Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America

March. 13,2016      
Rating:
7.6
Rent / Buy
Rent / Buy
Trailer Synopsis Cast

Daryl Davis has an unusual hobby. As a musician he has played with legends like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, but in his spare time he likes to meet and befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan. Join Daryl on his personal quest to understand racism.

Daryl D. Davis as  Self

Reviews

Nonureva
2016/03/13

Really Surprised!

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BoardChiri
2016/03/14

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

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Intcatinfo
2016/03/15

A Masterpiece!

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Leoni Haney
2016/03/16

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

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Causekix Picks Flicks
2016/03/17

A black musician named Daryl Davis has made it his life mission to dissolve racism. Particularly, he dialogues with White Supremacists, often befriending them and eroding their ideologies through his enduring, authentic relationship. He (and the film makers) also educate through usually unbiased sharing of history. The film also chronicles some of Daryl's story. He's lived a very extraordinary life, having shared the stage with many famous musicians, visiting over 50 nations, and has authored & acted. For most of his life, Daryl has pondered "Why do you hate me when you know nothing about me?" This burning question is his basis. He gives those who hate the color of his skin an opportunity to experience the quality human being that lives and loves from within that skin. He also returns the favor, and respectfully empathizes with his opposition - giving them time and space to express and wrestle with their convictions.

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iieeef
2016/03/18

Daryl Davis is a serious man with a unique approach to a complicated issue. An accomplished piano player, Davis spends his free time collecting Ku Klux Klan memorabilia in the hopes of one day creating a Ku Klux Klan Museum. Odd enough already for a black man, but his collection is a bit more specific than that. Everything in his collection has been gifted to him by former Klan members who left the Klan after starting a friendship with Davis. So essentially, Davis befriends Klan members in the hopes of humanizing the black experience and collecting their robes, though he would insist there is no agenda and that they are truly his friends. He calls them his friends, he laughs with them. At one point the camera actually catches Davis adjusting the hood of a Klan member as he suits up. While this is perplexing to some people, it is absolutely infuriating to others.Just because the film is examining Davis closely though, do not assume the Director is attempting to sanctify him. Matthew Ornstein does a fantastic job of presenting both sides of a polarizing issue without ever landing the film squarely in either camp. In fact, the most engaging sequence in the film is a heated debate towards the end which reveals the many cracks in Davis's armor, a risky move with a title character so close to the end of the film. But Ornstein seems to know there is standing room on both sides of the issue and he, like the audience, seems to be treading a path back and forth between the two sides. This film may leave you with more questions than it answers, but it is certainly a conversation worth having.

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classicalsteve
2016/03/19

Probably 95+% of Americans are not racists. However, even though 5% seems like a low number, that means there are about 17 million people living in the United States who not only are racists but many of them see themselves as such. That seems large when written down as a number rather than a percentage. And that 5% can wreak a lot of havoc. Even among those who believe Whites are superior to Blacks/African-Americans, it's an even smaller percentage who engage in crimes. However, it doesn't take many people to target a house or church or murder an "agitator". If 1% of those who are racists are willing to commit crimes to further their cause, that's still 170,000 people willing to risk imprisonment to commit heinous crimes for the sake of perpetuating racist ideas. So the question becomes, how do you speak to these people? Self-proclaimed racists are not going to be easily dissuaded their ideas are not only based on fabrications, they are actually self-destructive.In "Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America", Daryl Davis has forged a new approach to dealing with the racial problem. While the premise seems so obvious it couldn't possibly work, Davis's strategy entails listening to the "other side", even befriending members of the "other side". So instead of standing on soapboxes and getting into shouting matches which may escalate into violence in urban streets, Davis has done almost the unthinkable: enter their territory and listen to their views. Interestingly, Davis never lets their racist views stand, but he's willing to hear them out. When one racists states he feels Whites are being "invaded" by other races, Davis gently points that at least among African-Americans, they were brought to America by force by Whites, implying the "invasion" was at the very least originally created by Black slavery. Strangely, many White Supremacists have taken to Davis and have even called him their friend.At the beginning of the documentary, Davis is shown offering a lecture about the racist dilemma. He says that often people who wish to end racism in America simply get together among-st themselves and discuss about how bad racism is, but as well-intention-ed as these groups are, they are ineffective because they're only preaching to the choir. He suggests that anti-racists need to engage with racists to open a dialogue. Davis, similar to comedian W. Kamau Bell on CNN, has entered into KKK and other White Supremicist locations and conversed with them, willing to listen to their side to understand why they feel the need to engage in a race war. He finds there's a wide range of attitudes, from those who desire the destruction of other races to those who believe a separation of the races is the answer.Davis' mantra is "If they're talking, they're not fighting" which I interpret as "if the racists are engaged in a dialogue, at least they are not engaged in violence". Through his friendships, Davis has been able to persuade a number of hardcore racists that their views were based on erroneous information and their attitudes could lead to behavior which is ultimately self-destructive. Although these changes of heart don't happen over night, it seems over a period of friendly dialogue, Davis has been able to turn a not insignificant number of racists, some of whom were leaders of their groups. One of Davis' codettas after "turning" a racist is to request the newly reformed to give him his/her KKK uniform if they were part of the Ku Klux Klan. Davis then hangs the uniform in a kind of museum which celebrates his battle against racism. Why I think Davis' strategy has a lot of merit is simply because he believes racism itself is the enemy and not the racist.I contrast Davis' approach to that of W. Kamau Bell on a CNN series called "United Shades of America". While I applaud both men for risking their lives to enter enemy territory, Davis' goals appear more concrete. I watched a few episodes of Bell engaging in similar friendly infiltration but I never got a sense of what Bell was trying to accomplish except making some jokes about racism, convincing them that African-Americans are for the most part "harmless", and watching them engage in KKK rituals. By contrast, Davis' goals are very clear: he wants to make friends with racists which may in turn lead to their questioning their racism. At the end of the documentary the quote by Lincoln succinctly sums up his approach: "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"Simultaneously, Davis has had his critics. The most virulent came from a fellow African-American who wouldn't shake Davis' hand because he felt he had "sold out" African-Americans by befriending racists. Even a White intellectual in pursuit of destroying racism was questioning Davis' approach because he felt it would take "too long". One of the other eye-openers is that Davis learns that a racist who has "turned" away from racist sensibility becomes even more vilified by the racists than even those of the other races! Considering that we've had civil rights legislation for 50 years, we still have a long road ahead before racist sensibilities are completely eradicated. Rather than just making speeches on soapboxes as has been the typical approach, Davis is willing to travel the roads to Racism, USA, and see if there is a way to make peace by offering alternative paths.

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JustCuriosity
2016/03/20

Accidental Courtesy was well-received at its World Premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. Its protagonist musician Daryl Davis seems well-intentioned in his peculiar efforts to reach out to Klansman. He seems to think that if he – as a black man – can just talk to these Klansman he can talk them out of their racist. The view seems really naive. Over 30 years, he seems to have won over a few Klansman, but none of his arguments seem to really address the deeper issues. The KKK is only the tip of the iceberg and none of his arguments ever get at the structural causes of racism or the deeper roots of institutional racism. Human contact can certainly breakdown some boundaries and its positive if a few of these extremists get to know a black man and learn that he is human and begin to rethink their views. But I was really glad that the film makers realized how deeply limited Davis's approach was and decided to include his critics from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Black Lives Matter movement. The film is entertaining and well- filmed, but got a bit repetitive after a while as we saw Davis's numerous encounters with different Klansman. Davis is an interesting idiosyncratic character, but his approach to racism is ultimately a bit simplistic.

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