First, I first heard of Daryl almost ten years ago and have been a deep admirer ever since. This is the first time I've heard him, and if you hadn't advertised his presence, Connie, I would have thought you had acquired a performance of the late, great James Earl Jones playing Daryl! It's really quite uncanny.
I've read his story and snippets of interviews. This is the first time I've heard the entirety of his first meeting with the gent at the club and then Roger Kelly. I burst out laughing when he offered to take the mask unsolicited to Roger's home! What chutzpa!
And I understand that whole experience of the United Nations of school children. Back in the early aughts, I taught in an international school in Warsaw, Poland. 33 nations were there! And soon as I walked off the school grounds at the end of each day, I was back in Poland. Hah!
Wow, Daryl is the pinnacle of that old saw of "doing God's work." Of the mountaintop that many of us hope to reach some day. What a stunning man.
The first time I read about him - he showed up in my Internet news feed one morning - I told others about him. One was a very angry gay man with an Appalachian peak on his shoulders. I was trying to cultivate a Facebook friendship with him, and inspire him to see the world through a softer lens. He kept telling me to "stay in my lane." His reaction to Daryl was loud, long, all caps laughter. He told me that he hopes he gets his ass kicked.
When in actuality, thanks to Daryl, it's bigotry that's getting its ass kicked.
He's so right about laughter being that bridge to bring us all - anyone and everyone - together. That was THE moment when all those gentlemen - and lady - had the golden opportunity for fight or flight, and they each responded from the depths of their souls. You know what I mean? Theirs was an absolute genuine reaction, and thus both Daryl and Roger were on their way!
Wow!
I have long contended that what people want more than anything else is to be heard. But yeah, Daryl is spot on about those four other core values. I haven't listened to your interviews in quite some time, Connie. Not for any personal reason; I've just had a ton of things going on. But Free Black Thought reliably pops up in my inbox - and when I saw you were interviewing the man himself, there was no question that I was going to make time. Thank you so much for this!!
And now I'm going to switch gears a bit and pursue a couple of comments he made almost incidentally. In fact, I'm going to address Daryl, himself. I hope he reads and responds to this...
Daryl, when you spoke of "racism," what exactly did you mean? It sounded like you and Connie boiled it down to bigotry against Black people. How about "antisemitic?" I'm guessing by this you mean bigotry against Jews, but surely you realize that Palestinians and other Arabs are Semitic peoples. I learned long ago that the most direct and effective way of fighting bigotry is to acknowledge the real differences between cultural and ethnic groups, while simultaneously embracing the many commonalities. I write "many" because there are many more commonalties than there are differences. You noted this yourself with your five core values.
It is thoroughly misguided to call a White man a racist or an antisemite - or worse, both - because what that does more than anything else is highlight in big, bold writ the very differences we are trying so valiantly to extinguish. Many Jews have claimed semitism as an exclusive privilege, effectively reducing their Arab neighbors to less than they. Blacks will spit out the word racist, hurling a tenacious adhesive at the entirety of Whites. How? Because only Whites can be racist, and thus are eternally and inevitably solely associated with that evil.
Simply put, if we want to end racism we must first absolutely crush the whole fantastical notion of "race." The word itself was first coined by White slave traders to justify what how they made their living.
And here I'll go deeper... this insidious insistence in defining and dividing people by their culture or imaginary lines on a map or imaginary lines or two sides of a neighborhood is abhorrent. I don't have to tell you this, Daryl. You know this. Connie knows this. I daresay all of us here who contribute to and engage with Free Black Thought know this. It informs every thought, every action, every prayer.
So perhaps you understand my revulsion at the endless war in Palestine. That Hamas needs to be eliminated - or maybe turned, as you have inspired many former Klansmen to do - is unquestionable. That Israel has the right to defend itself is unquestionable. But this endless, mindless slaughter in Palestine needs to end. This is not defending; this is slaughter.
So too, needs to end this wild and deliberate conflation of empathy with Palestinians and calling on Israel to end this stupid war, with a defense of Hamas and the craven desire to end Israel.
There are many prohibitions against this in scripture, both Hebrew and Christian. I'll type one here. It's Exodus 22:22: "You must not mistreat any widow or orphan." And yet here is the Israeli Army daily making widows and orphans of Palestinians. Okay, here's one more, from Matthew 22:45: "Whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me."
This is wrong, this is sinful, and it needs to end. Yesterday.
Daryl, do you see the unsettling parallels between the light you are bringing into this world and the darkness that Israel has brought to Palestine?
Well... I am done here. Thank you for your candid interview, Daryl (or is it James Earl Jones? I never saw the two of you in the same room together!) And thank you, Connie, as always.
Legend!
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/the-ballad-of-daryl-davis
Been following Daryl for years. What an amazing man! Thank you for having him on!
