Yes, it’s Sunny Hostin, “The View’s” token lawyer. Admittedly, the title of most unethical and ridiculous member of “The View” is a tough competition, with Dunning-Kruger victim Joy Behar displaying her ignorance and lack of critical thinking skills non-stop and Ana Navarro not far behind in the head-exploding gibberish category. But bear with me…
Hostin accused former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley of not using her “real name because she was attempting to hide being someone “of color.” “There were some of us that can be chameleons and decide not to embrace our ethnicity so that we can pass,” Hostin said. “I think if she leaned into being someone of color it [would] be different,” she noted earlier. I guess if you follow progressive cant like a Good German, you get to use whatever name you like. Hostin likes to accuse black and minority conservatives of being inauthentic because they don’t fall into the mandated progressive line. But her claim that Haley using Nikki—which is, in fact, an Indian name and on her birth certificate—was an attempt to “pass” proved even too much for the knee-jerks of “The View.” Panel member Sarah Haines had to shout out, “Sunny! You go by a different name!” as the ladies other than Hostin laughed.
And here’s Hostin’s lamelamelame retort: “Because most Americans can’t pronounce Asunción because of the under-education in our country!” Got it, “Sunny”! You use a generic non-ethnic alias instead of your real name (the capital of Paraguay) because Americans can’t pronounce it, but Nikki Haley uses her real name, which is part of her Indian ancestry, to “pass.” (Nikki favored her middle name instead of her less catchy first name, thus emulating U.S. Presidents Steven Grover Cleveland, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, and David Dwight Eisenhower.)
The hypocrisy was getting too close for The View’s leader Whoopie Goldberg’s comfort (The Whoop’s real name is Caryn Elaine Johnson), so she pulled the plug, shouting, “I’m just going to kill this conversation! I am authentically myself! I am Whoopi Goldberg and we’ll be right back!”
Haley later chided Asunción in a tweet, saying in part, “It’s racist of you to judge my name. Nikki is an Indian name and is on my birth certificate—and I’m proud of that. What’s sad is the left’s hypocrisy towards conservative minorities.”
No, what’s sad is that ABC gives these biased, intellectually barren, foolish women daily opportunities to make the public stupid.
Ethics Alarms 
Hold on a minute. Isn’t Whoopi using a pseudonym? Let me check . . . Yep. He really name is Caryn Elaine Johnson. Huh.
jvb
A Jewish friend of mine once suggested that she changed her stage name the better to get through Hollywood gatekeeping to the levels where she could actually show her talent and be assessed on her merits.
Digression: my nephew is about to marry an Indian called Hari, which is the abbreviation of the perfectly good Indian name Harinder.
I used to work with an Indian woman whose last name was “Grover.” I assumed she had changed it, but she said it was actually a pretty common Indian last name by way of totally different root words than the English name. I thought that was really neat!
And similarly to your future in-law Hari, I’ve known several Krishna’s who went by Kris. I don’t see any difference between that and someone named Christopher going by Chris.
I’d swear that I mentioned that in the post…cough!
You did. That’s why they called me “Captain Obvious.”
jvb
I think oblivious is the correct spelling?
Some friend you turned out to be. Sheesh!
jvb
Sunny Hostin’s name reminds me of a pure white bread weather girl.
Sunny needs to change her name to better reflect the level of bitterness she exudes during that vomitous mess of a round table show more aptly named: The Bigoted View.
Gosh, all that money, fame, perfect makeup and hair, and still a sourpuss.
What a puffed-up waste of oxygen.
No surprises here. Republican women and minorities are not real women and real minorities. They can be body-shamed, name-shamed, accused of appropriation and any number of personal attacks that would get a Republican cancelled for doing the same.
The double standard that exists in this country among the Democrats and their allies in the news media and the entertainment industry is shameless. Why more people don’t recognize it and reject it is beyond me.
I really should have mentioned in the post that Hostin’s particular double standard has to be a “People in glass houses…” for the ages.
Asuncion just means “Assumption.” It’s pretty common in Spanish to name women after religious occasions, especially involving the Virgin Mary, who is big in heavily Catholic Spain. Conception, after the immaculate conception, is also fairly common, although most women by that name go by “Connie” or some other contraction. Contractions are also apparently fairly common in Hispanophone countries (I’m not sure that’s an actual word but I use it to mean all nations where Spanish is the primary language spoken). Maria Elena is frequently shortened to Mané (pronounced man-AY), Maria Theresa becomes Maite (pronounced like Mai Tai but ending with -ay). There’s no issue with it unless someone makes it one. And yes, Nikki is a real Indian name, a friend’s significant other goes by that name. Sunny is just trying to create an issue where there is none.
I was wondering when the definition/connotation of the word Asuncion would be brought up. I was going to do it but doing it justice on a cell phone would prove to be difficult. Beyond the religious connotation Asuncion can also mean acceptance.
I watched the view once when I was home sick because I was curious, my mistake!!! Here’s what I compare it to…
My response to the show was What the Fuck!!!
In my opinion; individuals that diligently watch, enjoy and swallow the nonsense on “The View” must have intellectual and self-esteem issues and may be unconsciously searching for something to fill those black holes.
Intellectual, certainly.
I think I might disagree with the original premise of the post. The mantle of “Most Unethical (and Ridiculous) Member of The View” will likely forever belong to Joy Behar. Ms. Hostin can only dream of reaching Behar’s depths, and would have to say stuff like that until menopause – not her menopause mind you, but my youngest grandson’s menopause – to approach Joy Behar’s level of Most Unethical and Ridiculous.
The View is a blot on a civilized society.
So, Notre Dame Law School produced a Supreme Court justice and … Ms. Hostin. Ugh. I wonder if Asuncion was in any of Justice Barrett’s classes. I’m not even sure where my ND Law diploma is.
Even if people DO want to use a name that’s easier for those around them to pronounce, that’s their right and it doesn’t mean anything is wrong with them. It’s actually a sign of empathy, something in rare supply right now.
(My grandma’s family changed their surname when they came to America, because it sounds like something you can’t say on network television.)
Oh, “Sunny” explained that! If Nikki wasn’t so conservative, it would be fine…
When people immigrate from one country to a country speaking a different language it makes sense to pick names for their children that exist in both their home country’s language and their new country’s language. As well as Nikki another example would be tennis players Naomi Osaka and her sister Mari, both names existing in both the Japanese and English languages.
Steven Cleveland; I see his point….
I didn’t realize how awful and stupid Hosten’s comments were until I watched the whole exchange. Wow is she obtuse. She called Haley a coconut – brown on the outside, white on the inside. When called out for using “Sunny” she said it was because we are too dumb to know how pronounce “Concepcion”.
jvb
I meant to include the “coconut” quote, then forgot in my general nausea. She should have been fired. Hell, long ago. But who on that mess shouldn’t be fired?
Was it not Shakespear who said, “What is a name, a rose by any other name is ere a rose!” Or something like that.