Unconventional wisdom: James Earl Jones speaks out.

A MAN WHO EARNS HIS LIVING ON STAGE BUT YET FEELS MOST comfortableworking behind the scenes when performing nonprofit endeavors. Athoughtful man of strong opinions, yet one who consciously steers clearof political activism. A renowned actor but also one of the mostrecognized commercial voices in the country. An acclaimed Othello who isundoubtedly better known for the devilish, deep he gave to Darth Vader than for his interpretation of the Shakespearean tragic hero.

If it can be said that James Earl Jones is a man of contradictions,then it also can be said that those contradictions are somehowcomfortably compatible. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say thatJones, who will be a featured speaker at ASAE's 2002 Annual Meetingand Exposition (August 17-20 in Denver), is simply a man of complexity,and that complexity starts with his ethnic background. Jones considershimself all of the above when it comes to ethnicity. "I'm partIrish, part African, and part Cherokee," he says. "I cannot bepartisan in any direction."

Certainly, Jones embraces all that he is. Outside of his home, forexample, stands a "great totem pole," as he calls it. Awarethat totem poles are not specifically a part of Cherokee culture (theyare from the Pacific Northwest Native American tradition) Jones says heerected it as an emblem of Native American culture as a whole.

Jones also embraces the fact that he is a stutterer. That'sright: A man who chose acting of all vocations, the man gifted with oneof the richest and most recognizable voices in America, emphasizes thathe is--not was--a stutterer. Needless to say, he has come a long way.His stutter was so severe that in his autobiography he refers to himselfas mute during his first eight years of school.

Culture: commonality and conflict

Considering his fascination in matters of culture and ethnicity,the topic Jones will be speaking on at ASAE Denver 2002 seems natural tohis interests. He has entitled his presentation "Culture Quest: HowCulture Affects Us and How We Affect Culture." In the presentation,Jones will reflect on what happens when cultures change, when theycollide, and when they converge and connect.

In Jones's eyes, culture, whether it is ethnic or otherwise,is a driving force of human existence. Culture, he says, lies at thecenter of conflict--a noteworthy viewpoint coming from a dramaticartist: It is generally understood that at the center of all drama liesconflict, if there is no conflict, there is no play, no film, no story."There are cultural grounds for every element of our lives,especially every conflict that we have," he says.

Jones, a Civil War buff, loves to study that American conflict"from both sides." But it's not just the differencesbehind the confrontation that interest him. "Sometimes it'sconflict, and sometimes it's a discovery of how similar we all areas well," he says. "In the Civil War you had Irishmen who cameover here directly from Ireland looking for citizenship who wouldparticipate in the war. That sort of thing is what fascinates me. Youhad Native Americans who were slaveholders. In fact, my ancestryincludes both."

Diversity and the human condition

After all the talk of culture and conflict, Jones, in fact, appearsmore focused on similarities than differences. In his autobiography,Voices and Silences (by James Earl Jones and Penelope Niven, 2002,Limelight Editions), he speaks of his lifelong fascination with thecharacters of Othello in Shakespeare's play of that title and withLennie in the stage version of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men,two characters--one complex, the other elemental--possessing a certainuniversality. "I have not yet solved the mystery of Othello,"he writes in his autobiography, "and I have played him many times,at different ages in my life."

During his half-century career, Jones, in fact, has played Othellono fewer than eight times and Lennie, who of course is not writtenspecifically as an African American character, at least twice. Universalhuman experience and culture play heavily into both those stories:Othello illuminates the alienating experience of a foreigner in astrange land, while Of Mice and Men tells the tale of two rootlesstravelers, longing for a small piece of land of their own.

So, with his inclination toward universality and commonality, Jonesis not a fan of the term diversity, a hot topic in the association worldthese days, yet he doesn't entirely dismiss the concept.

"It's like focusing on ethnicity--it becomes more andmore ethnocentric, and I think that has to be avoided," he says.'You have to be looking both ways. You have to pay attention todiversity and you have to focus on how we are all exactly alike aswell." Rather than focusing on diversity, Jones says, the emphasisshould be placed on ways in which "we're all exactly alike,our needs and aspirations and what defines us as human beings."

That is the direction that the movie industry needs to head, Jonessays: putting diverse faces in roles that are not ethnicity-specific."It's great to see a movie, for instance, that includes theface of a minority, whether it's Asian or African, and make nothingof it," he says. "They're just part of this society andcountry." Jones cites the casting of Morgan Freeman as CIA directorBill Cabot in this summer's The Sum of All Fears, the latest TomClancy thriller to hit the big screen, as an example of such color-blind casting.

Believing that films have the capability to "distill culture," Jones saw firsthand the positive cultural force thatmovies can be when he starred in 1995's Cry the Beloved Country,based on the Alan Paton novel set in apartheid-era South Africa.Recently Jones met someone who said that his s father, "a staunchracist," had seen the film. The son told Jones that the movie"had a profound impact" on his father. "The movie turnedhim around because he saw a character played with such basic humanity,which is what I was aiming at," says Jones.

Note that once again, he points to the concept of humanity. InJones's character of Steven Kumalo, the man who saw the film"was able to see a fellow human being in terms of what Alan Patonhas written," Jones says.

Getting his hands dirty

With his clearly cefined views, one might think that Jones would bean activist. That's hardly the case. Jones, who has enjoyedparticipating in such nonprofit organizations as Harvest with Heart,which distributes excess crops to the poor in the New Paltz area of NewYork, and Christmas in April, Washington, D.C., would much rather helpout in the trenches than perhaps testify on Capitol Hill or be involvedin other more abstract ways. "It's what I insist on," hesays. " will get out with a paintbrush and go help paintsomebody's fence as part of the Christmas in April program.That's the only area where I feel comfortable-to do somethingdirectly--[as opposed to being] involved philosophically."

That attitude resonates with the current volunteer challenges ofassociations, which hear often that a good way to attract new volunteersis to assign specific tasks, complete with tangible end results. "Ithink the appeal for volunteerism has to be defined by that so thatpeople know that there are different ways they can volunteer,"Jones says. "I think we all think of marching down to the town halland passing out soup. There are all kinds of ways to volunteer. I thinkthat those who appeal to us [to volunteer] have to do a better job ofdefining what we could do. It's very important, and probablyeverybody is more keen to participate now after 9/11. There's aneed to harmonize a bit more."

On mentoring and meaningful relationships

Jones has had some close and influential relationships in his life.One that he mentions is with Donald Crouch, his high school Englishteacher who drew out his voice through poetry after Jones spent eightyears virtually mute in the school setting. Jones dedicated hisautobiography to Crouch ("father of my resurrected voice,"Jones calls Crouch in the dedication).

So how does Jones feel about mentoring? Has he had any mentors?"There are some relationships that I wouldn't reduce bycalling them mentoring," he says, speaking of Crouch as well as hisgrandfather. "They were very rich relationships." Againsharing a viewpoint as original as his very own voice, Jones, in fact,says that he doesn't buy into the idea of role models, nor does hecare for the concept of mentoring. "I get very uncomfortable whensomeone is guiding his life by somebody else, by somebody else'sshadow or by their light. It doesn't quite make sense to me,"he says. But doesn't he think one can learn from other people?"I don't think so," he says. "I think what otherpeople do is inspire you to find your stuff in yourself, not to beguided by them, In the army you have a guide who gives you directionwhen you're marching. I don't think in real life that that iswhat we want."

James Earl Jones might as well be speaking about himself: marchingnot by the direction of any external guide, but to his own internaldrummer.

Carl Levesque is senior editor of ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT. E-mail:clevesque@asaenet.org.