Courtlandt Butts: Courageous Conversations on Race and Equity

About this video

“I’ve got a lot of stories to tell. We must have the courageous conversation. Courageous conversations will help us reshape the future for the highest human potential. Sometimes barriers and socially constructed norms get in the way of having conversations that get to other realms of consciousness. The way to get out of silos is to have these conversations. Tell your story, but prepare to listen to and take a journey with someone else.

The whole of human history and knowledge is stored in human story, and language and context are shaped around that. We could write some words down on a piece of paper that would make sense grammatically, but context is the story that invites people in and allows them to say ‘I can see myself in that.’ Everything I want to overcome and to navigate can get clarity in a story.

What we read doesn’t matter to us, unless we understand the story that is attached to it. Once we understand the story, the information becomes relevant and leads to a different possibility for our future.

Story is the thing that can wake people up, that has an opportunity to bring a higher level of consciousness. When we take that story journey with someone else, a lot of times we go, oh wow. We literally shift in the worldview we’ve been holding onto for years, and now we can take different actions. We can work together toward the higher parts of our humanity and potential.” – Courtlandt Butts