Salamander Hotels and Resorts CEO Sheila Johnson said she believes that the travel industry is uniquely positioned to be a catalyst for change on the path to eliminating racism in America.
Johnson was the keynote speaker during the closing session of Virtuoso Travel Week's closing session, held virtually Thursday evening. In addition to her work in travel, Johnson co-founded the entertainment network BET and today runs the Middleburg Film Festival, using the platform to highlight diversity and women in filmmaking.
She urged attendees to confront themselves on the issue of race "as you perhaps never have before," considering everything from the country's treatment of Native Americans to the poorest Black communities.
"Consider that race and racism is indeed a problem that is not going to go away until we, you and I, fix it," Johnson said.
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That fix will not come from demanding more from lawmakers or neighbors, she argued.
"We're going to fix it by demanding more of ourselves," Johnson said. "We do it by providing promotions and professional opportunities to people who don't always look or talk like we do. Look, we cannot fix the world, at least not all at once, but we can get our house in order, and that would be a start -- because what is the world if nothing more than a collection of millions of little houses?"
Among the airline's promises: to double the number of top-level Black officers by 2025, to increase Black presence on its board and to step up recruitment at historically Black colleges.
The travel and tourism industry is in a unique position, Johnson said. It is an industry that provides many entry-level positions with skills that go beyond language and culture, meaning many immigrants find their first jobs in hospitality.
"Because the hospitality industry already employs such a diverse cross-section of people, people of all different colors, cultures, languages, backgrounds and religions, we have a gigantic head start in learning how to fix this country's single most burning social issue today, namely race, or racism, in America," she said.
She compared the hospitality industry to a line in the Simon and Garfunkel song "The Sound of Silence," "the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls." Johnson said, "I would contend that that the face of America and beyond is written on the hallways of the hospitality industry."
Management ranks are increasingly becoming more diverse, Johnson said, but more can still be done. If the industry is so strengthened by the diversity of lower-level positions, she argued, management would similarly benefit from a broadening of the experiences and backgrounds of more people of color.
"The good news is, just look at the faces of those already in our industry," she said. "Listen to the faces talk. Read their nametags. Those are the faces, sounds and names of America. And when you do that, my fellow professionals, you will realize we have something no one else has in the ongoing quest to, once and for all, stamp out racism and ignorance in this country. We've got a head start, and just remember: The face of America is written on the halls of the hospitality industry."