Changes and shifts happen faster through the heart than the head. Reading an academic treatise or an article on the need for more diversity, or mandated hiring or enrollment percentages for corporations or colleges, remain abstract and stilted.

Previously, I wrote about the impact I believe the series Queer Eye has on softening prejudice when you just fall in love with the characters because they are so joyful, kind, compassionate, self-deprecating, and all around likeable, that potential underlying biases might just fade into the background.

I found myself thinking about this again after watching Bridgerton, the massively successful Netflix series, and enjoying the diversity of the cast so thoroughly, the fabulous Queen Charlotte, the smashing Duke, the formidable Lady Danbury, and all of the many non-white extras who populate the reimagined Regency England. How can you not admire them, enjoy their personalities, laugh and cry with them, and think that an integrated society is the most natural thing?

Even though the reviews from the queer community of the Queer Eye series have not always been kind arguing that it’s a show for cis white people, the commentary on the diversity of the Bridgerton casting has been smashing. When popular culture reflects more diversity and inclusivity without straining, it comes from within the culture and the heart, and is a sure sign of a cultural shift.