Kamau Bell talks diversity

Comedian and show host W. Kamau Bell will be the featured speaker during the second annual Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) Summit on Martha’s Vineyard. 

The first CDO summit took place at Martha’s Vineyard Museum last year, and it was an opportunity for these executives from various parts of the country and multiple industries to gather together to discuss and learn from one another. 

The summit this year will tackle various topics from affirmative action to inclusion. 

For Bell, the various hats he’s worn, from standup comedian to “occasional community activist,” allowed him to meet people of various backgrounds. “I’m in this sort of interesting space [where] I cross a lot of boundaries and talk to a lot of different people,” Bell said. “People find that … I can sort of address things that maybe can’t get addressed otherwise.”

This can be seen in a CNN docuseries Bell is the host and executive director for, called “United Shades of America,” where he talks to people from all sorts of backgrounds across the U.S.

“I’m super-sensitive and interested in other people’s lives, even if I don’t always agree with those people,” he said.

“In America, we need to update our empathy systems, so I think traveling around the country and talking to people has kept my empathy system constantly updated,” he added.

Bell’s own path to talking about race and diversity started during his childhood. Bell said he wanted to be a comedian since he was a child, but he also grew up with a mother who had just come out of the civil rights movement, and felt there were things left unaccomplished. 

“A lot of people thought the civil rights movement solved racism, and I lived in a house where that was never the case,” he said. “My mom did not believe that; her friends did not believe that.”

As Bell got older, he wanted his comedy to address these issues, which clicked when Barack Obama became president. He also felt his ability to enunciate issues around diversity was helped by moving to California in 1997. Bell was in Chicago before this, where diversity meant “Black, white, and sometimes Mexican Americans.” In the Bay Area, the diversity discussion included other aspects of identity besides race, like gender, sexuality, and class, which gave him a “college degree in diversity from the school of hard knocks.” 

When asked whether he’s been to the Vineyard, Bell said he has been to Martha’s Vineyard once before to do an event with the New Georgia Project, an initiative that encourages people to register and vote in Georgia. Although he has heard about the Island for years, he felt it wasn’t for him when growing up in Boston. However, coming out to the Vineyard and learning more about the Island’s history as a vacation location for the Black community made him realize, “It’s a really special place.” 

“In America, being Black outdoors can be pretty scary, no matter what your level of privilege is,” Bell said. “So it’s often hard, even when I go on vacation, to feel like I’m actually taking a break from being a Black man in America.”

An issue Bell highlighted during the interview was that in some parts of the U.S., diversity, equity, and inclusion, often called DEI, has become a hot-button issue. 

“Currently, even the idea of diversity, equity, and inclusion is under attack in this country,” Bell said, pointing out the book bans and inaccurate history taught in Florida, and anti-immigration sentiments expressed in different parts of America. 

However, Bell said the issue is in other areas too, like in the entertainment industry he is a part of. According to Bell, various Black leaders in the entertainment industry, particularly those who dealt with DEI issues and women, were released from their positions in the past few years. 

One of the contributing factors was that “even in the more liberal corner of this world,” people began to treat diversity as a past issue for the U.S., Bell said. Additionally, issues surrounding Black people became “trendy” for a time. “And now, the trend has moved on,” Bell said. “Even liberals and progressives — white liberals and progressives — feel like, ‘Didn’t we already do that enough?’”

However, these struggles make Bell excited to talk to CDOs and people working on diversity, equity, and inclusion. “There could be an invitation right now to put your head down and not get fired, but I think it’s actually a really key time to make the ‘good trouble’ that John Lewis talked about,” he said, invoking the late congressman.

Bell said he doesn’t plan to talk about America from “one perspective” at the summit. He hopes to point people toward those he learned from, but also to “learn about this from as many perspectives as possible.” 

“There’s many versions of America, and if we’re smart, America is an evolving, perfecting idea,” Bell said. “It should not be going back to the past.” 

When asked what he hopes people take away from the summit, Bell said he hopes people will enjoy what he says, since he is a standup comic. But he also wants to “complicate the narrative of diversity,” and hopes to fire up people, especially those with privilege, to go out into “hectic streets,” to make push for change. 

“Those of us who have a level of privilege, who can go to Martha’s Vineyard and hang out and enjoy ourselves … [need] to remember there’s still work to be done, and we’ve got to prepare for the work ahead,” Bell said.