Sonny hosten. They are grateful for your continued support, and their members and other members and donors. So we hope youll also a consider making a donation. You can do it online, or you can text donate to 4153294231. 4513294231. And you can text the word donate to that number. The club would also like to thank the Bernard Osher foundation for supporting todays good lift event. I like the name of that. It is my pleasure right now, my just overwhelming, deep, deeply i cant even tell you how much i love this woman, but it is my pleasure to welcome my very dear friend sunny hostin, cohost of the view. Were like sisters and brothers, we fight, but its all love. Her new book is called i am the truth, ok . It is a revealing look at her really increble story. Sunny grew upn the southronx and through hard work, through determination if andhe support of her parents, her family, she obtained a law degree. She went ono become a federal prosecutor and was soon recognized for her stellar work prosecuting crimes against women and children. She is a fighter. She is in it for, to do good and to help people. By the way, she went to note orer dame law school notre dame law schl, so shes amazing. She was one of the first naonal reports to cover Trayvon Martins death. Shes an advocateor social justice and provides a powerful voicto the marinnallized people marginalized people of this world wee going to dignto the timely themes she explores throughout her book. And just a quick reminder that wereoing to be ting audience questions. We may do it at the end, but we may do it throughout. It just depends on if something is red lighted to what were talkg about related to what were talking about. To pase submit your questions in the chat feature. Sunnhosten, how are you . Im just soappy to be here. Even tugh its virtual, i wish we were in the same room, but im happy to be on this journey with you,y friend. Im looking for my book here. Why did you decide to e write i am these truths i just feel that the truth of it all is that you do hold the power to be the difference. And you know that aye always believe ive always believed that the, and i think that at this time we are in the middle of a pandemic, an economic crisis, a National Debate over policing, a delayed, what i think is a delayed reckoning with systemic racism, and i have been journaling for so long and i have been writing. And i thought if not now, when . Right . And i had spoken to justice sotomayor, whi that sounds like huge name drop [laughter] but its the truth. I have spoken to her a lot about sharing my story. And my story, as you know, don, has more failures than success. And i thought it was time to share that, warts and all. Because my story is pain ifing, you know . You grow up in the south bronx projects with teenage parents and do you want to share all of that. Is it hope offul enough, is it aspirational enough. And he said youve got to share it because she said youve got to share it, because it is. And it can be a story for other people. And promise me one thing, you do it in spanish and in english. [laughter] because its so important for those people that may be struggling with english as a second language and english, as you know, don, is my second language. With everything thats going on in the world, do that so the little girl and little boy that will read it in spanish and have some hope. Im sure you thought, what are people going to learn from me . Everyone whos writing a book, they do that. Especially when you have humility, when youre as humble as you are, you think what can i offer . You said you have more failures than you have successes. People dont realize, thats kind of how life goes, right . Those are Building Blocks to the success. Yeah. Why did you, why did you feel that way . Why did you feel like, you know, you had all these failures or whatever, and why did you struggle with thinking no ones going to care or, you know . Absolutely. And, you know, the age of social media. I did a media playback on the show, and i tried to be a voice for the voiceless because that seat on the view is so very important. And, you know, you would get, i would get these messages that, you know, youre talking about income inequality and youre talking about poverty, and youre talking about this struggle, youre sitting on the view, you know . Youre wealthy, you dont know anything about it. And i just remember thinking they don know. Like, people dont know my sty. They dont know how hard its been. They see you on the view, and they think, oh, overnight success. Yes working at this for decades. Decades. A over 25 years. Ive been on television for a long time. This is just the success youre seeing, but youre not sing the failures, and there is have is just been so many of them. What did you learn from those failures . So as people are listening, what did you learn from that . I said that they usually i like to use my haters as tivators, as building blos. What did you learnrom those failures . You know, ive learned a tremendous amount of resill yens. Ive learnedded my father used to always say you have to be twice as good t go half as far. Ive learned that no one can take excellence from you, okay . So ever time ive been fired [laughter] and theres been many times, you know at cnn there was the time my contract wasnt renewed. But i knew that i had done my best, that i had been excellent. And so i could lead with my head up. And i certainly is have earned that. And i learned that there would be another day. I learned to use my if voice, that it was my voice, that it was okay. I learned that humility is okay. I actually also learned recently that im not as good at sticking up for myself as i am at sticking up other people. Who told you that . Myusband told me, you did. [lghter] i know manny tol you that. You did. Yeah. Suand i s offices sunny and is offices used to be across from each orr, and we would often loo to eachther for advice a comfort. Youve indiana said lean in often said lean in, sun, you dont stuck up forourself, and its so true. And i write in the boo how its really easy to stuck up for other people, to tl other peoples stories. It certainly was really hard for me to tell this story. I wasnt only telling my story, right . I was telling the story of my parents, i was telling my mothers story. My mother doesnt speako me for about a week after she read the book, actually. I talk about addiction and Mental