In New Doc, a Black Man Tries to Combat Racism by Befriending Klansmen
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Pianist Daryl Davis estimates that since the early ‘90s, he’s collected around 25 robes that were worn by Klansmen, each representative of a mind he’s changed and a life he’s converted to anti-racism. Davis, who’s black, has made a name for himself by actively seeking out KKK members to shoot the shit with, in attempt to find common ground. Accidental Courtesy, Matthew Ornstein’s documentary profile of Davis, which played festivals last year and debuted on PBS last night; it is heartening, frustrating, and more often than not, totally surreal. There is, for example, a scene in which Davis accepts a certificate of friendship from the Traditional American Knights, bestowed to him by a man he calls his friend, Imperial Wizard Frank Ancona (who just happened to be killed this past weekend).
Davis’s technique can be cathartic to watch—he calmly exposes the logistical shortcomings of these racists (who often would rather not be referred to as such) by merely asking questions and presenting inarguable facts. The scene in which Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement claims that Elvis Presley invented rock and roll is absurd to the point of self-parody.
Davis’s meeting with Pastor Thomas Robb, national director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, is more contentious. Robb calls Davis’s relationship with his wife, a white woman, “reprehensible,” and says that he would like to hear some “words of appreciation” from black people for the soldiers that died in the Civil War, as well as thanks for money that goes to public housing and healthcare. You can’t help but wonder how Davis can put up with this, and to what degree inner masochism is driving him.
“I am Tom Robb’s friend and I feel that one day he will come around,” says Davis after all this.