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Meet A Black Man Who Gets Racists To Leave The K.K.K.
One of the questions I’m asked most is: How do I talk to those on the other side of America’s political and cultural abyss? So for today’s column, I reached out to an expert. |
Daryl Davis is a Black musician who seeks out Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis and chips away at their racism. Astonishingly, he has often been successful: He claims to have led more than 200 white supremacists to abandon the Klan or neo-Nazi groups. |
“Daryl saved my life,” said Scott Shepherd, a former grand dragon of the K.K.K. “Daryl extended his hand and actually just extended his heart too, and we became brothers.” Shepherd ended up leaving the Klan and gave his robes to Davis. |
If you’re wondering how to reach people with extreme views and get them to rethink those views, I think Davis offers some useful advice. His approach is to do something now rare in America — engage those on the other side of the abyss, shake their hands and listen to them, and in so doing create space to plant seeds of doubts. Here’s the column. |
Prosecutors Are Tightening the Net Around President Trump |
The New York Times reports that the Manhattan D.A.’s office may file criminal charges as early as this coming week against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. Presumably the idea is then to apply pressure on Weisselberg to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for immunity and spill the beans about any illegal activities by Trump himself. |
Weisselberg’s cooperation would be important because financial fraud cases are difficult to win, and the D.A.’s office doesn’t want to bring a case if it’s not confident 12 jurors will agree on a guilty verdict. And Americans are so polarized that if there are a few Trump supporters on the jury (which is likely, even in New York City). they may be inclined to discount the evidence and defend him. The problem with tax fraud cases is that the defendant can claim that he made an honest mistake, and he often can point to accountants who signed off on fraudulent tax returns. That doesn’t work as well if the C.F.O. testifies that you knew you were breaking the law. |
I think Trump may come to rue the day that he was elected president and invited greater scrutiny over personal and business affairs. |
The Most Important Part of Infrastructure Isn’t Roads. It’s Kids. |
It’s encouraging that Democrats and Republicans have reached a tentative agreement on an infrastructure bill. But it’s discouraging that it’s mostly about things like bridges and highways, leaving out the investments in human capital that I think are every bit as important. |
In the 1950s, America progressed because of physical infrastructure improvements like the interstate highway system. But at least as important were the continued expansion of high school systems, of state universities and community colleges and programs like the G.I. Bill of Rights, that improved access to education. America’s roads need work, no doubt about that, but we even more desperately need investment in education and human capacity — especially for working class Americans. |
Fox News Goes Berserk on Critical Race Theory |
Critical race theory is an academic approach that was developed by legal scholars decades ago and rarely received much attention outside of academic circles. But Fox News now mentions it constantly (1,860 times so far this year), and the Heritage Foundation now has a section of its website devoted to C.R.T. The liberal impulse has sometimes been to charge into this fray, but I think that’s a political trap and a distraction. |
What would make the most difference in racial equity in this country is not more study of C.R.T. but national high-quality pre-kindergarten, a higher minimum wage, and efforts to equalize school funding. We face a huge racial wealth gap in this country, and research suggests that one effective way to reduce it sharply is with baby bonds — so let’s push for baby bonds rather than get diverted onto the Fox News culture war. |
What I’m Reading: Remember Eddie Gallagher, the Navy SEAL whom the military charged with war crimes but was championed by President Trump? David Philipps has an excellent new book about the case, “Alpha,” due out in August; I’ve been reading an early copy. It paints a devastating portrait of Gallagher, who was eventually convicted of one charge, posing for photos with a captive’s dead body, and demoted. President Trump ultimately reversed the demotion. |
“Alpha” also notes how many SEALS took major career risks to do the right thing and report their boss. The book describes extraordinary scenes of SEAL snipers giving up on shooting ISIS fighters and frantically devoting their time instead to shooting ahead of Iraqi civilians to warn them to hide before Gallagher could shoot them. We owe a debt to those SEALs who, at great risk to their careers, reported Gallagher’s alleged war crimes and demanded that he be removed. |
I’m taking a break from the column and newsletter and will be doing some backpacking with family. Since my daughter and I finished the Pacific Crest Trail, we’ve been experimenting with other long trails, and I think we’ll now do a segment of a brand-new trail called the Blue Mountain Trail. It is still being plotted but runs more than 500 miles and sweeps through remote and gorgeous parts of Eastern Oregon. Wish us luck! You can follow my peregrinations (and commentary when I’m not doing my column or newsletter) on Facebook and Instagram. |
Talking to People We Disagree With, Even Deplore |
I wrote today’s column because I think we need to do more to try to knit America together again, and I think that is going to involve talking to each other — even talking to people whose views we deplore. We’re all stuck in the same boat, and navigation is easier if we manage to communicate. This isn’t easy and won’t be hugely effective, but I think it’s the only way — and I find Daryl Davis’s ability to change the minds of Klan members inspiring. |
“If I can sit down and talk to K.K.K. members and neo-Nazis and get them to give me their robes and hoods and swastika flags and all that kind of crazy stuff,” Davis said, “there’s no reason why somebody can’t sit down at a dinner table and talk to their family member.” |
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WHAT I’M READING IN THE TIMES |
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