AMAECHI JOHN A Very Centered Man by joel martens photography courtesy amaechi performance systems
This guy has opened a lot of doors in his lifetime... Some have been personal, like the closet doors he walked through after his stint in the NBA, a first in the sport. Some have been professionally, like the hallowed doors of education he walked through to claim his PhD in Psychology. Some have been as a mentor, like the doors of his community center in Manchester, England, that serves the youth in that
area. And some as a businessman, helping others to walk through the doors of discovery—using his experiences to guide with whom is in contact—all in all an incredibly articulate man with a lot to say and not much to prove.
Thanks for taking the time to do this John, I really appreciate it. No problem, my pleasure.
So tell me a little bit about what you are up to these days. Well, it’s quite varied; I believe in the trades it’s called a portfolio career,
so I do a lot of different things. I have seen that term bandied about in the information that I have read referring to your career. Exactly, something that Helen my assistant has told me is true… So
essentially I am an organizational consultant and an executive coach as well. Both of those things are related, my background is in psychology, I started out as a marriage and family therapist and then I moved in to organizational psychology. I’ve chosen to use that by working with businesses and organizations,
from universities, high schools and districts to biopharmaceutical companies and corporations, working on issues from H.R. management, recruitment, retention, management training and leadership that is sort of the “bulk” area. My company also does some speech writing, usually in relation to high-end occasions, non-partisan stuff, I am not a political speechwriter. Sounds like something good to stay away from in this climate. Exactly, it’s good and I do love to help people craft their words, but I just
want to make sure that I don’t get flung into them. My personal politics shouldn’t be strung into the middle of it. I’m sure that must be a challenge for you because of your status as a public figure. I don’t kid myself, my personal politics are pretty well known, most people can imagine whom I would vote for in Britain, or in America frankly, but I like to keep it out of work whenever possible. I listened to your speech online that you delivered at the Diversity Awards ceremony back in November of 2011 about the “power of words” and thought it was a stand out speech. I was impressed by your ability to explain how one word can have such an impact on a person. I think it is especially relevant in regard to the work being done
around bullying. Do you work with young people a lot? Yes, the good part is that I get to do it most days. I have a community
center here in Manchester, with about 2,500 kids a week coming through its doors. From ages 7 through, well our oldest “child” is 27, so that one really isn’t a child anymore! Wow, that really is an incredibly broad age range. Yeah, it’s brilliant, a great experience for me.
My particular favorite in your speech about the impact of words had to do with the long-term effect it can have and how we carry that with us. It is so relevant currently for young gays and lesbians coming up—do you think that attitudes are changing? I think it depends really, I have the advantage of living and working in
both Britain and America, I get to experience both and there is a differ- ence—although I am only in America about a third of the year, but I am there enough to be more than a tourist. There is a difference; well really there are many differences between
Britain and America and in terms of whether or not it is getting better for gays and lesbians. I have had a real problem endorsing the idea that “it gets better” in the
states, simply because, and I know that it is a powerful message right now with people like Dan Savage and that movement, but, and I have watched the videos, I must have watched thousands of videos from the “It Gets Better Campaign” and each one of them has a consistent theme which has prompted me to ask the question, “Does it get better? Or do we just physically move away from the circumstances? ” I keep on looking at these videos of all the gay, lesbian and transgen-
dered people saying how much better they are now than when they were 16 and I would almost bet that 95 percent of them are or have moved from where they were, to someplace more accepting. Places like central Missouri or the middle of Nevada or Northern Wisconsin and they have moved to New York or Connecticut or California where they are more ac- cepted. So it makes me question if it really is getting better or whether it is
APRIL 2012 | RAGE monthly 45
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