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Watch what we say, not how we party, appears to be an unspoken message from a Metro Detroit management consulting firm.
That conclusion arises from a reception gallery posted Monday by dbusiness magazine, which shows 26 images from a Detroit Institute of Arts gathering hosted by Alderney Advisors, an Oakland County partnership formed in 2013. The theme was "A Tribute to Detroit's Comeback," and guests saw Mosaic Youth Theatre performers.
"The event brought together more than 100 top executives while highlighting the Southfield-based firm's support to the community," the magazine says above the display in its January-February issue, with ex-Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr on the cover.
The gallery, however, brings to mind the question atop Nolan Finley's much-discussed Dec. 14 column: "Where are the black people?" His Detroit News essay commented:
"It's a warning signal when you go to holiday events for major Detroit cultural institutions and charities, and you can count the number of African-American revelers on both hands."
In Alderney's case, the gallery shows 54 team members and guests posing. They include Gitanjali Kundich, a director since September 2013, and Blanca Fauble, a Peruvian-born management consultant from Bloomfield Hills. Those women appear to be the only minority group attendees pictured, not counting eight young African American singers from Mosaic.
To be fair, it was a private event for the restructuring consultancy and its business contacts, not an open house meet-and-greet. And similar pages in dbusiness or Hour Detroit also show fund-raisers and parties without much diversity.
But this one seems particularly odd because Alderney's mission and values statement says, in part: "We will be inclusive as to race, color, gender (or gender preference), religion, or age."
The boutique firm specializes in municipal and auto supplier restructuring, receivership and bankruptcies. Clients include Oakland County, according to the Free Press, which reported last summer that Alderney was advising County Executive L Brooks Patterson's team "as Detroit considers what to do with its water department."
A message requesting examples of "the firm's support to the community," besides booking the DIA event and hiring
Mosaic entertainment, was sent this morning to its Livonia public relations representative. A reply will be added to this article.
