S. Kent Butler says he's an elephant in a world built for giraffes. And he's here to shake things up.
This metaphor comes from the book Building a House for Diversity by R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. and Marjorie L. Woodruff: How a Fable About a Giraffe & an Elephant Offers New Strategies for Today's Workforce, explains Butler, who later went on to say The American Counseling Association became the 70th president on July 1. The elephant and the giraffe are friends, but their relationship is shaken when the giraffe invites the elephant home. The house is not designed for the elephant. It is tall and narrow, so the elephant has difficulty finding its way around this room and often hits doors and walls. Instead of meeting his friend, the giraffe suggests that the elephant adapt itself to the giraffe's surroundings through aerobics or ballet.
Like the giraffe, the counseling profession has not always made room for individuals in marginalized communities to hold leadership positions, stresses Butler. For the past 70 years, the leadership of ACA has been mostly white, with Butler being only the second African American to serve as president.
"Leadership can look different and still be good," emphasizes Butler.
As Butler states, the consultancy profession will have to continue to transform itself in order to do justice to different executives. “And that shift won't be easy or convenient,” he admits. “It will shake things up. Now we are making room for other people to come into this consultation room and work together to create a better environment for everyone. ”
Man meets the moment
Cyrus Williams, an advisory professor and director of the doctoral counselor training and supervision program at Regent University in Virginia Beach, finds this era – one in which COVID-19 exposed the health disparities of this country – is losing his life in acts of police brutality and racial attacks on Asian Americans continue to escalate – a perfect time for Butler to take the helm as President of the ACA.
Facilitating difficult conversations about racial reconciliation, co-conspiracy, and the impact of racial injustice on communities is his specialty, says Williams. "He's been working on it since we met, that was his trip," he says.
Williams worked in the student union at the University of Connecticut, while Butler studied counseling and counseling psychology for his doctorate. “There weren't many black men on campus,” he says. "We found each other and became friends."
Because they both shared a passion for working with low-income first-generation college students, they later collaborated on several work projects, including scientific publications.
Butler is Professor of Consultant Education and former Interim Chief Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Officer at the University of Central Florida and a Fellow of the National Association of Diversity Offices in Higher Education.
He is also a past president of the Association for Multicultural Cultural Development (AMCD), a division of ACA, but Williams notes that his presence goes way beyond that. Butler has made innumerable connections within the association – not only as a manager, but also through scholarships and professional collaboration, he says.
It's not just the many relationships Butler has built that will make him an asset as president – it's his commitment to what ACA represents, says Ann Shillingford, his wife and colleague at the University of Central Florida. "He has a passion and dedication for the consulting profession – he undoubtedly takes it to heart," she says.
Butler is also a person who is good at listening to people and getting to the heart of what they really want – "like peeling an onion," adds Shillingford.
She says Butler is introverted until he gets to know you. Williams agrees, noting that Butler loves hanging out with friends and family. While in grad school, Butler hosted a vacation party for students and friends at the clubhouse at Williams' apartment. Butler spent the whole day before the party gathering supplies. He was running errands at 1am when he got caught in a blizzard. He went to the clubhouse, held a large pan of his aunt's famous macaroni and cheese, slipped and broke his ankle. The macaroni and cheese flew through the air, but unlike Butler, they stayed intact. He then drove to the emergency room himself and made it back to the party in time.
"When Kent talks to you, he's fully involved," says Tony Crespi, a professor of psychology at the University of Hartford and one of Butler's former professors. "You think you are the only person in the room."
Crespi also speaks of Butler's keen intellect and his passion for learning. “I'm someone who gives written feedback on papers,” he says. "I want people to write really well, to be convincing." Crespi says it's not uncommon for students to groan about his strict standards, but not butlers. He came to Crespi after class and asked him to go through the comments so that he could understand and improve his articles.
Because Butler came from a psychological-psychological program, he could easily have chosen to become a psychologist, as many of his colleagues did, adds Crespi. But instead he was very interested in becoming a consultant.
"I think my trip was one on which I was taken to a consultation," says Butler. “I served in many roles as a consultant before I got into the consultant training.” As a student, Butler mentored a number of other undergraduate students and then worked as a graduate student in addition to his work with college students with Upward Bound, a government-funded program that lowers incomes and first generation academically supported high school students to prepare them for college.
"I've always worked with young people and helped them become their better selves," says Butler. "In my studies it has become very important to me to strengthen my abilities in such a way that they fit in with what I have done so far."
Talking about racial justice
If Butler is the man at the moment, the moment has almost missed his man. Violent racism nearly obliterated its existence long before it was born. When Butler's mother was only 10 years old, an unidentified group of white parishioners set fire to the house where she, her 14 siblings, her father and mother – who was pregnant with their 16th child – lived. The fire that broke out in the basement was so kindled that the family could not get to the doors. The oldest siblings broke some windows, jumped out, and caught the other family members jumping down from the second floor of the apartment. As if by a miracle they all survived.
The family then lived in a fire station for a while, while Butler's grandparents worked to make the barn on their property habitable. Further evidence of how much the neighbors didn't want his mother's family close by was the fact that the barn burned down before they could move in.
"Law enforcement agencies didn't investigate even after my family told them they heard voices in the basement before the fire," says Butler. And like so many other hate crimes, these arson cases have never been solved.
And yet Butler's mother and father, who had also grown up surrounded by signs open to society's utter rejection of blacks, “still held out,” he says. They saw the good in the world and made sure that Butler and his sisters knew that – despite the messages they might receive from society – they were in no way inferior to anyone else.
Butler says that over the years his mother taught him not to waste his energy on unsolvable ends or to argue just to argue. He used this lesson in his work on racial justice as a reminder to meet people where they are.
