What Part of the Problem Are You?

Meet Daryl Davis.

He’s a blues musician from Chicago.

He’s pretty damn good.

He’s seen his fair share of racism.

He has plenty of reasons to hate Whitey.

Instead, he talks to them. And not just them – but “them.” The Nazis. The KKK.

He has every reason to hate them.

He talks to them instead. And he listens. Even to the vilest things they say about his race:

The most important thing I learned is that when you are actively learning about someone else you are passively teaching them about yourself. So if you have an adversary with an opposing point of view, give that person a platform. Allow them to air that point of view, regardless of how extreme it may be. And believe me, I've heard things so extreme at these rallies they'll cut you to the bone.

Give them a platform.

You challenge them. But you don't challenge them rudely or violently. You do it politely and intelligently. And when you do things that way chances are they will reciprocate and give you a platform. So he and I would sit down and listen to one another over a period of time. And the cement that held his ideas together began to get cracks in it. And then it began to crumble. And then it fell apart.

He has no illusions about those who voted for Donald Trump, he tells the Mail:

What you are seeing is those people who were dormant racists, being given a new lease on life by the sentiments of our new President-Elect.

They celebrate his election. But, let me be clear here. Every racist I know, and I know a lot of them, voted for Trump. However, that does not mean that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist. I know a lot of people who voted for him who are not racist.

Racist or not, I’m sure he talks with Trump voters. He gives them a platform – a platform not his to give, because everyone has a platform, regardless of who might wish to take it away from them.

I did not vote for Trump. I have a great many concerns about the things he says and the things he stands for.

But I’ll talk. I’ll listen. I won’t look at a Trump supporter, or someone who didn’t support him, but is not “actively” – whatever that means – working against him, and say, “You are part of the problem.” Because that kind of talk never works. Never.

Do you change a racist’s mind by calling him or her a really racist racist? No. They dig their heels in and remain racist.

Do you change a liberal’s mind by calling him or her a hippiest hippie? No. They dig their heels in and remain the hippiest of hippies.

When you talk in terms of us vs them, it’s always going to remain us vs them. Always. To insist we can remain in our own comfort zones and hurl wads of truth at others is to be part of the problem. Truly, when it’s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, everyone ends up blind and toothless.

I’ll let Daryl Davis say it again:

The most important thing I learned is that when you are actively learning about someone else you are passively teaching them about yourself. So if you have an adversary with an opposing point of view, give that person a platform. Allow them to air that point of view, regardless of how extreme it may be. And believe me, I've heard things so extreme at these rallies they'll cut you to the bone.

Give them a platform.

You challenge them. But you don't challenge them rudely or violently. You do it politely and intelligently. And when you do things that way chances are they will reciprocate and give you a platform. So he and I would sit down and listen to one another over a period of time. And the cement that held his ideas together began to get cracks in it. And then it began to crumble. And then it fell apart.

You change ideas by listening to them, by challenging them intelligently, rationally, politely. And you share your ideas. And then that cement begins to crumble. Some of that cement just might be your own.