Exclusive: Tamron Hall Talks To BOSSIP About Her Dream Guest And The Divided State Of America

Source: @ParisaMichelle / SplashNews / Splash News

Tamron Hall Tells BOSSIP We Have To Look At Ourselves Before Labeling Others

Tamron Hall launched her new show this week, over a year since she left the “Today” show after having a large portion of her segments diminished to make room for the (now ousted) Megyn Kelly. Since leaving the “Today” show Hall has gotten married and welcomed her first baby — she’s also had time to think about the fresh perspective she’ll be bringing to television. BOSSIP’s Senior Content Director Janeé Bolden spoke with Hall just days before the premiere of her show and she spoke at length about the divisive state of America and why she doesn’t have a dream guest. Watch the trailer for “Tamron Hall” and check out the interview below:

Janeé Bolden: In your trailer you talk about people living in different regions who are dealing with the same issues, but our country is in a very divided state right now when it comes to issues like trans rights and immigration among other issues. How do you expect to balance these very polarizing issues as you move forward with your show?

Tamron Hall: Well, Janee, I’ll tell you that I heard Rev. William Barber when he said if you tell your children this is the worst the country has seen, you’re doing a disservice to your children.

We watched as millions of people were enslaved in this country and fought for our Civil Rights as our leaders were slaughtered on their front lawns. Medgar Edgars was leaving his home and assassinated in front of his family essentially.  The world watched as millions of Jewish people were marched to their deaths and the world delayed its reaction. So yes, absolutely these are terrible times as they’ve always been. But ignoring what the world and this country has beaten back at different points would be ignoring history and also a disservice to the people who have paved the way for all of us.

When you look at trans rights as well, people who have lost their lives and still are losing their lives, with each day there is a young trans kid who becomes empowered and emboldened because of history. Not because of current, because of history. So for me I think it’s a deeper conversation.

I tell people also, look at how divisive we are, look at your Instagram, look at your social media personal page. How diverse are your friends? I went to a conference I was invited to. A great night. All women over 35 in the tech industry, who were doing it! All white. All doing their thing, but no diversity in the room. And we go and wag our tails at someone in Texas and say ‘Look at that redneck.’ But we live in some of the most diverse cities in the country and are we just talking that talk. Are we really believing that we have more in common than we have different? So for me that’s an everyday challenge to make sure that I’m trying to live and lead by example and also that I make sure that my show reflects that. That my show doesn’t have someone trans on the show just to talk about being trans, when that person has more to add to the conversation. Clearly that’s the most important thing, if that’s what they want to talk about.

It’s also important that when we have an expert that is a doctor that we show diversity in that. There was a story that went viral about a doctor who was on a plane and they wouldn’t believe her. Even after saying, ‘I’m a doctor,’ and showing her medical form, they still wouldn’t believe her. It turns out this image of a doctor being a Black woman was foreign to some people in 2019. And these weren’t “hillbillies” from Alabama. So when I say that in the commercial, those weren’t scripted words, those were my words and that was because I’ve lived all over the country. I grew up in rural Luling, Texas and now I live in the biggest and most amazing city, some would say and I agree, in the world. It’s just challenging what we see as inspiration and challenging what we see as friends and also challenging how we label other people without looking at our own IG to see what label we’re wearing.

Hit the flip to find out why Tamron doesn’t have a dream guest (but who she definitely isn’t turning away!).