Health, and, you know, i are veal a l of reveal a lot of scents in that sense. Secrets in that sen. I found, my goodness, i did not want t talk about possible discrimination. I did not want to raise my hand and say, you know, this is happening to me, is this true . Dont tre 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 little bit shocking that i talk the talk and, you know, i can defend other people and prosecute cases d stick up for victims, but it was really hard for me to do it for myself. Okay. So let me ask you, because i want to ask you about the title the bk, but i have to just pick up on something that you saidbecause i think being where we are in this business theres aot of advice tha we can offer people thats not just in this business, but just in professional life anywhere. You said that you wouldnt stick up for yourself. Often times whe you get to these positions, and we knows you get up, its a pyramid. Its rarefied air there are very few of these kinds of jobs,ight . You want to stick up for yours yourself, for other people, but am i going to lose mylatform and, trefore, there wont be anyone like me, you know, with this vce . Was that part of it . It was a huge consideration. There isnt a day that goes by that i dont get an email or a tweet or, you know, ill be on the street a mothers and even young people will come up to me and say, oh, my god, thank you for being who you are, y represent me, you kno and that meant aot for me. And then i thought if itick my neck out even for myself, there wont be someone like me on the view or on television. And i remember one of the and i write about i in the book. One of the reasons that i always wanted to be a broadcast journalist because i, you know, we didnt watch it on television when i was growing up. We had one tv in the house, and i read a lot of books. What we did watch was 60 minutes. We watched it every sunday religiously. And i would pretend to be one of the reporters, but there werent any that looked like me. And my parents were like, dont do that. So i remember the power of representation. And so the thought that i would, you know, take a chance and risk being that representation for those people that would stop me on the street was nerve wracking. And i remember asking my family when i was typing the forward, i typed in like 25 minutes because it just poured out of me. I remember thinking is this smart . And i showed it to my husband, and i said this is professional suicide, right in and he was like are, yeah. [laughter] possibly. And i was, like, im going to lose my josh job, right my job, right . And he was like, maybe. I did it anyway see . Leaning in. I thought, pandemic, economic crisis, National Debate over policing people of color affected more by this crisis. By everything. Yeah. And i dont have the courage to view what i talk about every day on the show . Privileged position. I was from a privileged position. I would be aup create a hypocrite. There you go. There you go, girl. [laughter] i can so relate to you because you remember when i came out, do you know how hard that was . I remember, we talked about it. I was going to lose my job and its like im never going to work in this business again, and i leaned in, and it was the total right thing to do. It was the right thing to do. You were, i was living, i always tell people to walk this their own truth. So youre living in your own truth. Is that where did the name, is that where the name calm from, i am these truths . Yes. I came up with the title of the book after it was written. And, you know, in my offic i have, im in my office now, my home office at myesk where i did a lot of the writing, and i have a lot of stickies i remember. And also the cstitution. Do you remember i used to keep a cop of the constitution on my desk. The little one, exactly. Yeah. And it says we hold these truths tbe selfevident, that almen are created equal. And it should be all men and women. Thats why im doing this. Sorry, sunny, go ahead. I just started thinking about all the themes in the book with, about equality and systemic racism and pay inequity, and i was like, you know, im finally telling the truth, and these are my truths, and i hope it encourages people of not to be ashamed of where they come from. And i went, ah, i am these truths. Thats where it came from, because its 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. And you are, you are people of color, immigrants, you are the american story. So when someone tries to categorize immigrants and people of color, its doubly insulting because of the work people of color did. No pay, slavery, all those things, building things, so when people try to make you feel like youre not an american, is that infuriating for you . Its painful. It used to make me angry, but now its painful. And one of the things that i thought about when i was writing the book, you know, like why do people still question my background . If. Yeah. My earth us inty . Why ethnicity. Why is it sod . When i was writing, we had just come up after, it had just come up again. We had interviewed a family on the show, and it was a spanishspeaking family. And one of the family members, the grandmother, didnt speak english. So i conducted the interview of her in spanish, and i would translate for the audience. I got all these on knox shut tweets on knox us tweets, sunny must be why she speaking in spanish my parents got married i 1968 just a year after the loving decision where interracial and my mother, youve met my mom, don, shes a white hispanic also of jewish descent, right . And my father was a black guy. So when they got married, it had just become legal, and i was ke a unicorn. There really werent peopl who looked like me. I writebout in the book about how they tried to live in georgia, and it was really crazy, and the k, kkk ran ths many out of town. And i had been otherrized my entire life. On though im onl in my 5, it was just unusual. I think that is why ive lived thatife of a struggle of identity, but it saddens me that 50 years later people sti question it because they still want to put you in this box. Category. People have to be automobile to categorize something able to9 categorize something in order to be comfortable, right . Yes. I can understand a little bit but not as much as you because i wrote about in my book, and i talk about the experience in louisiana, light skin vers dark skin. Is so in the winter