Soledad O'Brien is the Joint.

I watched CNN’s Soledad O’Brien host last night’s panel discussion Black in America: Reclaiming the Dream. The discussion focused on topics of concern in the Black community, such as HIV/AIDS, self-responsibility, education, etc. I must say, Soledad is doing the damn thing. She always has, in my opinion, despite being booted off American Morning, CNN’s morning show (John Roberts and Kiran Chetry are now the hosts). I remember when she was an anchor for NBC’s Weekend Today show back in 1999. I was a senior in high school then. I decided she would be my unofficial mentor as I began my broadcast journalism trek. My freshman year at the University of Missouri I emailed Soledad. (I found her contact number on some unofficial website-back then she wasn't the celebrity she is today) not thinking it was really her address I forgot about it. One day, I was just laying around in my dorm room, my roommate, Kim, was on the phone talking to her mother. I remember her telling her mother to hold on because she had another call. I knew the call was for me the way, Kim was talking. “Yes, she is here…who is this?” “Soledad?” I immediately jumped up shouting in a whisper…you know how that goes…mouthing the words SOLEDAD O’BRIEN??!!! Kim, realizing it was indeed THE Soledad O’Brien from NBC’s Weekend Today, clicked over and screamed, “Mom, some famous person is calling Reyna!" "I’ll have to call you back!!!" She hands me the phone and of course I was all calm, like yeah, Soledad is calling me. She really wasn’t at all what I had expected. A little rough around the edges, cursing in nearly every sentence she spoke. I kind of thought maybe she was trying to act young so I just laughed at everything she said and pretended I was a cool young student. I told her I was a freshman at the University of Missouri majoring in broadcast journalism. She told me how hard it was for her starting off as a reporter and how her news director told her she sucked and would never make it. She said people were obsessed with her hair and the fact that she wore a lot of black but she didn’t give a f*Ck (not sure I want to be cursing on my blog yet!). She invited me to come visit her in New York and she would give a tour of the NBC studio. I remember saying in disbelief, “People can just go tour the studio?” “Only people I know,” she said. I was thrilled! I couldn’t believe it, Soledad O’Brien was inviting me to New York and she said she knew me! After that phone call we stayed in touch through my freshman year. I never made it to New York that summer because I had to take summer courses. I remember sending Soledad an email telling her I wouldn't be able to make it that summer, like my being able to make it or not had a huge affect on her life. She emailed me back and said good luck with Pre-Calculus and that I was probably a lot better in math then she was. We didn’t talk again until 2005 when she was in Atlanta for the NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists) conference. Of course she didn’t remember me when I told her the story about how she called me back in 1999, but she laughed and said it was nice to finally meet me. She was exactly how I imagined her from the phone and had that same fiery personality. Although, petite in size, Soledad O’Brien, is one of the most self assured women I’ve ever met. I’m looking forward to seeing her again at the Unity Journalists Conference in Chicago this week.

Be sure to catch CNN’s 4-hour documentary entitled Black in America, also hosted by Soledad O’Brien later this week (July 23rd and 24th)