Oh, I have so much to write!
First, I first heard of Daryl almost ten years ago and have been a deep admirer ever since. This is the first time I've heard him, and if you hadn't advertised his presence, Connie, I would have thought you had acquired a performance of the late, great James Earl Jones playing Daryl! It's really quite uncanny.
I've read his story and snippets of interviews. This is the first time I've heard the entirety of his first meeting with the gent at the club and then Roger Kelly. I burst out laughing when he offered to take the mask unsolicited to Roger's home! What chutzpa!
And I understand that whole experience of the United Nations of school children. Back in the early aughts, I taught in an international school in Warsaw, Poland. 33 nations were there! And soon as I walked off the school grounds at the end of each day, I was back in Poland. Hah!
Wow, Daryl is the pinnacle of that old saw of "doing God's work." Of the mountaintop that many of us hope to reach some day. What a stunning man.
The first time I read about him - he showed up in my Internet news feed one morning - I told others about him. One was a very angry gay man with an Appalachian peak on his shoulders. I was trying to cultivate a Facebook friendship with him, and inspire him to see the world through a softer lens. He kept telling me to "stay in my lane." His reaction to Daryl was loud, long, all caps laughter. He told me that he hopes he gets his ass kicked.
When in actuality, thanks to Daryl, it's bigotry that's getting its ass kicked.
He's so right about laughter being that bridge to bring us all - anyone and everyone - together. That was THE moment when all those gentlemen - and lady - had the golden opportunity for fight or flight, and they each responded from the depths of their souls. You know what I mean? Theirs was an absolute genuine reaction, and thus both Daryl and Roger were on their way!
Wow!
I have long contended that what people want more than anything else is to be heard. But yeah, Daryl is spot on about those four other core values. I haven't listened to your interviews in quite some time, Connie. Not for any personal reason; I've just had a ton of things going on. But Free Black Thought reliably pops up in my inbox - and when I saw you were interviewing the man himself, there was no question that I was going to make time. Thank you so much for this!!
And now I'm going to switch gears a bit and pursue a couple of comments he made almost incidentally. In fact, I'm going to address Daryl, himself. I hope he reads and responds to this...
Daryl, when you spoke of "racism," what exactly did you mean? It sounded like you and Connie boiled it down to bigotry against Black people. How about "antisemitic?" I'm guessing by this you mean bigotry against Jews, but surely you realize that Palestinians and other Arabs are Semitic peoples. I learned long ago that the most direct and effective way of fighting bigotry is to acknowledge the real differences between cultural and ethnic groups, while simultaneously embracing the many commonalities. I write "many" because there are many more commonalties than there are differences. You noted this yourself with your five core values.
It is thoroughly misguided to call a White man a racist or an antisemite - or worse, both - because what that does more than anything else is highlight in big, bold writ the very differences we are trying so valiantly to extinguish. Many Jews have claimed semitism as an exclusive privilege, effectively reducing their Arab neighbors to less than they. Blacks will spit out the word racist, hurling a tenacious adhesive at the entirety of Whites. How? Because only Whites can be racist, and thus are eternally and inevitably solely associated with that evil.
Simply put, if we want to end racism we must first absolutely crush the whole fantastical notion of "race." The word itself was first coined by White slave traders to justify what how they made their living.
And here I'll go deeper... this insidious insistence in defining and dividing people by their culture or imaginary lines on a map or imaginary lines or two sides of a neighborhood is abhorrent. I don't have to tell you this, Daryl. You know this. Connie knows this. I daresay all of us here who contribute to and engage with Free Black Thought know this. It informs every thought, every action, every prayer.
So perhaps you understand my revulsion at the endless war in Palestine. That Hamas needs to be eliminated - or maybe turned, as you have inspired many former Klansmen to do - is unquestionable. That Israel has the right to defend itself is unquestionable. But this endless, mindless slaughter in Palestine needs to end. This is not defending; this is slaughter.
So too, needs to end this wild and deliberate conflation of empathy with Palestinians and calling on Israel to end this stupid war, with a defense of Hamas and the craven desire to end Israel.
There are many prohibitions against this in scripture, both Hebrew and Christian. I'll type one here. It's Exodus 22:22: "You must not mistreat any widow or orphan." And yet here is the Israeli Army daily making widows and orphans of Palestinians. Okay, here's one more, from Matthew 22:45: "Whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me."
This is wrong, this is sinful, and it needs to end. Yesterday.
Daryl, do you see the unsettling parallels between the light you are bringing into this world and the darkness that Israel has brought to Palestine?
Well... I am done here. Thank you for your candid interview, Daryl (or is it James Earl Jones? I never saw the two of you in the same room together!) And thank you, Connie, as always.
Warmly,
Mark