00:00I think the difficulty of being Afro-Latina in general is the lack of acceptance in both
00:09communities. In some people's eyes, you are not Black enough, and in some people's eyes,
00:15you are not Latina enough. I'm Sunny Hostin. I'm a co-host of The View, and I feel seen.
00:22I've always seen myself. I just want to make sure that people see me in the way that I see myself.
00:33As a strong woman of color, as an Afro-Latina, I make sure that I get to determine how I am seen,
00:46that I get to say, this is who I am. I am these truths. I will not be defined by anyone else.
00:55And some kids, about 20 of them, ran in front of our home and started yelling the N-word at us.
01:02My purpose has always been, in my mind, one of social justice and to be seen. And it came to me
01:10very early in life because I saw a lot of chaos early on. I saw my uncle stabbed in front of me
01:20in the South Bronx. And I just remember as a seven-year-old when I saw him attacked that I
01:28didn't see much of a police response. I didn't see prosecutorial response. And I just remember
01:35thinking there are voices that need to be heard. There are communities that need to be healed.
01:40Even at that age, I always wanted things to be better.
01:46You know, when I first started in television, I tried to be Soledad O'Brien because she was the
01:51only person that kind of looked like me. We don't really look alike. I tried to talk like her and
01:55I cut my hair like hers and did all these kinds of things. And I wasn't successful until I just did
02:03the kid from the Bronx Projects. And once you're authentically living,
02:07then you find what lights you up. You find out what your passion should be, what your calling
02:13is. And then the world just really opens up. It's unbelievable. I think there was a time when
02:20I had to fight to be seen. And there was a time when I didn't want to be seen. I didn't want to stick
02:26out. I didn't want to stand out. I wanted to just make do. I wanted to be safe. And I understand that
02:35there is some power in being safe, especially when you're just trying to make it in society.
02:42Now I fight to be seen because I know when I'm seen, that opens up the door for other people to be seen.
02:51And that's extremely important for our other generations. I want to be seen so that I can be an example of,
02:59well, no, there are people that are successful and that are lawyers and that raise successful children and that are in this type of family unit.
03:09So no, now I know that I'm seen. I am very giving on social media because I know that is sort of the new medium
03:19and fastest way to reach people. And I want that feedback. I want people to know that they can reach
03:25out to me. I think that kind of connection is really important right now because people are just not
03:31connected anymore. So when I posted this at the daytime Emmys, practicing my faces, I have three Emmys.
03:44I'm not humble bragging or anything. I've been on The View for three years, every single day,
03:51and I have not won an Emmy for it. So every year, people are like, this is your year, Sunny.
03:58This is your year. Every single year we lose. But when I posted this picture, I thought it was a bad
04:05omen because I was sitting right next to Alex Trebek and I lost on Jeopardy too. And when I saw him,
04:12I was thinking, I better practice my winning phase and my losing phase. This is a bad omen.
04:17And then we lost again. When you first decide to do what I did, which was leave a really comfortable
04:23legal practice and decide to step out on faith and address social justice issues on television,
04:31you get so much hate and you get so much negative feedback from viewers, from employers,
04:42that when you finally get people coming up to you and reaching out and saying,
04:48you are my voice. We got your back. I see you. It provides the shield that you need because it
04:59reminds you that someone has my back. They see me. They get me. I'm doing what I'm meant to do. My
05:05calling makes sense. And I do think that you have to leave the world in a better place
05:10than how you found it. And I think I'm doing that.
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