What can we learn from Kristen Bell’s viral dinner party photo?
Did you see Kristen Bell's dinner party photo that went viral over the weekend of July 8th?
For many people, this outdoor dinner on the waterfront in Idaho was amazing because it is so celebrity-packed, especially if you're a fan of comedy. Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Jason Bateman, and John Mulaney are all visible, to name just a few. And apparently the dinner was at Jimmy Kimmel's lodge.
But for many other people, the dinner was also notable because not one person is dark-skinned. This was the theme of many of the other comments on social media.
I've heard the gathering called all-white, but that erases Olivia Munn, who is half Vietnamese and speaks proudly of her Asian heritage. And there seem to be two Asian people at the foot of the table, next to someone who looks like, so probably is, Jimmy Fallon.
Why does it matter if some apparently very nice celebrity has a summertime dinner party with a lot of her friends and almost all of them are white? And none of them are Black or from another dark-skinned group? Doesn't she deserve to have the friends that she has? Does everything always have to be "politicized"?
On the one hand, of course everyone should be able to choose their friends and who they celebrate with. Of course.
On the other hand, this is a photo of people with power in their field. White people with power in their field. And so you can see how, without bias interrupters, it is very easy for things to stay pretty much homogeneous.
Dinner party chat might include things like:
—“What are you working on right now?”
—“I'm planning this new project, got a few open roles I'm trying to figure out how to fill.”
—“Oh, I might know just the right people! Tell me more.”
Or
“I'm putting money into this new project and need a director. You interested? Know someone?”
Just regular party conversation, but 8 years living in LA showed me how easily it can turn into jobs. Here, it is podcast appearances, talk show appearances, roles in sitcoms, roles in movies, roles in television dramas, and more.
In many of the ecosystems I work in now (especially tech and finance), it's the same thing: filling an open role or finding a director to spearhead a project often comes from personal networks.
And when those networks are almost or completely white, you end up replicating whiteness, especially at the top of the org chart. The "starring role." The director, the producer. A 2014 study showed that the average white American's social network was only 1% Black, and fully 75% of white Americans had entirely white social networks.
Just because you don't know somebody, it doesn't mean they're not talented. That they aren’t qualified. That they wouldn’t be a great fit for that open role.
This photo looks an awful lot like company retreat photos, executive retreat photos, “about us” photos on the company website, etc.
The only way to break the cycle is to do solid anti-bias work.
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