Chairman of the Board, President & Chief Executive Officer, ETHAN ALLEN INTERIORS INC
Meral Kathwari interviews Keith Boykin
Keith Boykin spoke to students at Iona College about diversity and politics today.
Kathwari interviews the author, political commentator, and former white house aide.
About M. Kathwari
In an April 2, 2026, interview on Bloomberg Talks, Ethan Allen CEO Farooq Kathwari discussed the company’s position amid ongoing tariff impacts. He stated that tariffs have not significantly affected Ethan Allen, noting that the company’s decision to base 80% of its furniture manufacturing in North America has created a “positive perspective” for the business. Kathwari added that the only area with notable tariffs is Mexico, where a 25% duty applies. Kathwari also addressed consumer behavior, describing customers as “cautious” and observing a “significant decline in people coming in” to Ethan Allen’s design centers. He noted that those who do visit are “more likely to buy.” He attributed the company’s resilience to its vertical integration, interior design network, and logistics system, which allows for a single delivered price nationwide. Kathwari confirmed that Ethan Allen had raised retail prices by an average of 5% due to cost pressures, particularly on imported items like rugs and lighting, but said the company has managed without further significant increases.
Transcript (11 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Interviewer0:01
I'm here with Keith Boykin. Among being a former White House aide, a political commentator, an author, you were also once the highest-ranked openly gay person under the Clinton White House, and you were also the first person to organize a sitting between a president and members of the LGBTQ community. What was that like?
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Keith Boykin0:23
Well, the meeting that we did took place in April 1993, and that was President Clinton sat down with LGBTQ leaders. There was a lot of tension around that because no president had ever done this before, and the question was how would the public react, how would the media react. And it actually ended up being a really positive meeting. One point I remember on the meeting that was so fascinating: someone asked the president what two things need to be remembered for history, and he mentioned one for lifting the ban on gays in the military and two for healthcare reform. And he did neither one of them, strangely enough. It was President Obama who ended up doing both of those. So it's ironic that he thought that would be his legacy and it actually wasn't. But it was a really important meeting, and I was privileged to be a part of it.
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Interviewer1:11
What are your thoughts on how the LGBTQ community is portrayed in the media?
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Keith Boykin1:19
I think the perception of LGBTQ people in the media is changing rapidly from just a few years ago, definitely. But if you look decades back, there were only a few images in the media. Now we're starting to see more, starting to see more diverse images, starting to see more people of color, starting to see more trans people, people from different regions of the country, not just the New York and LA crowd. I think it's all very helpful. I think it's helping people see that the world is much more complex than our stereotypes and biases.
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Interviewer1:49
Having worked in politics and being in the middle of the presidential election right now, what are your thoughts on people calling Trump a white supremacist?
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Keith Boykin2:01
Well, I can't speak to whether Trump is a white supremacist or not, but I do believe that he has espoused ideas that can be considered racist. I don't know whether he even believes those ideas, actually, but I know that they're troubling. There are people out there who are white supremacists, who are racist, who hear him say that and they believe it. So I think it's very dangerous regardless of whether Trump is a white supremacist or not or whether he's a racist or not. I think that's really missing the point. The point is he's feeding into the anger of those people who are, and that can only lead to bad things.
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Interviewer2:38
Obviously a lot of race has been brought up in this election. What are your thoughts on the difference between Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter?
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Keith Boykin2:47
I think All Lives Matter was something nobody ever said until people said Black Lives Matter, which is a reflection of the fact that people really knew that black lives weren't important. So when black people started speaking up about being killed and shot in the street, it was a response as a way to shut people down, to tell people we don't care about your lives, we care about other people's lives. If that were true, then why haven't we paid more attention to the black lives who are part of the all lives? So I just think it's a subterfuge. It's a diversion, it's an excuse. There's nothing wrong with saying Black Lives Matter, and when people say All Lives Matter, it's really just an attempt to stop that conversation.
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Interviewer3:30
Obviously there's a lot, but you said here today that Obama is probably one of your favorite presidents of all time. In the past eight years, what is the most important thing that he's brought to the administration?
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Keith Boykin3:46
I think from a national perspective, a global perspective, I think the most important thing the president has brought to this country is economic stability, to be honest. We were in dire straits when he came into office. The economy is doing much better now. We're not 100%, but we're certainly not where we were before, and people forget that. There are a lot of other things I think are really important too, but I think that's the most important issue in terms of what affects everybody else. As a black person, proud to be a black person, the president is a black person. As a gay person, proud that he spoke up in favor of marriage equality. But nothing really overshadows the importance of just saving our economy from collapse.
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Interviewer4:27
Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you.