How can you hate me if you don’t even know me? [Daryl Davis and Scott Shepherd | 12 SEP 2017 | AlJazeera]
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-stream/2017/9/12/how-can-you-hate-me-if-you-dont-even-know-me
Meet the black blues musician who converts members of the Ku Klux Klan. More than 30 years ago, Daryl Davis, who has played with Chuck Berry, had an encounter that would change his life - and the lives of many others.
A white man approached after a show to tell Davis that he played piano just like Jerry Lee Lewis. After a swift education on the black origins of rock and roll, the two men fell into deeper conversation during which the man revealed he was a member of the white supremacist organisation. Davis was fascinated and a lifelong obsession was born.
Today, he is a respected authority on the KKK and claims that about 200 members have walked away from it in large part due to their friendships with him. "How can you hate me if you don't even know me?" is the central plank of his philosophy and a question he asks of many.
We meet Davis to talk about his methods and the current state of race relations in the United States. We also meet Scott Shepherd, a former Grand Dragon in the Ku Klux Klan who now calls Davis his brother.