CNN anchor O’Brien addresses diversity

CNN's Soledad O'Brien stressed the importance of diversity in America Monday as part of the David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas lecture series.

O'Brien focused her lecture on how diversity has affected our understanding of each other.

"We're all in this boat together. There's no ‘Wall Street versus Main Street' as much as the media likes to say it," O'Brien said. "The health of one of us is dependent on and relates to the health of the rest of us."

O'Brien joined CNN in 2003 and is an anchor and special correspondent for "CNN: Special Investigations Unit." She has been awarded the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Achievement Award from the National Association of Minorities in Cable, and is a member of both the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

"We have an opportunity now to hear from all of our voices and celebrate the value of diversity," O'Brien said. "Not better, not worse, just different to create some of the solutions that I think we clearly need in this country."

O'Brien referenced Martin Luther King, Jr., Hurricane Katrina and educational problems for minorities as examples of diversity's importance to America.

She spoke on her experiences covering Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in India, and how they have made her more diverse in her ability to understand the perspectives of others.

She noted that her perspective is not superior to others, just different, but stressed that diverse viewpoints are healthy for the country.

"I think, probably, where we saw a lack of thinking differently most overtly was in Hurricane Katrina," O'Brien said. "It illuminated a host of problems in that city that really had been ignored for decades."

Approximately 300 people were in attendance at the lecture.

Many students attended for extra credit for classes, but many left the lecture interested and said they found it beneficial.

"It's a wonderful opportunity. Myself as a journalist, I always feel the need to represent underrepresented people, so I felt a really personal connection with this," said Amina McWilliams, junior broadcast news major and member of the National Society for Black Journalists.

"It's another step toward progress."