First of all, of course I don't represent the opinion of all intelligent black people. Silly.

Secondly, not sure how I'm a racist but I'll go ahead and address the concern, just in case someone else agrees with you. Having an opinion about a race does not make me racist. There are some major 'racist' ingredients missing from my post namely hate and a superiority complex.

I never said anyone should be 'given' a position. My point was that I found it odd that a multi-billion dollar company (with such a large market share in the industry) didn't have any African American leadership.

On a broader scale, the message could apply to any company with a homogenous leadership team. I would say the same thing about a multi-billion dollar company with an all-black leadership team and nothing else.

You're absolutely right when you talk about the dynamic growth of successful blacks, again, this is why I find it odd that we can't seem to hire any.

I won't even address your point about rappers and athletes being murderers, rapists and lousy role models because it's intellectually lazy. I could say the same thing about certain members of ANY profession; politicians, CEOs, and the like.

Just black? What about Asian? African-African? Arabic? Flemish?

Question: Is race more important than ability? Would you hire a minority applicant if the majority race applicant is better overall?

This was a great post but what if African Americans are not applying for the leadership roles? It may seem strange sometimes that a company can have sort of a cookie cutter look and feel but factors such as lack of interest and talent from other races could very well be a reason why. Maybe their message and goals do not appeal to certain people who happen to be of a certain race collectively.

I was at one company where the small office consisted of one white man and the rest were black. When they decided to expand the race pool expanded but it had nothing to do with the fact that the company didn't give other races a chance or even cared about race period. It just so happened that a majority of the appliers were black and qualified.

No prob. Hospitality is one of those industries that is interesting to study. While researching, race and gender seems to have always been one of those things where it needs to change in diversity but it just doesn't. I would hate to think that a person's network is not diversified on purpose but I totally understand what you mean.
The fact that you are a black woman understanding and trying to put yourself in a leadership role fills two gaps that this industry just can't seem to fill.
There are a couple of networks and organizations that focus on the lack of diversity in hospitality leadership roles and they are very intriguing. That was one of the reasons why I am fascinated by the industry. It still has a lot of ground to break and its amazing that it does in this day and age.

It's unfortunate that so many commenters are missing the point here. The point isn't that people should be hired or promoted because of their race or minority status. The point is, there's some things you can't learn if you surround yourself with all the same people. If everyone in the room or company or whatever comes from the same background or white, upper-middle class, etc. - how do you expect to grow as people, and grow as an organization, when you lack the diverse perspectives that are what society as a whole is composed of? If your boardroom is all white men, you're missing what Kiersten's whole point is about: cultural understanding. There's a lot to be gained from seeing things from a different perspective and learning from it.

Here's another question: Why are people drawn to particular jobs? There are lots of reasons, but one of them is that they think they'll enjoy the environment--often, based on how well they think they'll fit in with the current employees.