You're talking about actual real solutions? The only kind that would actually make a difference? Get outta here with that!
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WaPo: A black blues musician has a unique hobby: Befriending white supremacists
- Thread starter Dalek
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You're talking about actual real solutions? The only kind that would actually make a difference? Get outta here with that!
HiredN00bs
Member
This is a beautiful and powerful story. This guy puts his own well-being at risk to guide people away from hateful ideologies. He forces them to confront the contradiction of their beliefs with reality in a personal way. He uses love to defeat hate. He's a goddamn superhero, as far as I'm concerned.
To the people who want to hate on what he does:
In your life experience, were you ever radicalized in any way? If so, how did you overcome it? Is their value in the de-radicalization of individual people?
To the people who want to hate on what he does:
In your life experience, were you ever radicalized in any way? If so, how did you overcome it? Is their value in the de-radicalization of individual people?
excelsiorlef
Member
theignoramus
Member
Check out the comments underneath this WP article.
Here's a sample of the comments with the most likes
Most comments are like this: though I enjoyed reading this one, which didnt get many likes at all.
Here's a sample of the comments with the most likes
Most comments are like this: though I enjoyed reading this one, which didnt get many likes at all.
Mammoth Jones
Member
Beautiful. It could almost be a movie. Almost.
"The Legend of Bagger Vance 2: The White Knight Rises"
Darryl M R
Member
Lightning_Roller
Banned
Probably because those other posters don't want to want acknowledge that giant hole in their heart.
Were you born yesterday?
This guy chose to talk to the KKK of his own volition, how is supporting his choice to argue with them about their beliefs akin to sympathizing with ISIS or asking a survivor to forgive a terrorist?
Massive Duck. C.M.
Banned
Supporting what he does is not the same as telling others they should do it too. You apparently still fail to realize how reductionist and insulting your initial post was.
When you're lionizing this behavior over more "brutal" usual methods, this is actually what you are saying.
The same applies for Pinochet and a slew of other situations.
You don't get to tell people that they HAVE to forgive people who oppresses (or wish to) when they have perfectly valid reasons no to.
Would you tell people who lost families, friends and more through to dictatorships that they should forgive their jailors?
That's probably the most Christian thing to do but absolutely impossible to expect.
excelsiorlef
Member
HiredN00bs
Member
Sorry?
excelsiorlef
Member
Read the other quotes many aren't deradicalized
Lightning_Roller
Banned
Were you born yesterday??? Did they stutter??
Seriously, that post of yours was unbelievably naive.
I do love that it all comes down to the fear of losing another election. As if the march for genocide is all about the ballets. We've had it all wrong all of this time!!!!
You're eating up centrist propaganda with a spoon. It's kind of unbelievable, but definitely sad. "Superhero"? LOL
If we can uproot white supremacy and everything it stands for for good, I'm up for losing elections for a decade.
e: it's funny because the public shaming of idiots in robes did more to help the situation than lone people randomly befriending racists.
Turns out social pressure actually works. Nowadays you can't spread your homophobia without risking something, to the point that right wingers won't even think on going back to advances made.
and that didn't happen because gay people went into religious groups to make friends to people that deemed them abominations.
theignoramus
Member
News networks ask Black families to forgive and empathise with killer cops all the time.
I remember when *CNN asked the parents of Philando Castile if they had forgiveness in their heart for the cop that murdered their son. (they asked them that before Philando's body was even cold)
It was a degrading question to put to that family and part of an old American tradition of trying to corral and dissipate any type of militant, combative energy from Black people.
*(The commentator was Chris Cuomo.)
HiredN00bs
Member
Centrist propaganda? The fuck?
Guy shakes hands with people that wish him dead and leads some of them to leave their hate group and collects their uniforms as trophies? It's fucking cool.
Lightning_Roller
Banned
Same. People care more about elections than the well being of people oppressed by white supremacy. Talk about priorities.
Pyroclastic
Banned
It sucks if you've seen it pointed at so many times you've become jaded to it. First time seeing it myself.
this should by no means be the only approach to combating racism, and no minority should ever feel like they have to do this but it's a fascinating approach all the same. if the guys he's made friends with have all genuinely changed their ways, then that's awesome.
