In 2013, the percentage of news stories that focused on Latinos was one percent. Of those stories, many surrounded immigration and crime. This fact fuses the two topics that Soledad O’Brien discussed in her Sept. 30 lecture at The College of New Jersey: diversity and journalism. O’Brien views journalism as a great opportunity to tell the stories that she wants to tell, and for her, those stories are ones that normally don’t get told -- they are the stories of people who live in poverty, are of color, and who are marginalized by society. O’Brien believes that she has the drive to share these stories because of her upbringing, which is how she began her lecture. O’Brien was the fifth of sixth children born to a black/Cuban mother and a white, Australian father. Her parents’ marriage was actually considered illegal up until the sixth child was born, for it was only then that interracial marriage was made legal in all 50 states. O’Brien’s mother said that while walking on the street with her young, mixed race children, she would get spat on by people passing by. According to O’Brien it was her mother’s reaction to these people that framed her reason for becoming a journalist -- her …show more content…
To start making the news a more inclusive arena, O’Brien first urged journalists to be careful with their words while reporting because many of them are “non-descriptive and racially charged;” after all, what exactly is a thug, she pointed out, someone who is looting a store or someone who is setting a car on fire? She then asked that reporters give everyone a voice and report on the full story of all races, because Latinos and blacks also do good