Why I, as a black man, attend KKK rallies. | Daryl Davis | TEDxNaperville

Video Statistics and Information

Video

Captions Word Cloud

Captions

[Music] well this is a police officer's uniform a Baltimore City police officer in particular named Robert white he gave me this uniform when he and I became the very best of friends but you know I first met Robert well I first heard about Robert white when I was a teenager and then I later met him I met him just a month after he got out of prison he was in prison serving a sentence for assault with intent to murder two black men with a shotgun and another sentence conspiring to bomb a synagogue in Baltimore now I am a professional musician I tour all over this country and around the world playing music so how do I end up with a policeman's uniform he worked for the police department by day but he also had another job which required a different kind of uniform he was the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan for the state of Maryland this is his robe this is what he wore when he conspired to bomb the synagogue and when he made plans to kill two black men with a shotgun to understand why I have these items let's take a little journey back in my life I was born in Chicago in 1958 at the age of 10 in 1968 my parents had moved to Belmont Massachusetts a suburb of Boston I was one of two black kids in the entire area at least in the school I joined the Cub Scouts at the age of 10 at the invitation of someone one of my white male friends and we had a march from Lexington to Concord to commemorate the ride of Paul Revere my den mother let me carry the American flag and as I was marching as the only black scout in this parade along with the Girl Scouts Boy Scouts Cub Scouts and brownies I think 4-h club was there it from other organizations as I was marching down the street somewhere along the parade route I began getting hit with bottles soda pop cans rocks and debris from the street by just a small group of white spectators mixed in with the all-white crowd on the sidewalk this was the first time I ever experienced anything like this and I did not understand I thought perhaps those people did not like the scouts I did not realize I was the only scout getting hit until my den mother and the other Scout leaders came rushing over and huddled over me with their bodies and escorted me out of the danger they never explained why even though I kept asking why they hitting me why they hitting me what did I what had I done wrong when I got home my mother and father who were not at the March were fixing me up with mercurochrome and band-aids and to me how did you fall down and get all scraped up I told him I didn't fall down I told him exactly what happened for the first time in my life my parents sat me down at the age of 10 and explained racism to me I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about it was inconceivable to me that's someone who had never laid eyes on me never spoken to me knew absolutely nothing about me would want to inflict pain upon me for no other reason than this the color of my skin so I did not believe my parents but more and more incidents began happening and I realized my parents that told me the truth I didn't know why people felt that way but I realized that there were some people who did so at the age of 10 I formed a question in my mind that question was how can you hate me when you don't even know me so I grew up in my adolescent years spending a lot of time buying books on black supremacy white supremacy the Nazis in Germany the neo-nazis over here the Ku Klux Klan anti-semitism trying to understand that ideology trying to get the answer to my question how can you hate me when you don't even know me none of these books provided the answer so then in my adult life I thought you know what who better to ask how can you hate me when you don't even know me then someone who would join an organization whose historical premise has been hating those who do not look like them and who do not believe as they believe so I had my secretary who books my bands and all that kind of stuff I said listen I want you to get a hold of this guy his name is Roger Kelly I acquired mr. Kelly's phone number mr. Kelly is what's known as the Imperial wizard Bob White was a grand dragon meeting state leader Imperial wizard is a national leader in the Ku Klux Klan I was told do not fool with mr. Kelly Darrell he will kill you but I had to have the answer to my question I was hoping it wouldn't be the final answer if I met him so I gave Mary his phone number and said give him a call do not tell him that I'm black but see if you'll sit down and and give your boss an interview who wants to discuss the Ku Klux Klan so she did mr. Kelly agreed so we reserved a motel room Mary and I got there early right on time to the minute there was a knock on the door Mary hops up and runs around the corner opens the door in walks mr. Kelly and his bodyguard the bodyguard was armed the sidearm right here on his hip when they saw me these kind of like froze because either they were stretching the white guy and I stood up and went like this to show I had nothing in my hands and I approached I said hi mr. Kelly I'm Darrell Davis he shook my hand the bodyguard shook my hand said come on and come on and have a seat have a seat mr. Kelly sat down and the bodyguard stood at attention to his right and we conversed agreed on some things disagreed on other things but he let me know he let me know that I was not his equal I was inferior he was superior and this was justified and determined by the color of my skin I wasn't there to fight