Event Recap

Tackling Equality with Former NFL Player Wade Davis

Friday, March 1, 2019

Former NFL cornerback and equality advocate Wade Davis spoke on Thursday, February 28, 2019, as part of Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC)’s Compelling Conversations series. A thought leader and public speaker on gender, race and orientation equality, Davis is the NFL’s first LGBT inclusion consultant.

He currently consults for professional sports leagues on issues at the intersection of sexism, racism and homophobia, developing league-wide inclusive leadership strategies, leading inclusive training sessions for coaches and players and building national engagement initiatives.

In addition to his work in professional sports, Davis consults for Google, Netflix, MTV/VH1, 21st Century Fox and AppNexus to create inclusive corporate cultures, and is an active contributor on numerous educational and media projects to engage men on issues of gender equity and equality and ensure women’s workplace equality.

At the event, Davis discussed how Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech represents modern-day intersectionality. “History is not just meant to give us facts,” said Davis. “It allows us to find and understand truth.

He urged the BHCC community to ask questions to try to understand those around them at the various intersections of sexism and racism. “That is what Martin Luther King’s speech was about at the core,” he said. “It was about how we close the distance between each other so that we can see ourselves in one another, and so that we can finally love one another.”

Prior to the presentation, Davis enjoyed lunch prepared by the College’s Culinary Arts students in the Thomas A. Kershaw Dining Room.

Join us for upcoming speaker events: 

Roxane Gay | March 7 
Author and Cultural Critic
 
Seng Ty | April 25
Author of The Years of Zero
BHCC’s 2018-2019 One Book Selection