i was light skinned, and then in the summer i was dar skinned. Finish. [lghter] weird color thing. But i remember when we had this conversation about, y know, don, you realize that people on cnn, they dont know that im latina. They just think in terms of africanamerican most of the countryfricanamerican and white, black and white yeah. And i said, well, sunny, let peop know that youre latina. s okay to be. But you felt stuck in that world i did. In that no mans land sort of. Am i this, am i that, am i both, do i have to choose one . I did. And it was for a lot of reasons, you know, and it was weird because our offices were right next to cnn eanol. They never asked me to do any recording. Thats kind of weird. An i think one of the reasons i write about also ithe book, one of the reasons that and i blame myself is because i changed my name. My real names iowa since on. How did it morph . Dud you morph to make it more american . Tell me about it. I know you you about it, but i want you to tell people. The story is my family calls me asuncion, my friends from back in the day all call me that. When i was in college, there were a couple of people that would say aaa and i noticed it, and i would say you can call me whatever you want. How about sunshine . Okay, so they called me sunny, sunshine. When i started doing court tv with nancy grace who is great friend of moon, she could not of mine, she could not pronounce my name. And when i say could not, the struggle was real. She would be, like, joining me is, the cohost today is [lauter] you could see the struggle. And at one of the breaks she said, can i say somethingo you . I said, yes, nancy, i knew what it was about. This is like, this name thing, i cant say it. And i said, well, what would you like me we to do about my name, nancy . And she said do you have a nickname . And i felt the pressure at that point when i have this legal legend telling me, you know, this name is not going to cut it. I said, well, a lot of people call me sunny. Right then she said change it, suy. I mean, i didnt even hav a spelling for it. She chged it,nd i just went with it, to be honest with you. I didnt like it, but i went with it. And afterhat my career kind of took off. She knows tv. She knows tv. The thing is sometimes, sunny, people get and maybe rightfully so sometimes people get offended, but sometimes people are just looking out for your, for your wellbeing, and they know she was, like, this will work for you because i know tv. Thats what he told me. Sometimes you have to just roll with it and lean in. Thats what she told me. I write about that in the book. She told me that. She said, you know, youre going to make it in this business. I havent seen anyone do this as well as you without any training. You were made to do this. But that name is going to hold you back. People cant remember it. And ive got to tell you, she was right. But i felt like i stole a piece of myself. My grandmother never forgave me for it because i was named after her sister. People would sort of stop me when i was with her and say, hey, sunny, and shed be like [speaking spanish] [laughter] and i do think at cnn if i were asuncion hostin, just like sow dad obrien Soledad Obrien obrien and if i had to do it again, i would not have changed my name. You would not have . Noings i would not have. I didnt so my first news, when i was a reporter, when i left new york and went to birmingham said she wanted me to change my name. She didnt like the last name lemon. And i knew on tv if its snappy e and something that people could remember, thats great. And im, like, don lemon, thats a name thateople change their name to. [laughter] she wanted me to be don johnson, something really simple, and i was like no one will remember that. Everyone will remember don lemon. Everyone rembers sunny. I want tosk you about this because you talk about you were too lightskinned for the black community, too darkskinned. People didn get it. This is f. Scott fitzgerald in a 1936 essay, t test of a first rate intligences the ability hold two opposed ideas in mind at thsame time and still retain the ability to funion. Why do you think itso hard for people, even intelligence people that youve worked with in the past, to understand that someone can be black and latina . [laughter] i know. Its really fascinating, isnt it . Look atarack obama, right . The president is half black and half white, but nobody can real reconcile that. I think a l of it has to do with the history of this country. The one drop rule where if you were one drop bck, you were considered black. And i think, you know, i remember growing up wait, wait, can we just talk about that for a little bit . Because you can be 99. 9 something else, but if you had just a smidge of black in you, you were you were black. Go on. And because of that history in the country, you know, legal documents reflect that. And, you know, race is just a social construct anyway. Yeah. And so my Life Experience reflected that. And so, you know, on my birth certificate it says black, and then it also says hispanic, which is interesting, because i looked back at it. And it says mother, white. And then interesting, right . Yeah. [laughter] but we were still out, you know, any standardized death you have to test you have to choose black, white or hispanic. And i would sometimes try to circle everything. [laughter] of course you did. [laughter] thats the form. And i think, again, it just goes back to the history of our country and the way people are indoctrinated to this day. And i remember feeling if i choose one, does that mean my mother doesnt exist . If i choose, you know, the other, does that mean my father doesnt exist and who i am in all my complexity . I really believe that is unique to this country, because ive traveled a lot of places, and im expected in more complexity in those other places than i am here. Thats america. That is an american thing. So i think that is, that personifies what were going through right now, right . Theyve got to put you in a box. So even now people want to put you in a box. Everyone is so divided. Theres no nuance. Because people could not understand, sunny, when we were on cnn together, you would hold thoughts at the same time. What is wrong, why do you think that, and then we would go have a drink later. People could what is it, people cant do that anymore. What is it about the country, do you think, and society