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

TEDx Talks3 HN recommenders · 2018–2022
13M views · talk · evergreen · Uploaded 2017-12-08

Black musician Daryl Davis tells how a chance encounter led him to befriend Ku Klux Klan members and seek the source of racial hate. He argues that sitting down and talking with people can change them.

Recommended in moderation and deplatforming debates as a case for engagement and compassion over exclusion.

Watch on YouTube

8 comments from Hacker News

@PavlovsCat2018 · in “Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt”

> I'm not sure why people expect platforms that have ToS to be robotic about them. Being fair, being open, being honest isn't being "robotic". Treating people like more than something to exploit and throw away is what I would consider "robotic". The constant "it's a private company, brain off", that's what is robotic. > Companies are run by people. People get uncomfortable when you become known for spraying around racial epithets, and some are not going to want to work with you. Yeah, people. Not necessarily adult people. Take this man, for example: [VIDEO] Do you honestly think you know or have anything he doesn't? Wouldn't you rather think it's the other way around? If you stand aside as mobs try to kill free speech on the internet, you're banking on them winning, on there never being a time where, if you can't show clear proof that you resisted, nobody wanting to work with you. I doubt you would just say "fair enough". I don't think you'd consider that a humane society just because the majority might claim it is. > If I'm using some vendor and find out that I really don't like what their public persona is doing, I'm going to reevaluate that relationship. This isn't just a vendor. We're talking about companies that provide services that really, realistically, should be utilities. You shouldn't get your water turned off for calling obese people names, or your electricity turned off for saying Hitler was right. That's a stone age level regression that not just shows a level o

RecommendsView on HN
@controversy2020 · in “Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters”

Don't prohibit speech. That's it. Repugnance is part of life. If you suppress speech, you only push it underground. Light is the best disinfectant. Daryl Davis, a black musician, attends Klan rallies ( [VIDEO] ). By knowing who to speak with, he's helped people out of that racist pit. I extend speech so far to include calls to violence. Then you know who to watch and who to protect. Hiding this does nothing but make intel harder to get. You can't try to prevent radicalization, because you've pushed it so far out of the light, it might as well be a mole. They'll still eat the roots of your modern democracy, but you'll be surprised.

@hpoe2020 · in “AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google”

May I direct you to watch Daryl Davis's ted talk or really anything he speaks about. [VIDEO] For context he is a black man that has gotten over a hundred leaders of the KKK, including former convicts to leave the Klan. Not by arguing with them, not be reasoning, not by showing them the effects of their behaviour, but instead by sitting down, talking with them and becoming their friend. In a nutshell this one man has probably done more to combat racism, than all the angry tweets on twitter combined.

Strongly recommendsView on HN
@sebmellen2021 · in “Amazon, Apple and Google Cut Off Parler”

Interesting question. I don't think these two concepts are in opposition. Of course, exposure to a toxic ideological viewpoint is poisonous for the recipient, and may in fact entice them to become more toxic themselves (if they are swayed by said reasoning). But a crucial part of the societal contract is to tolerate such toxic viewpoints so as to have the opportunity to redeem those who hold them. In other words, by eating a little bit of the poison ourselves, we are granted the opportunity to save that person from their own poison, by showing compassion and empathy towards them. People who have hate in their hearts are not entirely bad people. Everyone was once a child, everyone has experienced the mystery of simply existing, almost everyone has experienced love (whether from their parents or someone else), most people enjoy art and music. Evoking our shared humanity and showing compassion for others allows us to break down their toxic ideologies and even reform them to be beacons of compassion themselves. Perhaps the best and most compelling anecdote to promulgate this way of thinking is Daryl Davis, who, through his talents and love of music, has reformed many of the most hateful people in our country — members of the KKK. I would recommend this TED talk by him, titled "Why I, as a black man, attend KKK rallies" : [VIDEO] . It really encapsulates the power of this viewpoint. The crucial element here is ensuring that we have channels of communication that allow for this sor

Strongly recommendsView on HN
@sleepysysadmin2021 · in “How Facebook Hides How Terrible It Is with Hate Speech”

>What concerns me is that not everyone agrees that we need to end bigotry, but if you and I agree on that one point, then great. Thanks If you drill down into the worst bigots, you will break them. [VIDEO] Bigotry is over, we know the solution. Today is the least bigoted day in the history of north america. What you are experiencing and why you think bigotry hasn't ended is the false narrative. It's a narrative in which intersectionalists are pushing. The end goal is not equality or egalitarianism but rather creating a new caste system where they are at the top.

@hpoe2021 · in “Facebook Makes Us Know Too Much About Each Other”

Interestingly enough that is what Daryl Davis decided to do to start fighting racism, got over a dozen members, including a grand wizard, to leave the Klan. I'd recommend watching his TedTalk it really helped me understand how to better work with others, and how to bring about understanding. [VIDEO]

Strongly recommendsView on HN
@incomingpain2022 · in “The dispute between radical feminism and transgenderism (2014)”

>I agree with your points so much, all of them. Honestly expected to get banned for my view. People are being banned off social media for far far less. >What do you think might be some better possibilities than the current mess? Some think the fix is straight forward, stop ostracizing people. This isn't just trans, it's all the usual 'cant discriminate against' and if we simply stop saying bad words that it'll be all better. That seems on the face like it would fix the problem; but clearly hasn't over how many decades now? The problem is that this approach is literally causing the problem. How about the baddest word of them all, the N-word. You dont dare say it. Has this done anything at all to stop this racism? Clearly not. Imagine we start saying it'll ILLEGAL to say some pejorative for white people. You know what happens? You will get a ton of people now saying it. It's edgy, it's maybe hurtful? They'll say it. If my political opponent says I cant say something. I am going to say it. I probably never said it before but because you say I can't say it. I'm going to start saying it. Bring me to the hate crime tribunal, send me to prison. So what? Government can't do anything? Precisely. The government is literally harming everything here. How does society fix prejudice? Not by force. For the general population, how did homosexuals start getting a good rap? People like Neil Patrick Harris being open about it, BUT not throwing it in anyones face. While also being an awesome per

@incomingpain2022 · in “Ask HN: Readings on Paradox of Tolerance?”

Kind of reminds me of something i read recently about the more tolerant you become, the less your brain may function or else you risk offending. That largely speaking the social media censorship is not about influencing politics but rather trying not to offend. The far left and far right agree with the paradox for the opposite reason. In terms of the paradox... it's not a paradox at all. You have to consider the contemporary context of the assertion. 1945 was post-ww2 and tolerating the lutherans early on eventually evolved to something terrible: [LINK] At what point in your society do you no longer tolerate their intolerance and potentially stop a holocaust? If you do it too soon, you're going to be rife with censoring your political opponents and you have the new problem that they still overthrow your government. Every protest you end up in great fear of imminent revolution. If you do it too late, they are already in power. This is the challenge and also why Jordan Peterson says you would have been a nazi. [LINK] The problem. Lutheran antisemitism had built up in germany over hundreds of years. Hitler was in party leadership for around 10 years before forming government. If Otto Wels had done anything to stop intolerance he would have only delayed the inevitable. Coming back to the paradox, what exactly is the paradox? Being purely tolerant isn't in the books. No society is tolerant of murders or pedos. Being a free speech absolutist doesn't actually allow slander or fighti