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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You owe it to yourself to read this book., December 14, 1999
In an age when the issue of race has become mired in pointless sociological and intellectual discourse, Daryl Davis's "Klan-Destine Relationships", like Nathan Rutstein's "Healing Racism In America", comes as a breath of fresh air.Daryl Davis is an American hero. He should be admired not just for his astounding courage in the face of great potential danger (impressive in its own right), but for the even more laudable act of allowing the "enemy", so to speak, to maintain his dignity at all times. While mainstream America elects to caricature and point its finger at the Ku Klux Klan and other similar groups for their overt racism, Mr. Davis has opted for a much more noble track, treating Klansmen as fellow human beings instead of dismissing them as mere stereotypes, in this way shedding light on their concerns, their values, their hopes, and their motives--however misplaced these might be. Although another reviewer raises an interesting point, is he/she genuinely convinced that the Klan is sophisticated enough to orchestrate such a public relations coup? After all, in the eyes of a wary public, what can the Klan possibly stand to gain from its involvement with Mr. Davis? that it is now a kinder, gentler racist organization? The Kirkus reviewer seems to have overlooked the book's most endearing quality: bringing to light that a true and lasting solution to the race problem in the United States is neither political nor legislative, but spiritual. Mr. Davis is intuitively aware of this truth, and it shows in his approach to tackling the problem head on. Rather than attacking the overt racist (an easy scapegoat to America's most challenging social issue), he instead opts for the much more noble and delicate task of attacking the racism latent within him. I give this book five stars for the author's human and visionary approach.
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