“Learning & Growth Are Often Uncomfortable”
Rev. Martin Luther King Day Business Luncheon Address – Blount County, TN
January 14, 2022
By Bryan F. Coker, Ph.D.
President, Maryville College
As those who know me well already know, I typically like to begin my speeches with gratitude, so please allow me to express my sincere gratitude for those who invited me here to speak today – I am deeply honored to be standing here. And let me also express my gratitude for all of you who are here with us, for the purpose of celebrating the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and specifically, what Dr. King’s dream still means to us today. I want to especially thank my wife of 25 years, Sara, for being here, to listen to me give yet another speech. And finally, I’d like to thank some special folks from Maryville College who played an important role in making this event happen today – Karen Eldridge, Belinda Kenny, and Larry Ervin.
My friends, these are interesting days in which we currently find ourselves, aren’t they? We are seeing and hearing things we’ve never seen or heard before, and talking about things we’ve never talked about before. We’re even worrying about things we’ve never worried about before… It’s a great time to become a college president, let me tell you – I’m sure many of you wondered what in the world I was thinking, stepping into this job around 18 months ago.
Likewise, it’s also a most-interesting time to be giving a speech about Dr. King’s legacy – as a College President, I give lots of speeches, but this one really required some planning, some forethought, and some introspection.
As we celebrate Dr. King here today, I believe it’s important to remember the day and time in which Dr. King lived and did his work – because in that day and time, Dr. King’s words and ideas made many, many people in America quite uncomfortable. Chances are that, in that day and time, we would not have even invited Dr. King to a gathering of business and civic leaders. He was considered to be a radical for his day and time, he was considered by many to even be dangerous, they saw him as a lawbreaker. But thankfully, today we’re here to recognize and celebrate the power, the wisdom, and the beauty of Dr. King’s legacy.
From the day I was introduced as Maryville College’s new President in February 2020 – from that day, and throughout these past 18 months, I have often spoken publicly about matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I have talked about issues of race, about issues affecting the LGBTQ community, about matters affecting international students, as well as issues facing non-citizens in the US. I’ve spoken out, against incidents of racism and discrimination. And, I haven’t just spoken about these things – we’ve begun acting on these issues at Maryville College – we’re being more intentional about our efforts to build and to support a diverse campus community. And I should add – this particular focus is not new to my work in higher education – this commitment to diversity was part of my professional record and my background, well before Maryville College, and even spanning back to my time as an administrator just down the road at the University of Tennessee, where I began my career, almost 20 years ago.
So, here’s the big question – WHY? …Why has Maryville College’s “new(ish)” President come into this job, so frequently raising the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion…? Why has it been such a predominant theme in my overall career?
I’ve received a message or two from folks over the past 18 months, who have their own ideas about the “why” behind my work. It’s been suggested – wrongly suggested – I should add – that I’m just jumping on a liberal bandwagon, or that I just have some radical or “woke” agenda (whatever that means, and as if I have time for it anyway). But those of you who know me best know – you know that my “why” is much more complex than those people would suggest.
And that “why” is one of the primary things I want to talk with you about today – I want to deal with the “whys” behind my support of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
First, let me share that, if you don’t already know – Maryville College has a unique, a strong, and a quite remarkable legacy when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s a legacy that was important and meaningful to me, in making the decision to become Maryville’s 12th President. From the College’s founding in 1819 (over 200 years ago), we were open to ALL people. Some of the first international students in America were at Maryville College, in the late 1800s. And we were open to all people until the early 1900s, when the state forced us to become segregated for a period of time. So, I think you can see that diversity, equity, and inclusion are very much in our DNA, as a college.
And then, there are my personal beliefs, ones that were with me, well before Maryville College –
On a most basic level, when I think about our world, I see much beauty in difference. And when I say difference, I am speaking about all kinds of difference – yes, that whole spectrum of differences. It’s all quite beautiful to me – how we look, where we’re from, what we believe… There’s a great richness and a real beauty there, in the differences that we each bring to the collective table. And this has been a longstanding belief of mine – I’ve never been one to say, “Oh, we’re all the same…” Sure, we all share many important similarities – and that’s great, but, in so many ways, we’re all different, and that’s okay folks – in fact, I believe that’s a very, very good thing – it definitely makes life richer, and it certainly makes our world a lot less boring, right…? Again, I see tremendous beauty in those differences, and believe we should celebrate those differences.
Beyond seeing those beautiful differences, I have two other “whys” that I’d like to share with you – two core beliefs which inform my work and my actions, each day:
Number one: I believe that we all learn best when exposed to ideas other than our own ideas. AND…
Number two: I believe we have a responsibility to prepare our future leaders for an increasingly diverse world.
Let’s discuss number one first – again, that was, “I believe we all learn best when exposed to ideas other than our own ideas.” So… Learning, in a most basic sense – what is it…? Learning is about expanding the mind, it’s about expanding and adding to that which we currently know. As an educator and as a parent, my hope and my goal are for such learning to be as rich and as vast as possible, especially at the college level. Because, at the college level, we’re doing a lot more than just filling heads with facts and with content – we’re really focusing on those higher-level skills that we value so much. Therefore, I want our students at Maryville College to learn amongst those who have different life experiences – I want them to learn amongst those who have seen and experienced different things – because that’s when students will be exposed to ideas other than their own ideas – and I believe that’s when the most powerful learning is truly going to take place. Now – is that the “most comfortable” type of learning? Well, no – of course it’s not. Learning is not always comfortable… And in fact, I ask each of you to consider (and be honest), have your most powerful learning experiences in work and life been when you were the most comfortable…? My guess is “no.” Those richest learning experiences typically occur when we are outside our comfort zones.
