there. We would often look to each other for adve and comforts and feedback. Go on sunny sorry. Uest you often said lead in, sunny. You dont stick up for yourlf. And it is so true. And i write in the book how it is really easy to stick up for other people. To tell other peoples stories. It was really hard for meo it tell this story. I was not always telling my story house on the story of my parents. I was to like my mothers story. My mother did not speako me for about a week after she read the book actually. But i talk about addiction. I talk about Mental Health. I bear a lot of secrets in that sense. And i found that, my goodness i did not want to talk about possible discrination. I did not want to raise my hand and say this is happening to me. Is this true . Dont treat me this way. I should be valued more. I did not want to do those things. And i found that out about myself. Which was a ltle bit shocking that i talk the talk. And i can defend other people and prosete cases in stick up for victims prebid is really hard fore to it do it for myself. Hos i want to ask for the title of the book. But i have to speak up on something that you said. I think being where we are in this business, there is a lot of advice we can offer people not just in this business but in professional life anywhere. U said that you would not stick up forourself. Often times we get to the positions. We kw its a. Med. There are very few of these kinds of jobs. So you want to stick up for yourself and you want to stick up for other people. That then you wonder, you worry if i do that in myoing to lose my platform . And therefore there not be anyone like me with this voice. Was that part of it . Guest is a huge consideration. The is not a day that goes by that i dont get an email or a tweet, precovet i would be on the streets. Mothers and even young people would come up to me and say oh my god thank you for being who you are. You represent me. You know, that meant a lot for me. And then i thought, if i stick my nec out even for myself, there wont be someone like me on the view or on television. And i write about in the book. One of the reasons that it always wanted to be a broadcast journalist. We had one tv in the house. We did not watch a lot of tv. But we did watch was 60 minutes. We watched every sunday it religiously. And i would pretend to be one of the reporters. But there werent any that looks like me. And my parents like dont do that, youre not going to be able to feed yourself. So i remember the power of representation. The thought that i would take a chance and risk being that representation for those people who would stop me on the street was nerveracking. And i remember asking my family i typed in like 25 minutes because it poured out of me. I remember thinking, is this smart . And i showed it to my husband. I said this is professional suicide, right . And he was like yeah possibly. [laughter] and i was like im brittle is my job, right . And he said yeah maybe. [laughter] i did it anyway. See what you leadin. Guest i leaned in because i felt like my goodness again, pandemic. Economic crisis. National debate over policing. African americans of color affected more by this crisis. Guest by everything. I do not have the courage to do what i talk about every day on the show. Host is a privileged position. Guest from a privileged position i will be a hypocrite. Host and there you go girl. So proud of you. I can so relate to you. You remember what i came out, do them or how hard that was . Guest i remember you talked about you wrote about in a book braced back what is i am going to lose my job im never going to work in this business again. Eileen then it was the total right thing to do. Guest it was the right thing to do. Host i was tell people to walk in your own truth. You are living in your own trut truth. Is that where that name comes arm i am these truths . Is that where did that come from . Guest i n of the title the book after it was written. In my office, im in my offe my home office at my desk right a lot of the writing. I have all of the stickies with thing on it. Host remember i used to keep a copy of the constitution on my desk. Guest the littl when exactly. Says we hold tse truths to be self evident that a men are created equal. It should be men and women. Host my foot is going numb. So i said go ahead. Guest all men are created equal. I just started thinking about all the themes in the book about equality and systemic racism and pay and equity. And you know im finally telling the truth. And these are my truths. And i hope it encourages people to not be ashamed of where they come from. Just tell the truth. And im like wow, i am these truths. That is where it came from. It is very powerful to say that the truth of it all is that we are equal and that we hold the power to be the difference. Host and you are. You are people of color, immigrants, you are the american story. So when someone tries to otherwise immigrants and people of color, it is doubly insulting because of the work people of color did, no pay, slavery all those things, building those things. Some people try to otherwise you and you like you are not american, is that infuriating for you . Guest it is painful. It used to make me angry. But now it is painful. And one of the things that i thought about when i was writing the book, was why do people still question my background . My ethnicity. Why is it so odd . We had just come, wed just come up after itd just come up again. We had interviewed a family on the show. It was a spanishspeaking famil family. And one of the family members, the grandmother did not speak english. I conducted the interview with her in spanish. And i would translate for the audience. I had all these of noxious tweets like sunny must speak spanish today but why is she speaking with an spanish accent . Its just i was pronouncing the words properly. And realized my paren got married in 1968, just a year after th decision interracial couples were allowed to be married. Might my lunch at moms aye it also a jewish hispanic. My father was black eye. So when they got married, it had just become legal. And i was lik a unicoi. They really were not peopl who loed like me. People stared at my family, i read in the book how they try to live in geoia which is really kind of crazy the kkk ran them out of town. And so for me, i had been otherwise my entire life. Even though i have only in my 50s. It was just unusual. So i think that is why ive lived that life of a suggle of identity that it saddens me that 50 years later, people still question it. Because they still want to put you in this box. Select people have to be able to category something in order to feel, to be comfortable, right . I can understand a little bit. But not as much is you. I wrote about in my book and i talked about the experience in louisiana, the white paper bag and light skin so in the winter is lightskinned so i could hang out the lht skinned black