There Is Another Way
A black man has devoted his life to befriending KKK members. His friendship has persuaded many people to leave the organization. This is what effective resistance to white supremacy looks like. People who go at it with clubs and rocks are just looking to make violence.
Daryl Davis has a unique hobby.
In his spare time, he befriends white supremacists. Lots of them. Hundreds. He goes to where they live. Meets them at their rallies. Dines with them in their homes. He gets to know them because, in his words, “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me? Look at me and tell me to my face why you should lynch me.”
He also is a collector of KKK robes. He collects them as souvenirs when KKK members decide to give up on racism because of his friendship.
Davis, a Christian, has met with white supremacists for three decades. He never tries to convert the Klansmen. He simply becomes friends with them and they give up the KKK on their own. According to an interview with The Independent, Davis is “happy” to be friends with former Klansmen.
Before they decided that it was okay to “punch Nazis,” the left used to claim that violence only begets violence, that using violence only perpetuated a “cycle of violence.” But now, they’re all like… “Violence, yeah man, violence. Far out.”
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Your argument reminds me of the Simpson’s episode with John Waters.
John:
“Well Homer i won your respect, all I had to do was save your life. Now if every Gay man could do the same you’d be set.”
So if every Jewish/African-American/Hispanic/Asian/Muslim person would simply save the life of every alt-righter everything would be a-ok.
Comment by mike — August 16, 2017 @ 1:49 pm - August 16, 2017
I like what this man is doing. I wish him much success.
If you read the story, mike, he didn’t have to go that far. Conversion by example/knowledge is the best way of removing an enemy.
Comment by TheQuietMan — August 16, 2017 @ 2:18 pm - August 16, 2017
Leave it to littlelettermike to belittle people who want peaceful change and defend people who want violent revolution.
Comment by V the K — August 16, 2017 @ 2:23 pm - August 16, 2017
mike is stuck in the mindset of the gay self segregation, gay clubs, gay hotels, gay restaurants, gay neighborhoods, gay beaches, gay cruises, etc.
Then mike is upset because non-gay people don’t relate to him.
mike has loathing for people like this courageous man. If the bigotry goes away people like mike won’t have any external excuses for their sad and miserable lives.
Hey, mike, what happened to “Russia, Russia, Russia”?
Comment by TnnsNe1 — August 16, 2017 @ 2:30 pm - August 16, 2017
I heard of a church once that found it was going to be picketed – so they set up a table and gave water, lemonade, and snacks to the picketers and took the wind out of their opponents sails.
I think the best way that anybody should respond to the White Supremacist/ Nationalist/ etc groups is NOT give them the fight that many are looking for. Imagine the response is instead of their enemies heading there to fight them, they instead gave out food and water and stood and watched.
Comment by Jonathan — August 16, 2017 @ 2:46 pm - August 16, 2017
This is a general principle.
You always have the choice of attacking problems by brute force or more intelligent calculus.
Seemingly, some prefer to rely exclusively on the former.
Comment by Cyril — August 16, 2017 @ 4:08 pm - August 16, 2017
This guy is awesome.
It also goes to show you don’t need to be a white supremacist to associate with them.
Comment by Christina — August 16, 2017 @ 4:19 pm - August 16, 2017
And I’m like,
“The brain, yeah man, the brain. Far out.”
Comment by Cyril — August 16, 2017 @ 4:42 pm - August 16, 2017
Lefties used to say “violence is never the answer” (not that long ago). Now it’s “violence is almost always the answer” (if not that then blacklisting, doxxing, and other forms of vandalism against the person).
Kudos to Mr. Davis – he’s identified a problem and found a way to solve it. For most, the KKK, et al is simply a vehicle for raising money and getting on TV; a solution is no good since there’s no money in it.
Davis has done more than BHO who had a lot more to work with.
(My belief is that BHO is a failed president for one reason: he squandered, for personal and party gain, a once in a lifetime chance to actually do something about the race chasm. If he’d made an effort, I would have regarded him as a great president despite his other failures. Wasted chance of the century.)
Comment by KCRob — August 16, 2017 @ 6:18 pm - August 16, 2017
To mike. Jeremiah 5:21
Comment by Juan — August 16, 2017 @ 7:00 pm - August 16, 2017
This post is wonderful! It reminded me of a piece I read earlier about how Ben Carson and his neighbors dealt with a neighbor flying the confederate flag. Of course things don’t always work out well when scenarios play out like this, but when they do, they are stories of incredible inspiration.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/08/breaking-ben-carsons-virginia-home-vandalized-hateful-anti-trump-rhetoric/
Comment by Sarah — August 16, 2017 @ 11:00 pm - August 16, 2017
Wow, this guy has BIG brass ones! What a beautiful thing! Hundreds of people have left the Klan because of him!! He alone, without any big organization or government agency behind him did this as a lone citizen of humanity. I want to see the entire documentary!
Comment by runningrn — August 17, 2017 @ 3:21 am - August 17, 2017
Here’s another story with a similar spirit, though the story in this post at Gay Patriot is truly breath-taking in how personal it is and the impact one man has had on so many lives.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/secessionists-black-community-leaders-stand-together-to-denounce-violent-protests/article_863b1bfc-81e8-11e7-a716-1ba06a5c1f50.html
Comment by Sarah — August 17, 2017 @ 2:48 pm - August 17, 2017