Last night I went to see Soledad O'Brien speak. She is SO cool. The topic was on diversity...she herself has a mother who is half Black/half Cuban and a father who is half Irish/half Australian. She basically just spoke about her background, how she got to where she is today, the experiences she came across that dealt with her race, and stories that she has covered around the world that dealt with race/ethnicity. She did a wonderful job talking to all of us.

At the end was a question/answer period in which members of the audience could go up to two microphones at the front of the stage and ask questions. I finally got the courage to go up and ask her question. It was AWESOME! My heart was beating so hard it felt like it was going to bust out of my chest. But I was able to very clearly and (seemingly) calmly ask her this question (I first introduced myself and my background to her):

"I was wondering what your take is on the current climate in the US in which it seems almost acceptable to discriminate against Arabs, and in particular, Muslims. "

The funny thing is that I don't remember half of what she answered because I was so damn nervous. But she said that it, obviously, stems from 9/11 and ignorance. That I need to focus on standing up for and accurately representing "my people." And she said something else that got the crowd to start clapping, but I can't remember what it was, now. Afterwards I was just beaming, though. What an interesting evening and a total rush at the end.