Racism Renounced: A Black Man Talks With White Supremacists. Daryl Davis

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

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5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 February 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Acclaimed musician and recording artist Daryl Davis has interviewed hundreds of KKK members and other White supremacists and influenced many of them to renounce their racist ideology. We hear his brave and remarkable story. Daryl's personal quest began many years ago, after a concert when he was in a country music band. A card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan praised his piano playing. Daryl recognized that he had an opportunity to ask an important question about racism: “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?” Daryl Davis is the author of "Klan-Destine Relationships"— the first book written about the Ku Klux Klan by a Black writer. His work in race relations has been highlighted in speaker series across the country. His documentary film, "Accidental Courtesy", features his process of conversation and understanding to bridge differences and promote racial reconciliation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's the best way to improve race relations?
0:03.6	For musician Darrell Davis, the answer was to get to know
0:06.7	and even befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan.
0:10.3	Darrell Davis is black, and he's been meeting white supremacist one on one for more than 35 years.
0:18.0	He's convinced more than 200 members of the KKK to hang up their robes and leave the clan.
0:25.0	Everybody wants to be heard.
0:29.0	So I would let them get it all out,
0:31.0	and then I would explain things to them from my perspective. They would go home and they would think you know what that black guy said was right but but he's black he's black but he's right but he's black, but he's right, but he's black. You know, so it was a
0:46.1	cognitive dissonance thing going on. They had to make up their own mind, do I
0:52.1	continue living a lie, or do I believe the truth and turn my life around? The This is a let's find common ground. I'm Ashley Miltite.
1:18.0	I'm Richard Davies. We share one man's remarkable story.
1:23.0	Acclaimed musician and recording artist Darrell Davis has travelled the world playing in jazz,
1:28.0	R&B, boogie, and country bands.
1:31.0	He's also been on a personal quest to try and learn the answer to a question that he was
1:36.2	first confronted with as a child.
1:39.4	How can you hate me when you don't even know me.
1:43.4	Darrell has interviewed hundreds of KK members and other white supremacist.
1:48.2	We asked him in the spring of 2020, how did he convince people who hated blacks like himself to quit the clan?
1:55.0	Well, let's say this. I did not convince them. They convinced themselves.
2:01.0	I was simply the impetus for that. I planted the seed and I
2:05.8	nourished it and gave them enough reason to think and do some introspection
2:11.1	and reconsider their path and in doing so they made up their mind to choose another direction.
	...

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