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Meet the Black Blues Musician Who Befriended the KKK
The Daily Beast ^ | 3-18-2016 | JEN YAMATO

Posted on 03/18/2016 1:52:02 PM PDT by Citizen Zed

For decades, blues musician Daryl Davis has been raising eyebrows with his unconventional hobby: befriending and converting bigoted members of the Ku Klux Klan, whose white hoods he symbolically collects along the way.

“I try to bring out the humanity in people,” he told The Daily Beast following the SXSW premiere of Accidental Courtesy, a documentary about Davis and his unorthodox methods that sparked provocative Q&As at the festival.

Sitting down to chat in Austin, Texas, flanked by director Matthew Ornstein and ex-KKK member Scott Shepherd, Davis smiled warmly. “We all are human beings at the end of the day.”

The film chronicles D.C. fixture Davis’s remarkable knack for winning over racists with friendship, and includes several scenes in which the Chicago-born bluesman boldly initiates sit-down conversations about race with some of America’s preeminent racists.

He even manages to find common ground with notorious racists like National Socialist Movement chairman Jeff Schoep, who appears in Accidental Courtesy advocating for white separatism before sharing a laugh and a handshake with the affable Davis over the origins of rock ‘n’ roll and peanut butter, of all things.

But Davis’s encounters with his fellow African-American activists in the film are far from harmonious.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: blacks; kkk; music
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To: tophat9000

Quite so. Racial hatred both requires and fosters malignancy of the soul. Leading someone away from attachment to such evil is difficult and much to the credit of anyone who undertakes it.


21 posted on 03/18/2016 3:24:56 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: arl295
I just don’t understand why a dwindling group of racists is worth so much outrage and print

Although the Klan is just a tiny shadow of itself from the old days, the left needs groups like the Klan around to keep the racial narrative going.

The narrative states, among other things, that while there's white racists anywhere in the country (no matter how small their numbers), blacks and other minorities just can't get ahead. Those few hundred Klan members and Aryan Nation members make it well nigh impossible for black people to get ahead. Yeah, it's a big joke.

22 posted on 03/18/2016 3:39:09 PM PDT by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion)
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To: arl295
It is estimated that membership is around 5,000 or less.

Half of those left are either Federal informants or related.

23 posted on 03/18/2016 5:37:13 PM PDT by BBell
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To: BBell

“It is estimated that membership is around 5,000 or less.

Half of those left are either Federal informants or related.”

...or Dem senators.


24 posted on 03/19/2016 8:03:01 AM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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