"When I go to eye level with someone to try to solve a problem, nothing changes if we don't listen to each other," he says. “If I speak only to hear my point and I reject yours, then I will not help change the narrative. If I want to make people understand where I come from, I have to set a tone and create a space for people to hear me and speak of what I know with enough authority for people to listen and embrace. "
At the same time, Butler points out that it is difficult to get whites to take part in these conversations. “The wrong narration of fragility gets in the way,” he explains. “To be honest, racism was not upheld or benefited from fragile people. In this sense, we should not legitimize the fact that white people are powerless against the dismantling of racism. "
"We need white people who recognize that this is not about them," he says. “This is about racism and … existing systems. We all have a role in it and in contrast to the fact that I have to come and respond to your guilt or your fragility, I would like to come to the conversation. "
“We already know what this is about,” continues Butler. “I'm not here to argue with you about whether you are racist or not. I'm here to highlight the fact that there is racism and we need to change the system. So, get out of your way. At this point, it's not about you, it's about changing the fabric of America so that all human beings can be accepted and be part of the American dream [and] of access to justice that I believe all human beings should have. "
Butler asks white advisors to become not only allies but also co-conspirators. Allies are often the ones who turn to Butler after talking about social justice and racial issues or after meeting and saying, "I really like what you said," and Butler wonders why they didn't speak during the meeting to have. However, co-conspirators help to pave the way for marginalized groups through education and anti-racism work and speak out against racism when colored people cannot or are not in the room.
In fact, what people say when he's not in the room is just as important. “Say it in the room,” emphasizes Butler. “Be there and help move the narrative forward in the room. People who are ready to express themselves stand in the gap [and] helping to change the narrative, these are the co-conspirators. ”
Michael Brooks, Associate Professor of Consulting at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, agrees that "it is time for other [white] people to put their words into action." He and Butler got together met through AMCD and forged a bond based not only on professional interests, but also on the difficulty of being a black man in counselor training.
"Kent is a tall man with a dark complexion – he is judged well before you meet him," says Brooks, who has a similar problem. Butler and Brooks often discuss how to pay attention to what they are saying and what gestures they use because they are constantly at risk of being misunderstood, misinterpreted and stereotyped.
Brooks is thrilled that another black man has been elected president of the ACA, but, as he points out, “the fact that Kent [only] is the second black African American president should be embarrassing, and so should the advisory profession "Should ask why it took so long."
Brooks is also aware that there is only so much you can do in a year, so he hopes the consultant profession has reasonable expectations of how much Butler can accomplish during his presidency.
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S. Kent Butler jumps into the air against a desert backdrop of Dubai
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Butler in Dubai in June 2016.
Football, family and far away
Although Williams Butler often has to remind them to maintain a work-life balance, the new president of ACA takes time to relax. Shillingford says he's a huge Dallas Cowboys fan and has put together so much merchandise that she finally got the idea for more memorabilia to come home. She also admits that she occasionally diverts cowboys' clothing for goodwill.
Butler also enjoys listening to music – especially jazz, rhythm and blues and gospel. He describes himself as a night owl, which he admits to being a problem when you have to get up early. He is prone to staying up late to work and occasionally watching shows that he previously recorded.
He and Shillingford love to travel – for work and pleasure. Some of her favorite places are Barcelona, Hawaii, St. Thomas, Dominica, and South Africa. Butler says he would like to return to Africa and visit other countries, Liberia in particular, because DNA testing has revealed that he has family roots there. Butler and Shillingford also enjoy spending time at home with their 9-year-old daughter Summer Joy and Shillingford's son Justin, who is 21.
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Butler with his wife (M. Ann Shillingford), stepson (Justin Ford) and daughter (Summer Joy Butler)
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Butler with his Wife (M. Ann Shillingford), stepson (Justin Ford) and daughter (Summer Joy Butler)
Presidential influence
One could say that Butler now hopes to be able to use his personal and professional life experiences to help the consulting profession to be at its best.
Because racial and other injustices are so ingrained, "we need to be careful about how systems affect different groups," says Shillingford. Butler hopes to use his platform to address issues of diversity related not only to race and ethnicity, but also to gender, disability, immigration, and other interfaces, she says.
One of Butler's overarching goals for his presidency is to help the profession recognize that people from different groups and intersections can be leaders. “I think we often see a leader as a certain type of person,” Butler continues. “We have to bring everyone to one table. It's about inclusivity. ”He also plans to create leadership initiatives that will help develop diverse leaders in the future.
Consultants should also bring diversity to their customer base, he adds. He urges his fellow counselors to think about what the profession is doing to allay the stigma and distrust of marginalized communities in order to help people see counselors as a supportive resource that can help them overcome life's challenges and to improve their mental well-being.
Since the presidency is only for one year, Butler has spoken to Williams about how he hopes to create initiatives that will continue to be successful long after his term in office. Butler "wants to be able to replace himself," says Williams, with leaders continuing the work to fight injustice and eradicate inequalities within mental health systems.
He also wants to ensure that the counseling profession maintains the current dynamic for diversity, equity and inclusion. He hopes to help counselors have difficult dialogues and become an advocate for social justice.
Butler is at a point personally and professionally where he is ready to tell his truth. “This is my story, my narrative,” he says. “I'm coming to share my experience with you. I will be honest with who I am. I'm not here to step on tiptoe, but if your toes are in the way, move. ”
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S. Kent Butler, 70th President of the ACA
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S. Kent Butler, 70th President of the ACA
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Read S. Kent Butler's first column by the President from the July issue of Counseling Today: "Shaking it up and tapping you in"
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Laurie Meyers is a senior writer at Counseling Today. Contact them at [email protected]
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Opinions and statements in articles appearing on CT Online should not be construed as the opinions of the editors or guidelines of the American Counseling Association.