So, to fulfill that goal, it’s imperative that our community of learners at Maryville College, including students, professors, and staff – it’s important that our community is a diverse one – it’s important that we are recruiting and retaining students and employees from varied backgrounds who can come together to create a rich learning community – one that is filled with a diversity of life stories and experiences. A community like that enables us to provide a better and stronger education. Yes – I believe we all learn best when exposed to ideas other than our own ideas.
Now for that second core belief which drives my support of diversity, equity, and inclusion – in case you’ve forgotten, number two was, “I believe we have a responsibility to prepare our future leaders for an increasingly diverse world.”
Not too long ago, there was an extensive Gallup study, which looked at the greatest needs of employers, when it came to their workforces. It identified those essential skills that employers felt they needed the most in their employees – And when all was said and done, the greatest need Gallup identified was, “Employees who could work in groups with people different from themselves.” Maybe some of you here today who lead organizations can relate to that Gallup finding…
Folks, our nation and world are becoming more diverse every day. In fact, our nation and world have become more diverse, just since I began this speech a few minutes ago – and there will be even more diversity in our nation and world, by the time I finish this speech. It’s true. That is our reality – and again, I happen to believe it’s a beautiful thing. And as a parent, and as an educator, I want my children – and I want our students at Maryville College – to be prepared and well-equipped for the very diverse world which awaits them – a world in which we, of course, want them to truly thrive and to be successful. I want them to eventually be those “employees who can work in groups with people different from themselves.” With those skills, they will most certainly be the leaders of tomorrow. Yes – once again, “I believe we have a responsibility to prepare our future leaders for an increasingly diverse world.”
So, those are the “whys” behind my support of diversity, equity, and inclusion… But what’s the relevancy of all that for you, the business and civic leaders in our community…?
Well, let me ask you this… How much are you, as leaders, willing to put yourself into situations where you’re exposed to ideas other than your own ideas…? And how much are you creating environments in which your workforce or your volunteers are exposed to ideas other than their own ideas…? As a society, we’re not very good about doing that these days. We’ve all heard those theories about the “echo chambers” of our social media feeds… those echo chambers and spaces in which we repeatedly hear people with the same beliefs as our own – which is great, if you’re just looking to confirm what you already think.
If I may share a brief story or two…
One of the best decisions of my career – perhaps, of my life – was when, a few years ago, I accepted the invitation to serve as a part-time professor at a historically Black university in Baltimore. At the time, I was working as a Dean across town, at a predominantly white college. So, I began teaching in the evenings at this HBCU, Morgan State University – it’s something that I did weekly for over three years, while still holding down my Dean job at the other college. At Morgan State, there were many days when I would drive onto the campus, park, walk to class, teach the class, and then leave the campus a few hours later – and you know what? I wouldn’t see another white person the entire time – well, unless I happened to visit the restroom and looked in the mirror. And you know, I don’t think I had ever really had that experience before in my life. But for me, every week on that campus, every class session, it was a tremendous learning experience – I loved it, and frankly, I miss it. I learned so much from each student I taught… The friendships I made, the things I learned – all those experiences will stay with me forever.
There’s one more experience I would like to share – And that involves the times when I went to prison. Yes, that’s what I said – the times when I went to prison. (Now, the Maryville College employees are looking at each other, wondering who forgot to do my background check.) Okay – let me clarify things, before The Daily Times posts a story – I’m speaking about the times when I went to prison as a volunteer, for the college at which I used to serve as a Dean in Maryland, prior to coming here. You see, most of the courses taught at the College where I worked were also being simultaneously taught at the men’s and women’s state prisons in Jessup, Maryland. Around 100 male inmates and 100 female inmates at a time were also “students” of the college – the professors went to the prisons weekly, teaching the same courses that were being taught to the students on campus. Now, my job each year was to interview and help select the inmates who would be admitted to one of the coveted student spots in this prison education program. Some years, there were as many as 100 prisoners interviewing for every one spot in the program. Those interviews, in which I learned about each prisoner’s life and background, in which I learned about the goals they still had in life, despite their circumstances – those are conversations I will never, ever forget, folks. Honestly, those conversations changed my life, and they challenged so many of the things I had always accepted as truth. And for what it’s worth – here’s the most important lesson I learned, a lesson which might resonate with many of you – More than anything, those conversations in the prison taught me that, in our nation, there are people who are born into cycles of poverty, crime, drugs, and violence – and those cycles are not easily escaped or broken. For so many of those men and women I interviewed, the chance for a college education was the very first opportunity they had ever had to break out of those cycles. I still remember one applicant saying to me – “This is the first window I’ve ever seen – it’s the first time I’ve ever had a possible way out.” And I believed him – and yes – he was admitted to the program.
As I stated earlier, “We all learn best when exposed to ideas other than our own.” But we must be open to such learning – it requires us to embrace differences, to expose ourselves to differences, and to understand and recognize the increasing diversity all around us.
As I also stated earlier, let us not deceive ourselves – Dr. King made people uncomfortable. He was considered to be a radical for his day and time. He exposed people to new, different, and controversial ideas for that time. But, by doing this, he made people learn – his words and his actions caused immense learning and growth for our nation. We should all be grateful for the discomfort and the consequent learning that Dr. King caused – our nation and our world are much better because of it. But at the same time, as events of recent years have shown us, the learning and the growth which began with Dr. King continue today…
We are, my friends, a work in progress… My hope and my prayer are that we will embrace this work, that we will embrace this continuing journey, that we will embrace the dream which still remains –
May Dr. King’s legacy inspire us to continue growing, may it inspire us to be uncomfortable at times, and may it to inspire us to never, ever stop learning… The dream still depends on it.