Daryl Davis: KKKrossing the divide: A Black man talks with white supremacists

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

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5.0 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2020

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Communities of color face visible threats. The recent murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a young Black jogger in Georgia, and the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, reverberated across the country, sparking an outpouring a pain and rage. These cases of racial violence and bias were only the latest on a very long list of attacks and murders of African-American men and women. At this profoundly painful time, we speak with musician and bandleader, Daryl Davis, a Black man who has spent the past 35 years on a remarkable quest: speaking with, and at times befriending, members of white supremacist groups. He has helped more than 200 KKK members to renounce their racist ideology. "We have to ask ourselves the question: do I want to sit back and see what my country becomes, or do I want to stand up and make my country become what I want to see," Daryl tells us. "I've chosen the latter. And so you have to get into the thick of it."

Transcript

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0:00.0	As we record this episode, cities are erupting over racial injustice,
0:05.5	communities of color facing visible threats.
0:08.4	Leaders who should bring us together seem incapable of doing so. This is let's find common ground.
0:20.0	I'm Richard Davies and I'm Ashley Miln Tite. We speak today with musician, activist, author and band leader, Darrell Davis, a black man who spent well over 30 years speaking with and at times befriending white
0:35.0	supremacist. We hear from Darrell about his extraordinary quest and strategy
0:40.3	to improve race relations and find common ground.
0:44.0	Welcome to Let's Find Common Ground, Darryl.
0:47.0	Thank you.
0:48.0	Thank you both very much for having me.
0:50.0	Darryl, before we hear your story,
0:52.0	we're doing this interview at a time of national despair and deep anger over racial
0:57.8	injustice, what's your response to the killing of George Floyd in police custody and to everything that's happened since?
1:06.4	Well, one, a lot of anger, a lot of frustration that must be channeled into communication and dialogue.
1:16.6	Not police training, as everybody wants to say.
1:20.9	Training has nothing to do with it. When you're out there selecting a particular group of people, in this case black people,
1:29.0	and you're not treating white people the same way, it has nothing to do with training, it has to do with humanity.
1:35.0	You emphatically said training is not the answer.
1:40.0	What's an alternative?
1:42.0	An alternative is having regular meetings with your community,
1:47.0	explaining police procedure, listening to your community
1:51.0	about their concerns and their fears of the police.
1:55.0	Listen to the police concerns about the community and don't do it every time
	...

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