Three weeks ago, Lewis and Clark College’s ENVS program hosted Daryl Davis at our annual symposium. Davis is an R&B and blues musician, activist, author and actor. Additionally, Davis, an African American man, is responsible for the withdrawal of over 200 members from the Ku Klux Klan. Under the broad theme of “communication across difference,” Davis’ work is a perfect fit and is a priceless resource for ENVS students or anyone who’d like to sit down and have conversations with people they don’t agree with.
In preparation for the symposium, our 220 class read “Addicted to Hate” by Wes Enzinna. The article followed Shane Johnson, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. The article described Shan and his violent history in detail, but most importantly, emphasized Shane’s humanity through direct quotes and the story of his transition out of the Klan. The article also highlighted groups like Exit and Life After Hate which reach out to members of hate groups and open up dialogues with them. Their approach focuses on building connections with people through listening and conversation. This is exactly the approach Davis has used with klan members. Something that Daryl Davis emphasized in his keynote is that by ignoring hateful people, our nation has allowed hate and the practice of racism to fester. In this video that Davis included in his keynote, Roger Kelly, Imperial Wizard of the KKK in Maryland is quoted at a rally saying, “We don’t agree with everything, but at least he respects me to sit down and listen to me, and I’ll respect him to sit down and listen to him.” Davis believes that connection is extremely lacking in American society, and, through conversations with unlikely people, has done hat he can to create it. In his keynote, Davis emphasized that when talking with klansmen and people alike, his goal is never to teach them a lesson. He believes that talking at, to, or around people is not what changes minds, but instead talking with people, connecting with and respecting them is what can change minds over time.
In my Political Economy of Food class, SOAN 249, we just finished reading The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Tsing. Towards the end, Tsing describes a meeting between mushroom pickers and forest service employees at Oregon’s extremely multicultural Open Ticket mushroom picking camp.
Grace Anderson 