Island in the 1970s, Soledad O’Brien learned not to let inappropriate or racist comments throw her. “On the one hand it was a very normal, boring middle class childhood, and on the other we knew we weren’t always going to fit in,” says the CNN journalist.
So when the Rev. Jesse Jackson complained that CNN didn’t have any Black anchormen and anchorwomen and dismissed her Afro-Cuban heritage on her mother’s side saying at a private meeting in 2007 she didn’t “count as Black,” O’Brien was embarrassed at her response. She felt angry and did not push back with a follow-up question.
“Today, I would have said, ‘Well what do you mean?’” says the 44-year-old reporter.
