A black man has managed to use his kind nature to convince Ku Klux Klan members to stop being racist. What an absolute hero.
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58-year-old Daryl David has persuaded around 200 white racists to leave the fucked up group, simply by being an all round decent guy. The blues musician from Chicago has spent over 30 years travelling around the U.S., befriending members of the KKK and putting a stop to their ignorant ways.
In his book, titled ‘Klan-destine Relationships: A Black Man’s Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan’, he describes his meeting with the Grand Dragon – a high-ranking Klan member – called Roger Kelly:
I was very well prepared for the meeting in terms of knowledge of my topic. I have just about every book written on the Klan and I’ve read them all.
In fact, I know more about the KKK than most Klan members know about their own organisation.
Knowledge, information, wit, and the way you disseminate these attributes can often prove to be a more disarming weapon against an enemy or someone with whom your ideology is in conflict than violence or lethal weapons.
I was heavily armed with those attributes. I had been told by someone who knew him very well that Roger Kelly would kill me. I felt confident without any physical weapon that I would prevail. Fortunately, I proved it true.
His work has been so successful that the KKK branch in Maryland is almost non-existent. Daryl added:
It’s a wonderful thing when you see a light bulb pop on in their heads or they call you and tell you they are quitting. I never set out to convert anyone in the Klan.
I just set out to get an answer to my question: ‘How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?’
It’s quite outstanding that all it took was for one black man to start up a conversation with these guys to end the hatred. Obviously their entire organisation is based around ignorance and hatred, so it makes sense that with a little education, they could be converted. If only there was some way to spread this message to all the KKK members. Love trumps hate after all.