him I was there to learn from him where does this ideology come from because once you learn where it comes from you can then try to figure out how to address it and see where it's going so we continued conversing maybe about a little over an hour into this interview there was kind of a strange noise in the room cut off and we all jumped and I popped up out of my seat at the table between us and I was ready to come across that table and take down mr. Kelly and the bodyguard because I knew that mr. Kelly had made that noise I didn't know what that noise was I could not discern it and I kept hearing the voice of the person who gave me his phone number saying Darrell do not fool with where I did kill he he will kill you I did not want to die that day but I knew that he made the noise and I think what did I just deal what did I just say to cause them to make some kind of weird noise and you know I'd gone into what you call survival mode and survival mode people will do one of three things some people you know when you fear for your life some people will just tense up and start shaking and you can be taking a hammer or bat and hitting them on the head and they will not even be deflecting to blow just be mm-hmm like this that is called paralysis by fear and it is a real thing the second thing people will do is they will try to run away as quickly as possible to put as much distance between the source of the fear and themselves that is the best option if you can do that however it was not an option for me because you cannot outrun a bullet in a motel room I was not armed neither was my secretary the only person I know for sure who was armed was the bodyguard you see his weapon right here I did not know this mr. Kelly had a weapon up under his jacket or not he was wearing a dark blue suit and tie the third option is do a preemptive strike to mitigate the danger in other words get them before they get you so I was about to do that and when I came up out of my seat I was looking right into mr. Kelly's eyes I didn't say a word but my eyes were speaking loud and clear in fact my eyes were shouting so loud he could hear my eyes my eyes were saying to him what did you just do well mr. Kelly's eyes had fixated upon mine and his eyes were silently asking me the same question where the bodyguard had his hand on his gun but him back and forth between the clan leader and me like what did either one of y'all just do well Mary she realized what happened she had filled the hotel room ice bucket with ice and put some cans of soda in there to get them cold to be hospitable and offer mr. Kelly a beverage the ice had melted and the cans came cascading down the ice and then it made that same noise and we all began laughing at how ignorant we all had been now I won't say this was a learning moment but it was definitely a teaching moment and what was taught was this all because some foreign and underscore highlights simple the word foreign entity of which we were ignorant being the bucket of ice in Kansas soda entered into our little comfort zone via the noise that it made we all became fearful and accusatory of one another thus ignorance breeds fear we fear those things we do not understand if we do not keep that fear in check that fear in turn will breed hatred because we hate those things that frighten us if we do not keep that hatred in check that hatred in turn will breed destruction we want to destroy those things that we hate why because it caused us to be afraid but guess what they may have been harmless and we were just ignorant we saw the whole chain almost unravel to completion had the bodyguard drawn his gun and shot namely me or my secretary because it's his job to protect his balls and get himself or had I pounced and hurt one of them trying to protect myself or my secretary we did see we did see that whole chain unravel to completion three months ago in Charlottesville Virginia two hours from where I live because ignorance was present fear was present hatred was present and destruction occurred when a white supremacist got in his car and tried to mow down people and resulted in killing one young lady named Heather hire so we carried on with this interview no more incidents I would invite mr. Kelly to my home he would come to my home he'd bring his bodyguard by the guard would sit on the couch next to him sometimes the bodyguard would get bored pull out his gun and start twirling it on his finger like this what mr. Keller and I talked I would invite over some of my other friends my Jewish friends my black friends my white friends are the people just to engage in conversation with to Kelly other than me I want him to experience different people this went off for a couple years he did not invite me to his home but he would have dinner or lunch at my table with me this is inferior person that he deemed not his equal after a couple years he began coming down to my house by himself a national leader in the Ku Klux Klan and then he began inviting me to his house I would see his Clandon and I would take pictures and take notes for my for my my own knowledge and things then he began inviting me to Klan rallies I've go to these Klan rallies that have a 20 or 30 foot cross wooden cross to beans tied together wrapped in burlap the burlap was soaked in what they call Klan cologne otherwise known as diesel fuel or kerosene and Klansmen and clans women in their robes and hoods and torches were paraded around in a circle around the cross and either the Grand Dragon or Imperial wizard would say Klansmen halt and they'd all stop then he'd say for God and they say for God for a race for a race