Over the weekend Speaker of the House Paul Ryan posted a selfie of himself and Capitol Hill interns for the GOP with the caption, "I think this sets a record for the most number of #CapitolHill interns in a single selfie. #SpeakerSelfie." The photo quickly went viral after users noted the lack of diversity in the photo, which wasn’t hard to miss. Democrats have since responded to the photo with one of their own showing their intern demographic is more diverse.
Before we go any further, here’s the selfie under fire:
If you squint you’ll find a few diverse faces. Twitter users called the photo a game of “Where’s Waldo?” but for diversity.
Texas Congresswoman Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson tweeted a direct response photo to Ryan’s selfie Tuesday. The photo included Democratic interns for congress.
“The picture of the Democratic interns look a lot different than the #speakerselfie #DemInternSelfie #Diversity,” Johnson tweeted.
The picture of the Democratic interns look a lot different than the #speakerselfie #DemInternSelfie #Diversity pic.twitter.com/B7MucXwLwB
In a follow-up tweet she posted another photo of the Democratic interns saying her intern Audra Jackson led the intern selfie.
My intern Audra Jackson led Democratic Interns in their own selfie 2day showing #DemInternDiversity #DemInternSelfie pic.twitter.com/83UcIOKS5s
Besides Johnson other Democratic representatives, including California’s Xavier Becerra and Barbara Lee, and Georgia’s Hank Johnson, tweeted photos of their interns to highlight diversity.
Thank you to all my hardworking #CapitolHill interns! We had a great group this summer. #BecerraSelfie pic.twitter.com/VEJIiL3UtJ
Proud of my phenomenal & accomplished summer 2016 intern crew, who come from many walks of life. pic.twitter.com/HV9IyQpOMJ
Very proud my interns this summer come from all walks of life. Thank you crew! #DemInternDiversity #DemInternSelfie pic.twitter.com/FxQJHy4Xk1
As mentioned earlier the GOP intern selfie went viral and people made plenty of jokes at its whiteness.
That picture of Paul Ryan with the GOP interns is so white that I had to put on sunglasses to look directly at it. #GOPSoWhite
#PaulRyan: Ok, everybody say "pumpkin spice latte!" #speakerselfie #CapitolHill #gop #gopsowhite pic.twitter.com/lVMIt7mvSk
This selfie has more white people than a selfie at the Oscars. #GOPSoWhite pic.twitter.com/kNcLQaVa0J
The GOP viral selfie could easily be applied to the other places where there’s lack of racial representation, and not to mention lack of representation when it comes to women and the LGBTQIA community, such as the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), and Hollywood.