Miss America stresses importance of diversity

Diversity is not just a black-and-white issue, Miss America 2004 Ericka Dunlap said when she spoke to about 100 people at Rudder Theater Wednesday night.

"There's so many different focuses of diversity," said Dunlap, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Central Florida.

Dunlap, whose platform is "United We Stand. Divided We Fall Behind: Celebrating Diversity and Inclusion," said diversity includes hair length, height, eye color, religion and marital status.

She said people have been discriminated against, even if it was just because someone thought they wore too much perfume or jewelry.

To illustrate her concept of inclusion, she played a game with the audience. She singled out characteristics, including religion, languages spoken and birthplace.

All the people who identified with each characteristic would stand up and say, "We connect." The last characteristic, she said, was if you're proud to be an Aggie, and most people stood and whooped loudly.

Dunlap said she refers to herself as a diversity activist.

"For those of you that think I'm just a beauty queen, let's talk," she said. Hayley Henderson, a junior agriculture development major and the chair of VOG, said she wished more people showed up.

"She deserved a larger turnout," she said.

Others who attended the speech said although they were there for a class, that they enjoyed Dunlap's speech.

Ashley Elizondo, a sophomore elementary education major, said she attended the event to get extra credit in her multicultural education class.

"Diversity is important, especially in America, because people come from so many different backgrounds," she said.

Stephen Hayslip, a junior mechanical engineering technology major, said he attended the event because he had to cover a speech for his introductory speech communications class.

But if he had to cover a speech, he said, he was glad it was Miss America. Of the 76 Miss Americas in the pageant's history, Dunlap is the seventh black woman, said Ric Ferentz, a public relations coordinator for the Miss America Organization. 

Dunlap entertained the crowd by having them illustrate the horse laugh, letting them wear her crown and singing "Orange-Colored Sky" upon an audience member's request.

Henderson said Dunlap was asked to appear because it is Black History Month and because A&M is trying to increase diversity awareness.

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