for country for country Klansmen approached the cross and it all closed in to the base of the cross Klansmen light the cross and they throw their torch down at the foot and whoosh this big cross would be on fire there you go there's one one rally such rally with the Klansmen that's conversing with the Klan out of rally and here's a rally with the cross on fire now they would give speeches I would take more notes and try to absorb and try to understand not that I'm believing in what they're preaching but I'm trying to learn and understand what is the impetus for it so after a while CNN got wind of this and wanted to do a story on me they knew me as a musician they knew mr. Kelly was as a Klan leader so they followed me to a rally first they came to my gig on Friday night to show what I really do and then Saturday morning they followed me to a Klan rally two hours from my house and they said to me the think mr. Kelley will even talk to us I said I will do better than that when this rally is over I will get mr. Kelley the Imperial wizard of the clan to come to my house and you can interview the clan leader inside a black man's house I said oh okay so they filmed the rally and when the rally was over I spoke with Roger Kelly told him what was going on and he agreed he drove without his bodyguard two hours out of his way sat in my basement and interviewed was CNN and I'm gonna and this clip was shown every hour for 24 hours all over the world I'm gonna show it to you right now and I want you to pay particular attention to what mr. Kelly says he says that even though he and I would do different things together it did not change his views on the Klan because his views from the Klan had been cemented in his mind for years then he goes on to say how he believes in separation of the races because he finds that to be in the best interests of all races but listen to what he says about respect towards the end of the clip please show the clip Davis is one of the few african-americans you will ever find attending a KKK rally more than attending he is welcome it's been a tough day for the Klan their Maryland rally found many local residents rejecting the message of white separatism afterwards over Darrell Davis hangs around backstage with his friend Klan wizard Roger Kelly it's not unusual for blacks and whites to be friends but it is unusual to find a black man and a Klan leader chatting pleasantly over an orange soda after a Klan rally the relationship started over a book Davis was writing the secretary set up an interview with Roger Kelly but didn't tell him Davis was black they talked and talked some more Davis learning about the Klan Kelly learning about Davis we get to know one another when we do different things you know it's it hasn't changed my views about the Klan you know because my views on the Klan has been pretty much cemented in my mind for years Kelly and his Klan friends go to hear Davis and his band and Davis goes to their rallies i sat on the front row and I listen to each all times and speak some things I agree with everything they did not agree with Davis thinks that his presence promotes badly needed understanding hate stems I believe from fear a fear of the unknown and I think this is all across the board regardless of whether it's a Klansman or anything else but he has no illusions about the Klan if he did his friend would be quick to disabuse them and I believe in separation of the races I believe that's in the best interest of all races does he really where his friendship transcended the color barrier listen to Kelly the Klan rally [Applause] the strange relationship of a KKK wizard and his black buddy in washington i'm carl rochelle CNN sunday morning respect is the key sitting down and talking not necessarily agreeing but respecting each other to air their points of view because of that respect and my willingness to listen and his words to listen to me he ended up leaving the Klan and there is his robe right there I am a musician not a psychologist or sociologists if I can do that anybody in here can do that take the time to sit down and talk with your adversaries you will learn something and they will learn something from you when two enemies are talking they're not fighting they're talking it's when the talking ceases that the ground becomes fertile for violence so keep the conversation going thank you all very much you

Info

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 4,369,082

Rating: 4.9303536 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Global Issues, Activism, Big problems, Communication, Race, Social Change

Id: ORp3q1Oaezw

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 18min 52sec (1132 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 08 2017

Reddit Comments

... from the age of 10: 'Why do you hate me when you know nothing about me?' ....

"Establish dialogue. When two enemies are talking, they're not fighting.....

"The lesson learned is: ignorance breeds fear," says Davis. "If you don't keep that fear in check, that fear will breed hatred. If you don't keep hatred in check, it will breed destruction.

Ref

👍︎︎ 9 👤︎︎ u/barath_s 📅︎︎ Aug 09 2019 🗫︎ replies

Accidental Courtesy - this is the documentary about Daryl Davis. Very interesting that some of the people who don't like him are young black men who feel he could have done more for their cause rather than convert KKK members.

👍︎︎ 9 👤︎︎ u/nearlysenior 📅︎︎ Aug 09 2019 🗫︎ replies

I heard this man telling his story in an interview on NPR. Really interesting, and seems like a really wonderful person.

👍︎︎ 7 👤︎︎ u/morecoffeepleeese 📅︎︎ Aug 09 2019 🗫︎ replies