Accountability, communication and celebration.
These were the three ideas Unity Fest Diversity speaker and Huffington Post writer Laura Diminno focused on in her speech about diversity to Colorado Mesa University students and staff in the University Center Ballroom on Thursday.
While growing up in Southern California, Diminno did not live in a diversified neighborhood. In fact she did not know about different languages and cultures until she played a game of Pictionary with a diverse group of people.
“Each one of them were talking about Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Vietnam, Spain, Armenia, Russia and Holland,” Diminno, whose daughter attends CMU, said.
The group would bring a copy of a English to their respective language book and then they would play Pictionary. After learning about her friends’ language, she came to the conclusion that each language is similar.
“What I realized is that even though we spoke different languages, we spoke the language of love,” Diminno said.
She then voiced her three main points for the evening. The first was accountability. Diminno emphasized the idea by telling students to remember who they are.
She also said students need to be accountable for their words and emotions. She reassured the audience that it was okay to experience emotion. She then showed a slide that read, “Emotions = Energy in Motion.”
Diminno concluded emotions can deal with unreleased trauma and can help resolve the issue.
The next idea was communication. Diminno said people should have a conversation with someone with a differing belief. She has had past experiences where she learned she should not be frightened with contrasting beliefs.
“What I discovered in my conservation with people that have irritated me or scared me or I didn’t understand, I found that we were not any different,” Diminno said. “We are one with all our differences.”
Diminno’s final idea of the evening was celebration. She wanted the audience to cherish the people around the world. And to note that people are alike.
The event was in part of diversity week at CMU. Katelyn Hansen and Cultural Diversity Board Student Director Gawie Van der Merwe helped coordinate the event.
“I helped Gawie put on the event,” Hansen said. “They really wanted to make a big week to say ‘Hey, diversity is out here. We are accepting everyone, the campus should be unified.’”
Hansen wants students, who listened to Diminno’s speech realize a seemingly innocent joke can be insulting to other students around them.
“I hope if a student attends, they will have self realization that they might be saying things that are highly offensive,” Special Projects Coordinator at Student Life Hansen said.
This is the second time Diminno spoke at CMU. In the fall semester of last year she spoke about mental health and suicide prevention.