I_D
Member
Wow, didn't expect so many doubters and haters in this thread.
Daryl Davis wrote a book that I was 'required' to read in college. Most people didn't read it, but I actually quite enjoyed it.
He came to speak in front of the freshman class and was very insightful. My favorite question from the audience was something like "How do other KKK members view the people who befriended you or even gave you the time of day?" He said pretty much all of them have left the KKK and/or are shunned by other members.
His message is essentially that people should love and respect each other, and he is 100% correct.
He also plays a mean guitar. He did a cover of 'Johnny B Goode' that was fantastic.
Daryl Davis wrote a book that I was 'required' to read in college. Most people didn't read it, but I actually quite enjoyed it.
He came to speak in front of the freshman class and was very insightful. My favorite question from the audience was something like "How do other KKK members view the people who befriended you or even gave you the time of day?" He said pretty much all of them have left the KKK and/or are shunned by other members.
His message is essentially that people should love and respect each other, and he is 100% correct.
He also plays a mean guitar. He did a cover of 'Johnny B Goode' that was fantastic.
It's even worse, these types care about election only as a hammer to keep minorities in line.
Actual destruction of democracy? who gives a shit, it's not like the sky is falling anyway.
Woah, people are in the street because minorities are literally treated worse than deers in forests? Better use that election card or else Nana Ruth will die in her ambulance!
Lightning_Roller
Banned
Seriously, it trash how people throw black folks under the bus because "duh elections guys!!l
Elegant Weapon
Member
This reads like satire to me. All lives matter with a side of "damn that good negro can play a guitar just like ringing a bell"
Lightning_Roller
Banned
Sorry not sorry, but when a group of people want me fucking dead because of my skin color, I'd sooner gargle liquid goddamn nitrogen than show those hood wearing, cross burning, murderous, violent, hateful pieces of walking trash some fucking respect.
Thank. You.
Elegant Weapon
Member
For real, I wonder if these posters want to travel to go meet ISIS and play guitar for them. I bet they don't
Lightning_Roller
Banned
You can bet your bottom damn dollar they'll stay silent about ISIS when it comes to extending the olive branch.
Nah I just took objection to your sarcasm about this just amounting to talking just shooting the shit with another human being.
The KKK are terrorists, Nazi's terrorist, White Supremacy is a terrorist philosphy.
It's not normal, they are not normal, trying to engage a terrorists in anyway is an extraordinary feat.
Also you have to explain what you mean in this paragraph(s):
Particularly what you mean by "all or nothing" because if their problem is that it excludes the KKK, Nazis & White Supremacy, than they are neither moderate nor are they making a political statement.
And if encouraging others to disavow extremists is going to lose votes, America has no hope of ever recovering.
I never said everyone should do it, I even said I wouldnt do it myself. Likewise, you could say that just because someone doesnt support what he does doesnt mean they should dictate what he and everyone else should be doing right? Im arguing against the idea that its unreasonable for him to be doing it, like hes a traitor and empathizing for arguing with them at all, and that moderates who agree should be shun from the liberal cause. He has every right to argue with racists if he wants. Just because its not the cure for racism doesnt mean hes a bad person for doing it.
The guy argues with racists...that doesnt mean everyone else doing everything else to progress the liberal cause is now halted and he has destroyed our plans. He can argue with racists in his micro circles and us understand that its not an effective macro strategy at the same time. We can still fight nazis and mot tolerate the KKK. It doesnt have to be one or the other.
I agree with you that theyre terrorists, i dont think they should be protected by free speech, they should monitored by the fbi and treated like isis. You can disavow racism and still think its ok for this guy to be arguing with them. The all or nothing thing im talking about is the idea that moderates should subscribe to this idea of never engaging the other side or even talking to them as if theyre human beings and always be militant or fuck off. I dont like that the right can unify behind fucking Trump and we sit here and attack a fellow liberal for arguing and converting racists. Let him. Let him and still accept him as one of us, even though its not the panacea for racism and not the ultimate answer for us politically. Definitely not a way to win a war of ideas and at times actual war with racists. But certainly not worth attacking our own over. I understand that moderates can at times be an enemy of progress, but this isnt an argument, for example, about whether or not protestors should be creating traffic annoyances. Its literally a black man who chooses to engage and try and convert racists of his own volition. Its okay to support this guy being a peaceful, much more patient and forgiving person than I could ever be. If he wants to waste his time, let him, why villainize him? You dont have to do what he does. You can still wreck kkk on sight if you want
Elegant Weapon
Member
because they want to kill those people. White supremacists shouldn't be killed though, of course. They should be regaled with free concerts from accomplished blues musicians
Your liberal cause and my cause to have black people live outside of threats of death and extermination aren't the same thing. You all had your shot this last election and you blew it. Now we're onto more pressing matters.
