Why People Join The KKK w/Daryl Davis | Joe Rogan

You have to work. Yeah. But I'll tell you something though. Not all of them, in fact probably not most of them, but some of the hardest working people that I've ever seen in my life have been in the plan. I'm serious. I mean working hard to make a living and support their families. Is there a universal factor? Like when you talk about how they got involved in it, is it the neighborhood, is it people that they knew, their family? Well, let me give you an example of why people joined the Klan. There are different reasons. In some cases, it's my grandfather was in the Klan, my daddy was in the Klan, so I'm in the Klan and my kids are going to be in the Klan. It's a family tradition, right, passed down. And when you are dealing with somebody with that kind of tie, that generational thing, it may take a little longer for them to come out because it's hard to break family tradition, right? Another reason why people would join, you take a depressed town, like a coal mining town in West Virginia or Scranton, Pennsylvania or something like that, where people who are not racist, they're hard workers, they dig coal all their lives. Grandfather dug coal, father dug coal, now you dig coal after high school. That's all you know. If I were to hand one of those people a vacuum cleaner and say vacuum this rug, they wouldn't know how to do it. All they know is digging coal. And they're happy. They're making their paycheck, they're feeding their family, paying their rent, whatever. They're not concerned about people's color, they're happy. But then the company gets greedy and decides, hey, you know what, we can save money, make a lot more money if we lay off our employees and hire some of these immigrants, whether they're legal or illegal, because they'll work for less than half of what we're paying our people, right? And so they lay off these people and hire these people who just came over to the country looking for work. And they pay them next to nothing. So now these white people who are never racist are out of a job. The bank is going to foreclose on their trailer or their house or whatever. They can't put food on their table. The Klan sees these things. And the Klan will come into a depressed town like that and hold a rally and say, the Blacks have the NAACP. The Jews have the ADL. You know, nobody stands up for the white man but the Klan. Come join us. We'll get your job back. That was your job. Your job's not gone, but you're gone. And now some nigga or some spic's got your job. Why is that? Come join us. So these people, like I said, who were never racist, they began thinking, well, you know, they're right. My job is still there. And I worked that job for 25 years. And I got laid off for no reason. And somebody else is doing my job. So what do I have to lose? Give me an application. And they sign up. So they're like, you know, coerced into this group. They may be a little easier to come out, you know, talking with them. Then a third reason why people would join, if somebody relocates to a town that is very Klan-oriented, a lot of people who are kindly going to live there and stuff, you know, if you want to do business in that town, you've got to assimilate. You know, you join the local country club, the local chamber of commerce, and the local KKK. So, you know, those are different reasons why people will join. And depending again, depending upon how strong the ties are, why they join, can determine their longevity or their hold on it. What is the one that took you the longest to crack? Well, I'll be honest with you. I never set out to convert anybody. And even though in the media it will say, a black musician converts 200 Klansmen or eximata Klan members, I didn't convert anybody. I didn't even convert one of them. I will say that I am the impetus for over 200 leaving the Klan. Yeah, I know that for a fact. And people have told me, yeah, you know, I'm out of because of you and things like that. But I did not convert them. They converted themselves. I gave them reason to think about their direction in life. And they thought about it and thought, you know, I need a better path. And this is the way to go. Because what would happen would be this. It's like, you know, when you believe in something, some people will just believe in it just because it's that person saying it. Like you know, we have a current president where no matter what he says, some people are going to believe and others are going to disbelieve. All right. And that can go for any president, really, if you're a big fan. No matter what you do, what you say, you have a base that's going to believe you. So I would tell these people when I saw a fault with what they were saying in their ideology, I said, well, let me tell you why I think this is incorrect. And I lay out the facts for them. And then they – now, they may not concede right then and there. But when they go home, they check it out. And it rolls around in their head. And they began thinking, you know, Darrell does have a point. But he's black. But he's black. But he does have a point. But he's black. So even though they know it's true, they don't want to believe it because I'm black. So it's like that cognitive dissonance thing going on. So they have an internal struggle. And they have to make up their own mind. Do I continue living a lie? Or do I turn my life around and live the truth?