Recently, I had the opportunity to once again remind myself that nobody is exempt from the pitfalls of life. No matter how sophisticated you are, how smart you are, or how advanced you are, or how forward thinking you are, you too can fall prey to the assertion that racism is a bigger deal than what it is. You see, racism is a matter of perception because you can't tell what somebody thinks. You can only tell what they do. In fact, we tend to judge other people by what they do and expect people to judge us on what we meant to do. You can see it in your own life. As an extraordinary coach, you probably do things that your clients or maybe even other people might think are questionable. You wonder why they attack you because you have a real good reason for doing what you did. Contrast that to the way that you respond when you see other people do things. Since you don't have a way of telling what their motivation is, then you make your call based on that.
I want to limit my discussion about racism because in my mind I am telling myself that racism is over, and that the only racism left is the kind that we think exists. In fact, when someone complains about racism, my tendency is to think that they are masking an inferiority complex because when you want to do something, or you want to get something that's based solely on your efforts, and you don't put forth the effort to get the results that you want, coming up with racism is just another excuse in my book. All that being true, I myself fell prey to the excuse demon. You may have heard that excusitis is the failure disease, and I was making an excuse for something that I have believed. If you've paid attention, you noticed that there is some talk about Idris Elba, a well-known and liked actor, portraying James Bond in the next James Bond movie. Now, the talk was really about which black actor was going to play James Bond.
I listened to all the comments and read all the stories about why they thought that Idris Elba would not have been the right person to play James Bond and certainly as a producer, director, or someone in control of making a movie, you want to make sure and get the right person for the right job. As I listened to all this talk, I immediately thought that they just didn't want a black person to play James Bond. I stuffed that in the back of my mind. I didn't say it to anybody, but I kept it there, right back there where I have those other things that I don't like to look at. This morning, I'm looking in my Facebook News Feed. I see that they have chosen an actor to play the first black James Bond. It is not Idris Elba and guess what? The person that they choose is the absolute perfect choice. He is David Oyelowo. Now, did I say he was black. Of course he's black. The point of the whole search was to find a black James Bond.
Now, Idris Elba is an accomplished actor. I've seen him in things like "The Wire." I've seen him in "Nelson Mandela," but this guy that they picked to play James Bond is the absolute right guy. He's the same guy that played Martin Luther King in the blockbuster movie entitled, "Selma." He's the same guy that played in Lee Daniel's, "The Butler" or whatever that movie is. He played in the movie about the son of a butler who worked in the White House. I have to say that I strongly agree with the people who made the decision. This guy would make a far better James Bond than Idris Elba. I mean, he's a classy guy. Mind you, Idris is classy as well, but when they described him as being "too street," they described him right. But, it also speaks of Idris Elba's acting ability. They just didn't believe he could do the role justice, and they may have been right.
This other young man, David Oyelowo,did a great job playing Martin Luther King. Now, those of you that know who Martin Luther King was, you've got to know that Martin Luther King and James Bond are about as far apart as night and day, but it speaks to this actor's ability to play a part. They must've evaluated him, they did a screen test. They must've spoke to him but whatever it is that they did, they picked him to be the first black James Bond. Now, maybe they thought that whoever the first black James Bond was was some sort of a trailblazer or trendsetter, and he was beating the path for black people in the past or maybe they just simply wanted to make a good movie. Whatever your insecurities are as an extraordinary coach, always be on the lookout to not let them get in the way of you taking care of your clients. Remember our tendency to look good and be right because it is that tendency of looking good and being right that's caused me to miss the point.
I wasted several moments feeling victimized because Idris Elba wasn't chosen to be James Bond. I am the one who took that whole situation and made it about the color of the skin. No longer was I even considering that they were evaluating an actor based on his ability, which in fact, they were. I immediately thought, no matter what the words said. The words clearly said that they were looking for a black actor to play James Bond. For some reason, because they excluded Idris Elba, I wanted to think that they didn't want a black dude to do it, or I wanted to think that they just wanted to have an excuse to not have a black dude because they couldn't find the right one. I tell you, making excuses is an insidious disease. I hope to be cured of excusitis very, very soon. My hope is for you as an extraordinary coach to be excused of excusitis. If you are fortunate enough to have been healed of excusitis, let me tell you this, your clients have not so continue to be an extraordinary coach. Continue to heal your clients of excusitis and move onto that place where you know that you belong.
Now, if this blog has helped you or caused you to have any new thoughts, I would love for you to share it with someone. I end this blog like I end all the blogs, and that is, you have yourself a good time until the next time.
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