Lightning_Roller
Banned
Of course, I mean it's not like White Supremacists have a history of murdering innocent folks, enslaving folks and oppressing folks because they are different than the-
Wait a minute...of fucking course they did!!!!
The man can do what he wants. Nobody is trying to rob him of his agency.
But that doesn't mean his tactic works (it doesn't, by and large). And it doesn't mean I have to respect him for it. I don't.
The man is an adult, who is just as submerged in the race debate as anyone. After countless suspiciously-timed op-eds and an actual documentary, he knows goddamn well that he's being trotted out as a moderate salve. He knows he's playing the role of the Good One that the rest of us Angry Blacks should strive to emulate. It's the role he wants to play.
I mean, the way he holds up his childhood as a badge of honor makes me laugh. Unlike a lot of black people, I grew up around white people. So I know them. Well, as a black dude from a diverse family raised in a diverse city: the fuck is your point?
Elegant Weapon
Member
The military should just forgo traditional weaponry and contract Gibson, Fender & Epiphone to win our conflicts
Basic training will be music theory and every solid-... musician will be issued Les Paul's and those cute little orange amps
Basic training will be music theory and every solid-... musician will be issued Les Paul's and those cute little orange amps
I didnt even know he was in previous stories you might be right, I dont know much about him. On the surface the story seemed like a good thing but I guess this guy gets used as a token tool ?
Lightning_Roller
Banned
This is probably the fifth time in this thread someone had to say the obvious that it is not on black people to get rid of racism. But once again, it'll be ignored by the moderates because "it's not the way we want things done" right???
Lowkey every since Charlettoesville people want to roll up into threads dealing with racism and be like "you going to call antifa to crack some heads?", lets be honest antifua is some white people shit, we been doing this since day one and never stopped. The only people bombed in the continental united states by US military equipment was black people in Tulsa. So we know what happens if we wild out.
But it almost like people want to push the narrative that unless you dancing you are violent as a black person in civil rights.
But it almost like people want to push the narrative that unless you dancing you are violent as a black person in civil rights.
Elegant Weapon
Member
That's what I like about Antifa, it's a bunch of white people getting their hands dirty to physically oppose white supremacists
I ain't mad at em
I ain't mad at em
Lightning_Roller
Banned
I ain't mad at them either. Get 'em, Antifa.
I apologize if I misunderstood your point, I read it in a different way than was intended.
And I have no problem with what the man does and more power to him if thats his calling but I don't think thats why he's being used as an example for tolerance these days, its a lot more insidious than just a feel good story about a black man breaking the walls of bigotry through the power of understanding.
It comes off as a realistic solution to white supremacy when its the furthers thing from, the vast majority of people that buy into white supremacy know exactly what they bought into and if it were just a problem that was solved by "talking" it would have a long time ago.
The way it comes off is like "white supremacists" are demonized and they're only a friendly conversation away from being a "friend"... the demonization of white supremacy is not an unfair smearjob, its an image built by white supremacists themselves. Wearing hooded robes & burning crosses isn't designed to fill you with joy.
But you're fucking with the narrative here. It's not about the persecuted, it's about those that haven't figured out what kind of world they live in yet. It's about people being told that no, your safety blanket magical negro shit doesn't work anymore. Tell them to put in the work themselves and watch them shrink.
Angelus Errare
Banned
Hand them a Pepsi, and a Gibson = World Peace
I know what you mean, I definitely agree with you and probably shouldnt have tried to make my point in such a shitty way. What this guy does should not be the typical manifesto for dealing with these people and it's valid to be vigilant against people falling for that line of wishful thinking
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