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 Daviss 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 Americas 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 Daviss encounters with his fellow African-American activists in the film are far from harmonious.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Isn’t there a Dave Chapelle skit that’s appropriate here?
I’ve never heard of him. Seems a little odd but I guess
show business is half business. Must be a real PR jump
starter for him. I guess.
How many KKK members are left?
I did a quick research of the KKK and it had a peak in membership in the 1920’s. And declined ever since. It is estimated that membership is around 5,000 or less. In a country of millions, that is nothing. You have a better chance of chance of shaking hands with a Muslim then a KKK member these days
I just don’t understand why a dwindling group of racists is worth so much outrage and print
Very intresting....sound like a man doing gods work
It serves a purpose in keeping the gullible ginned up in fear over imaginary evildoers.
Because they are a useful target. Just like the American Nazi’s (they do exist) or that nutty “Baptist” church.
If they are not false flags, they are serving as one.
This and his Rick James skits were the best. The one with Wayne Brady ranks up there too.
“Clayton Bigsby, Black White Supremacist.”
And, yeah, Dave showed me a side of Wayne Grady I didn’t know existed, LOL.
The Chapelle skit was about smoking dope. Making the point that dope smokers will befriend any other dope smoker.
History is crazy.
Marcus Garvey aligned himself with and praised the KKK.
You’re thinking of something else, I think.
“Why, after 19 years, was he divorcing his loving wife?”
“Because she’s a...”
Oh no.
Marcus Garvey. Same guy all those schools are named after.
From Wikipedia.
Garvey recognized the influence of the Ku Klux Klan and, after the Black Star Line was closed, sought to engage the South in his activism, since the UNIA now lacked a specific program. In early 1922, he went to Atlanta for a conference with KKK imperial giant Edward Young Clarke, seeking to advance his organization in the South. Garvey made a number of incendiary speeches in the months leading up to that meeting; in some, he thanked the whites for Jim Crow.[29] Garvey once stated “I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together. I like honesty and fair play. You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman as far as the Negro in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying.”[18]
They told him they just wanted to hang out.
Sorry, I meant a different skit. Not someone other than Marcus Garvey.
Oh.
Does Wayne Brady have to choke a b!+ch?
In that skit, Wayne does as he damn well pleases.
I have. Great music.
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