Listening to the Enemy: Daryl Davis’ Approach to Combatting Racism
“How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?”
Daryl Davis received the Elliott-Black and MLK awards for his work in race relations and is often sought by media outlets as a consultant on the Ku Klux Klan and race relations in general. He graduated from Howard University with a degree in Jazz. As a pianist, vocalist, and guitarist, he performed nationally and internationally. He is also an actor with stage and screen credits, appearing in the critically acclaimed HBO police drama, The Wire, and as the subject of the documentary Accidental Courtesy, which filmed his real-life encounters with Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi leaders, as he helps to dismantle racism across the United States.
Daryl Davis: What do you do when someone just doesn’t like you?
TEDxCharlottesville · November 2017 · 17 minutes“What do you do when someone just doesn't like you? I mean really, really not like you. And you know it. And what if that person, or those people, have made an open show of that dislike, without apology? What would you do?”
Davis is no stranger to this experience and has chosen a unique, and often viewed as controversial, approach to improving race relations. He uses his boogie woogie piano as well as listening, conversation, education, awareness, and empathy to open doors to conversations that few would venture to start. He does not shy away from “reaching across the aisle” to members of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi leaders, summing up his advice as: “Establish dialogue. When two enemies are talking, they’re not fighting.”
Daryl Davis: Why I, as a Black Man, attend KKK rallies
TEDxNaperville · November 2017 · 19 minutesAn encounter with prejudice early in life led black musician Daryl Davis on a quest to determine the source of racist hatred – a quest that shaped his life. The unorthodox and straightforward approach he developed has wielded surprising and successful results. In 1983, a chance occurrence after one of his concerts led him to befriend a member of the Ku Klux Klan. This eventually led Daryl to become the first black author to travel the country interviewing KKK leaders and members, all detailed in his book Klan-Destine Relationships. Today, Daryl owns numerous Klan robes and hoods given to him by active members who renounced the organization upon becoming his friends.
Since his journey began, Davis has joined an all-white country band, attended KKK rallies, and accepted a “certificate of friendship” from the Traditionalist American Knights of the KKK. He is even the godfather of former Klan Imperial Wizard Roger Kelly’s granddaughter.
“Cancelling people is not the answer, folks. Like treating a pervasive illness, combating racism requires persistent, consistent, and comprehensive efforts — listening, conversation, education, awareness, and empathy. This will create change.”
Daryl Davis: Klan We Talk?
TEDxCapeMay · October 2017 · 19 minutesA young African-American musician seemed an unlikely candidate to take on the Ku Klux Klan – but Daryl Davis used listening, dialogue, honesty, respect and human understanding to break down and dissolve the bitter, time-worn barriers that he encountered.
“Establish dialogue. When two enemies are talking, they’re not fighting”
