Johnnetta Cole said she has heard the racist workplace assumption: “Don’t let them in because if you let them in, they will lower your standards.”
“The truth is, one cannot have the best, the most excellent teaching facility without diversity,” said Cole, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art and a veteran academic administrator.
A medical school, business or hospital will never achieve excellence without diversity: This was the message Cole shared with the audience at the Washington University School of Medicine’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture on January 18, sponsored by the medical school’s Office of Diversity Programs.
In U.S. medical schools, she said, only 7.3 percent of faculty is African American, Hispanic, Native American or Asian American. Diversity in the U.S. medical student population has grown to be 16.5 percent minority.
“The elimination of health disparities would come from a more diverse medical practice,” she said. “Diversity leads to excellence, and excellence leads to better care.”
In the business world, there is growing acceptance for the business case of diversity, she said. If businesses wish to thrive, they must build a diverse workforce and create a culture of inclusion.
Customers want to see themselves reflected in the companies they buy from – and the black community, minorities and women have buying power, she said.
They also have that power in health care. Cole said she believes strongly in human empathy and that doctors of all races and conditions can feel empathy for their diverse array of patients. However, black patients often will have more trust and confidence in a doctor who is African-American and understands their background.
“We need more diverse faculty to increase the number of doctors who will serve in the community. If the leadership doesn’t give it, it ain’t going to happen,” she said.
“Without the commitment of department heads, diversity is simply not going to happen. Just like businesses, medical facilities will respond when their stakeholders call for greater diversity in faculty and staff.”
Cole is board chair of the Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity and Inclusion Institute, founded at Bennett College for Women. She was president of Bennett College from 2002 to 2007 and president of Spelman College in Atlanta from 1987 to 1997.
In the spirit of Fannie Lou Hamer – a “shero” of the Civil Rights Movement, in Cole’s words – Cole reminded the audience that this fight is in the community’s hands.
Just as Hamer tirelessly worked to increase the number of black people who voted in Mississippi, so should the St. Louis community push for inclusion in their health care facilities and universities.
That is, if they are “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” as Hamer was.
A Dream reviewed
Cole’s humorous and graceful speech incited a crowd of about 75 faculty members, community members and a few students. Her style reflected and honored Dr. King’s charismatic manner of speaking.
“It’s a day we pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the loving man who carried out Gandhi’s nonviolent philosophy through some of the most turbulent times that our nation has ever known. Nina Simone called Martin Luther King ‘the Dark Prince of Peace,’” she said.
“Dr. King said, ‘I have a dream that one day my children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.’”
If Dr. King had lived beyond his 39 years, she said, he would have worked for an even larger dream to overcome bias against ethnicity, gender, sexual origination, age, religion, class or nationality, physical or mental ability or disability.
She asked the question whether his dream of racial equality has been fulfilled here in America. She started her answer by remembering a cold day one year ago, January 20, 2009. when Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States of America.
“We know that the first family of America, a black family, lives in the White House – the very White House that slaves helped to build,” she said.
“It tells us that race as a battle to the highest office in the land has been challenged, but it does not mean that racism has ended, nor does it mean that all the people who voted for Barack Obama are now ready to actively challenge all forms of racial inequality,” she said.
The reality is that more Latino and black men are in prisons cells than in the resident halls of colleges and universities. Life for poor black women is horrific, she said.
She brought the point back to her current position as director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. As a museum director in Washington, D.C., in part of the largest complex of museums and research centers in the world, she emphasized that it is not enough to teach about the legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. Students must learn about the great African kingdoms as well.
“Africa – the only continent that is the creator of all of humanity,” Cole said. “It is because of that that I am convinced: The sooner white folk admit that they are African, it’s going to be a better world.”
