CALL ME BY MY NAME Old friends Sunny Hostin and Don Lemon discuss identity, success, and just when is the right time to change your name. DON LEMON: It is my pleasure to welcome my very dear friend Sunny Hoston, Emmy Award-winning legal journalist and cohost of “The View.” Sunny grew up in the South Bronx and through hard work, determination and the support of her parents, her family, she obtained a law degree. She went on to 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 to help people. After leaving the court, she went to Notre Dame Law School. She suddenly became a television legal analyst and was one of the first national reporters to cover Trayvon Martin’s death. She broke ground with that. She continues to use her platform to be an advocate for social justice and to provide a powerful voice to the marginalized and voiceless people of this world. So tell me, why did you decide to write ? SUNNY HOSTIN: I just feel that the truth of it all is that you do hold the power to be the difference. I’ve always believed that. We’re in the middle of a pandemic and economic crisis, a national debate over policing, what I think is a delayed reckoning with systemic racism. I have been journaling for so long and had been writing, and I thought, “If not now, when?” I had spoken to [U.S. Supreme Court Associate] Justice [Sonia] Sotomayer—that sounds like a huge name drop, but it’s the truth. I had spoken to her a lot about sharing
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“WHAT ARE YOU?” THAT’S A QUESTION that has followed Sunny Hostin throughout her life as a half Puerto Rican and half African-American woman. She and CNN’s Don Lemon discuss racial identity and injustice. From the September 29, 2020, online program “Sunny Hostin with Don Lemon: Identity, Race and Justice in America.” Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation SUNNY HOSTIN, Co-Host, “The View”; Author, I Am These Truths: A Memoir of Identity, Justice, and Living Between Worlds
In Conversation with DON LEMON, Anchor, “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon”
my story, and my story, as you know, Don, has more failures than success. I thought, Is it time to share that, warts and all? Because my story is painful—[I] grew up in the South Bronx projects with teenage parents. Do I want to share all of that? Is it hopeful enough? Is it aspirational enough? And she said, “You’ve got to share it, because it is, and it can be the story for other people. And promise me one thing: You do it in Spanish and in English,” because it’s so important for those people that may be struggling with English as their second language— and English is my second language—with everything that’s going on in the world, do that for the little girl, for the little boy that will read it in Spanish. LEMON: I’m sure you thought, What are people going to learn from me? As everyone who’s writing a book [thinks], right? They do that. Especially when you have the humility, when you’re as humble as you are, you wonder like, Is anyone going to care about what I write? What can I offer? You said you have more failures than you have successes, but people don’t realize that’s kind of how life goes, right? You take those failures and those are building blocks to the successes. But why did you feel that way? HOSTIN: Absolutely. It’s the age of social
“I get messages like, ‘You’re talking about income inequality, poverty and the struggle. You’re sitting on “The View.” You’re wealthy. You don’t know anything about it.’” —SUNNY HOSTIN
media. So I get immediate feedback every time I’m on the show. I try to be a voice for the voiceless, ’cause that seat on “The View” is so very important. I would get these messages like, “You’re talking about income
Photo facing page: Sunny Hostin at a tribute to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who received The LBJ Foundation’s award honoring those who right wrongs, champion justice and serve humanity. (Photo by LBJ Foundation/Jay Godwin.)
