Hey, there, it's Nick.
This is a sort of sequel to our 2014 episode featuring Daryl Davis called the Silver Dollar.
Be sure to listen to that one first before this one.
Thanks.
I've been thinking a lot, especially in terms of this election, noticing, like, a really substantial shift in how people talk to each other and how people argue.
And for myself, I feel like just the rhetoric has just gotten so overheated and people feel really threatened, you know?
And I think when people feel scared, they start arguing from this place of emotionality, which is totally understandable, but it's also not very effective in terms of kind of converting people.
So I guess my first question is just kind of like, what specifically, in all the conversations that you've had with these Klan guys, what do you think that you do differently that a lot of people don't?
I think what I do differently is I give them a platform to express their views honestly in a safe place where, you know, they're dealing with their alleged enemy, a black person.
I give them a space in which they can express their views without fear of attack or retaliation or whatever and allow them to discuss them and most importantly, have a conversation with them.
You don't have to respect what they're saying, but you need to respect their right to say it.
Nobody wants to be wrong.
We all want to be right.
And so if somebody says something to you that goes against, you know, what you have believed from the day you were born.
But there's a little spark that says that piques your curiosity, that you think that person might be right, you know, you're going to begin to shift in that direction.
It might not be an overnight turnaround, but over time, I've never gone and said, you know what?
You need to get out of this organization.
You need to stop this nonsense, blah, blah, blah.
Or I don't go on, on CNN and talk about them and bash them and then tell them to send me their robes and hoods.
That doesn't work.