# Black Man Talks 200 KKK Members out of Robes

**URL:** <https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/black-man-talks-200-kkk-members-out-of-robes/5592>\
**Category:** Side Conversation\
**Tags:** Society, Article\
**Created:** [March 30, 2019, 2:11am UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/black-man-talks-200-kkk-members-out-of-robes/5592 "2019-03-30T02:11:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![swamidass](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.peacefulscience.org/swamidass/32/3_2.png) [@swamidass](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/swamidass)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 2:11am UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/black-man-talks-200-kkk-members-out-of-robes/5592/1 "2019-03-30T02:11:29Z")

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Continuing the discussion from [Give Minority Viewpoints Some Breathing Space?](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/give-minority-viewpoints-some-breathing-space/5527/62):

A really important article was published by @dga471, very much like how the [Woman Leaves the Westboro Baptist Church](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/woman-leaves-the-westboro-baptist-church/720).

> [@Give Minority Viewpoints Some Breathing Space?](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/give-minority-viewpoints-some-breathing-space/5527/62):
>
> Look here for a more secular example: a single man convinced 200 KKK members to leave the organization. By befriending them, not attacking them (although many would say they certainly deserved to be attacked and ridiculed).

> **[How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes](https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544861933/how-one-man-convinced-200-ku-klux-klan-members-to-give-up-their-robes)**
>
> One by one, Daryl Davis has befriended KKK members over the past 30 years. The more they got to know the African-American musician, the more they realized the Klan was not for them.

> He says once the friendship blossoms, the Klansmen realize that their hate may be misguided. Since Davis started talking with these members, he says 200 Klansmen have given up their robes. When that happens, Davis collects the robes and keeps them in his home as a reminder of the dent he has made in racism by simply sitting down and having dinner with people.

> If you spend five minutes with your worst enemy — it doesn’t have to be about race, it could be about anything…you will find that you both have something in common. As you build upon those commonalities, you’re forming a relationship and as you build about that relationship, you’re forming a friendship. That’s what would happen. I didn’t convert anybody. They saw the light and converted themselves.

> This guy was an exalted cyclops sitting in my car in my passenger seat. He made the statement, which I’d heard before, “Well we all know that all black people have within them a gene that makes them violent.” I turned to him and I’m driving and I said, “Wait a minute. I’m as black as anybody you’ve ever seen. I have never done a carjacking or a driveby, how do you explain that?” He didn’t even pause to think about it. He said, “Your gene is latent. It hasn’t come out yet.”
> 
> So how do you argue with somebody who is that far out in left field? I was dumbfounded. I’m just driving along. He’s sitting over here all smug and secure, like “See you have no response?” And I thought about it for a minute. Then I used his point of reference. I said, “Well, we all know that all white people have a gene within them that makes them a serial killer.” He says, “What do you mean?” And I said,“Well, name me three black serial killers.” He thought about it — he could not do it. I said, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy. All whites. I said, “Son, you are a serial killer.” He says “Daryl, I’ve never killed anybody.” I said, “Your gene is latent. It hasn’t come out yet.” He goes, “Well, that’s stupid!” I said, “Well, duh. Yes, but you know what, you’re right. What I said was stupid, but no more stupid than what you said you me.” Then he got very, very quiet and changed the subject. Five months later, based on that conversation he left the Klan. His robe was the first robe I ever got.