folks in the summer as dark skins would hang o the dark sn. Weird color thing. But remember when we had this conversation youre like don y realize people on cnn they do not know i a latino. They just think in terms of africanamerican most the country african amerin, black and white. And i said well sunny let people know you are latino. Youre stuck in that world of no mans land sort of. I am i this . Am i that . Drafted choose one . Guest our offices were right next to cnn espanola. They never asked me to it do any reporting period is kd of weird. I think one of the reasons, right about also in the book, one of the reasons and i blame myself is because i chang my name. [inaudible] that is my real name. What did you morph to make it more american, cuter, friendlier . Tell me about a printer you about of it tell people. Host might family and friends from back in the day ill call me. When i was in college as a couple people that would say and i noticed it. And so id say you can call me whatever you want to and they said how about sunshine . Im okay okay fine. So they called me sunny, sunshine. My starter and court tv with nancy gray who was a great friend of mine, she could not pronounce my name. In the struggle was real. Like she would like and joining me the coast today is. [inaudible] [laughter] you could see the struggle. At one of the brakes she said can i Say Something to you . And i said yes nancy would like to say . I know it is about. She said this name thing no one can pronounce it. I cant say it. And i said fauci like me to it do about my name, nancy . And she said you have a nicknam nickname . And i felt the pressure at that point. I have this legal legend telling me this name is not going to cut it. I said will a lot of people call me sunny. Right then she said change, sunny su and ny. I did not even have a spelling for. So she changed it. And i just went with it to be honest with you. I did not like it. But i went with it. And after that, my career kind of took off. Host she knows tv. Guest chino cv. Host sometime sunday, maybe rightfully so some people get offended. Sometimes people are just looking out for your wellbeing. And they know. She was like this will work for you because i know tv. Guest thats what she told me. Everyone needs a role in the lien end. [laughter] switches she told me i wrote about that the book she told me that she said, you are going to make it in this business part i havent seen anyone do this as well as you without any training. You will do this. That name is going to hold you back people cant remember it. Ive got to tell you she was right but i feel like i sold a peace of myself. My grandmother never forgave me for because i was named after her sister people would talk to me and she would say no it would infuriate her i do think at cnn if i was still,. [inaudible] people wouldve known my identity. And so i kind of did that to myself or if i had to do it again, wouldnt change my name. When you would not have . Guest i would not have. I would not have. So my first, when i was reporter left new york into birmingham. Show me change my name she did not like the last name lemmon for it i know in tv but if it people can remberts great purge and a mcdonald lemon that the name people change their name to. [laughter] she wanted to be like d clarke, don johnson. Like something really simple. Mike no one will ever remember that. People will remember don levin. People rember sunny perdue know you are pretty want to ask you this because you talk about you we to lightskinned for the black communit to dark skinned people didnt get i. In 1936 acacia called the crackup. The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in min of the same time is so return the ability to function. Whdo you think its so hard foreople even intelligent people he worked with in the past to understand tha someone can be black and latina. [laughter] guest its really fascinating isnt bright look at barack obama. The press has happened at calf white but nobody can really reconcile at. He think a lot of it has to do with the history of this countr country. The one drop rule where as if you are one drop black you are considered black. And i think, i remember growing up. Simon could talk about that that one drop was important. You could be 99. 9 something else. If you had a smidge of black and you, you were black. Go on im sorry prove. Guest because of that history in the country, legal documents reflect that. And braces is a social construct anyway. My Life Experience reflected that. And so on my birth certificate it says blackbird and it also says hispanics which is interesting bird i looked back at it. Science is mother white. Is interesting right . But when you would fill out any standardized test you had to choose black, white, or hispani hispanic. And i would sometimes try to circle everything. [laughter] host of course you did. Guest i think again it goes back to the history of our country. Laypeople are indoctrinated today. I remember feeling if i choose one does that mean my mother doesnt exist . If i choose the other does my father not exist . And who i am and all of my complexity. I really believe its unique to this country. I have traveled a lot of places. I expect more complexity than them here. Unto american thing. That personifies what we are going through right now. Theyve got to put you in a box. Even now people want to put you in a boxford everyone is so divided theres no nuance. People cannot understand sunny , we were on cnn together you could hold to thoughts of the same time part i could just go added on tv. What is wrong why do you think that was to mark and it have a drink later. What is it that people cant do that anymore . What is it with the country and society they cannot have two opposing views . I know now its worse than it has ever been. I remember sort of honing that skill when it prosecuted cases at the justice department. Write a little bit about in the book in the sense i would argue to the death in the courtroom. You know when you walked in i needed to win because those prosecuting child crime. But i was coming into save the and you stood in my way. And i went to the wall with it. And we would argue that we go out for drinks. Some of these Defense Attorneys are my closest friends. Much like you and i are dear friends and we would battle. Much like we do on the view, right . People are always shocked that megan and i are friends. Even though we may battle it out and say kind of crazy things on air. We can go out and trigger bourbon later. And unfortunately, i think that kind of respect for difference of opinion is gone. Its not in our country right now. It is just gone. It requires the kind of relationship that we have, don, the kind of relationship requires a respect for difference of opinion respect a level ofeing curious and not judgntal. Guest a definite course intellectual curiosity. And a l of people unfortunately do not have that. And they cer