David Oppenheimer with Van Jones: The Diversity Principle

The diversity principle asserts that people with different backgrounds, experiences, identities, and viewpoints produce better work through engagement with one another. For more than two centuries it has shaped countless ideas and institutions that define modern intellectual life, from John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty to 20th-century efforts toward equality. In his new book, The Diversity Principle: The Story of a Transformative Idea, UC Berkeley law professor David B. Oppenheimer, a former diversity skeptic, chronicles how this once-revolutionary idea became a foundational value in higher education over the past two centuries and the backlash it now faces.

Oppenheimer talks with CNN political correspondent Van Jones about the role of diversity as a vital component of a thriving intellectual and political culture.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

David B. Oppenheimer is a clinical professor of law. He serves as the faculty co-director of the Pro Bono Program and the director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law. Following his graduation from Harvard Law School, Professor Oppenheimer clerked for California Chief Justice Rose Bird. He then worked as a staff attorney for the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing prosecuting discrimination cases and was the founding director of the Berkeley Law Employment Discrimination Clinic. In addition to Berkeley Law, he has taught at the University of San Francisco, Golden Gate University, where he served as associate dean, the University of Paris (Sorbonne-Pantheon), the University of Bologna, LUMSA University Roma, and the Paris Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po).

Van Jones is a U.S. media personality, entrepreneur, and world-class changemaker. Jones has a rare track record of bringing people together to do hard things–in areas as diverse as clean energy solutions, criminal justice reform, and racial inclusion in the tech sector. In 2007, Van was the primary champion of the Green Jobs Act, signed into law by George W. Bush. In 2009, he worked in the Obama White House as the Special Advisor for Green Jobs. In 2018, he helped pass the FIRST STEP Act, signed into law by Donald Trump; The New York Times calls that legislation the most substantial breakthrough in criminal justice in a generation. In 2021, Jones was the first recipient of Jeff Bezos’ Courage & Civility Award. He has since founded Dream Machine Innovation Lab and launched RAPPORT.co, which uses A.I. to increase firms’ EQ. A Yale Law School graduate, Van is a CNN host, an Emmy Award-winning producer, a three-time New York Times bestselling author, and the creator of the Van Jones Substack.