CARBONDALE, Ill. (WSIL) -- SIU-Carbondale kicked off Diversity Week with a nationally-recognized guest.
John Quiñones, long time ABC anchor, reporter and host of 20/20 and Nightline, was the keynote speaker Monday night at the SIU Student Center Ballroom.
Quiñones is best known for hosting the hit ABC series 'What Would You Do?' in which hidden camera crews tape scenarios to see if random strangers stop to help.
Quiñones says it's easy to be kind with the cameras on but that true character reveals its self when the camera stops.
"What do we do with that opportunity to right a wrong? Do you sound the alarm? Do you lend a helping hand? Or do you just go on minding your own business," Quiñones said. "Silence is complicity."
The veteran news anchor shared stories of his upbringing in Texas, where he worked alongside his family picking tomatoes, cherries, going so far as to travel to Michigan and Ohio to do it.
Quiñones shared a story about being punished in school for speaking his native language: Spanish.
"The coach had a big old paddle, a wooden paddle with holes in it... and they would give us three spankings if they caught us speaking Spanish. The girls too. It was ridiculous," Quiñones said.
But those experiences, Quiñones says, made him appreciate what he didn't have. He says people with shared experiences are more empathetic and compassionate to others in similar situations.
To illustrate his point, Quiñones told the audience about one of his first stories he worked on starting out as a reporter in Chicago.
Quiñones went undercover at a local restaurant and met a group of seven Mexican immigrants who contended they were being held as slaves. Quiñones learned they hadn't been paid in over 17 days.
After the story aired, Quiñones says the owner was arrested and the workers received their payment plus temporary visas to remain while they worked on their citizenship.
"I knew then that those are the kind of stories that as a Latino reporter I could tell better than anyone," Quiñones said.
Quinones says this is a week where students shouldn't be afraid, ashamed or embarrassed of embracing their culture and pushing for diversity.
SIU Diversity Week continues through Friday. For a list of events, click .