Herman Boone emphasizes importance of diversity
February 1, 2009
Acceptance of diversity begins and ends with the individual, Herman Boone said at Butler University’s Krannert Room in Clowes Hall on Thursday night.
The former football coach, portrayed by actor Denzel Washington in the 2000 film “Remember the Titans”, spoke about the importance of accepting diversity as Butler’s R.E.A.C.H. (Respecting, Embracing & Achieving Community Harmony) Week came to a close.
“That word [diversity] gets tossed around a lot these days,” Boone said. “It’s not about the color of one’s skin. It’s about who you are as an individual.”
And Boone is no rookie to diversity issues. In 1971, he accepted the position as head football coach at the newly integrated T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., and helped transform a segregated group of men into a team.
Of his 1971 Titans, Boone said he learned that to get respect, you had to give it.
“The Titans found a way to create trust, and that trust became respect,” he said. “My players did more to teach me than I did to teach them.”
Boone said he enjoys going around the world talking about respect, teamwork and the importance of character – the things these men stood for.
“'Remember the Titans' is a movie about courage, value and the ability to transcend narrow-minded thinking,” he said.
He told the audience that as Butler students, they have the ability to bypass this way of thinking and better accept differences.
“A degree from here qualifies you, it documents you to make a difference; to stick out like a sore thumb,” he said.
Because of organizations like R.E.A.C.H., Boone said he’s glad that students are stepping up and facing issues of diversity. He told the audience that it’s intriguing how people often can easily accept differences in anything but other human beings.
He said, “You see people taking pictures all the time, accepting different colors of trees, different birds – everything. But when it comes to people, that’s where we tend to draw the line.”
Reflecting back to football camp in 1971, Boone said he purposely separated the offense and defense into two different buses because he felt that those kids had to bond with each other, to create a team with one objective.
Of this experience he said, “Do you think I was not challenged? Those players looked at me, they thought I had lost my mind.”
He said it wasn’t easy to get these players to accept one another, but that this acceptance of diversity has to begin with someone. “You can transcend narrow-minded thinking if you get people to laughing,” he said.
Sophomore Jana Fuelberth, part of SGA Program Board’s Podium Expressions and in charge of helping bring speakers to Butler’s campus, said that as Denzel Washington’s role, Coach Boone is quite popular with people.
“He really helped promote diversity on campus,” she said.
R.E.A.C.H special events co-chair Chad Lesczynski is in charge of diversity programming through the organization. He said they decided to ask Boone to speak because he’s a name people are familiar with, and has served as an inspiration.
“It was a great experience to hear a legend talk about diversity issues and how to overcome them,” Lesczynski said, who was happy with the turnout in the Krannert Room.
“We almost filled the room, and that’s really what we aimed for.”
When he spoke about the production of the film, Boone told the audience that it wasn’t actually a brick that was thrown through his window as in the movie, but an entire toilet.
“That was the mentality they wanted to pass on to me, and that I refused to accept.”
He said he wanted to encourage students to stand up and speak out loudly for diversity “rat now”, a phrase he said was different than “right now” in his hometown of Rocky Mountain, NC.
“‘Right now’ means whenever you can,” he said. “‘Rat now’ means so fast that the Lord won’t find out about it until next week.” He directed this statement to university president Dr. Bobby Fong, seated in the fourth row, and said that if he wanted a quick reply from students he should send emails saying response was needed “rat now.”
Leaving his microphone and leaning with his left arm on the podium, Boone looked at his audience and said, “If you, with all of this education, do not plan to make a difference, then take your butt back to sleep.
“But don’t forget to dream, because dreams have no expiration date. Have any of you ever dreamed something that was so beautiful, and you got up the next morning and said ‘I can’t remember what it is’? It’s because you didn’t chase that dream.”
