“How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?”
Daryl Davis
Daryl Davis capped off his time at the annual Clergy Conference for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas in October by turning to the instrument of his vocation — the piano — and playing “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” He introduced it as the hymn that his Church of Christ grandmother would have loved him to play … and he played it through once like he was playing it for her. Then, with a devilish smile, he pounded on the ivories with vigor and played it in the style of music that he learned from Muddy Waters’ piano player, Pinetop Perkins, and Chuck Berry’s original pianist, Johnnie Johnson.
Almost three hundred members of the clergy joined in. We sang at the top of our voices in a boogie-woogie, bluesy, “Just a closer walk with Thee… Grant it, Jesus, is my plea…” It was one of those rare moments when we seemed to have received a foretaste of that heavenly banquet that awaits us, a moment that transcends time, race, age and musical tastes. At least, that’s what it felt like to me and most of the clergy around me.
Before the musical finale, Davis was Bishop Andy Doyle’s special guest for the annual “Conversation with the Bishop,” a Q&A held one evening during the Clergy Conference. Davis told us he was 11 years old when he first asked that question with which I began this meditation. He had lived a sheltered life as a child of one of the first African American Foreign Service employees, attending integrated international schools abroad in the 1960s.
During a brief stateside post outside of Boston, for the first time, he had his first brush with racism, a reality that his parents had to explain. This was the question he asked them: “How could someone hate me when they don’t even know me?” As he grew into adulthood and became a successful musician, it was a question never far from his mind.
During his travels as a musician, Daryl Davis began to meet with members of the Ku Klux Klan, where he would pose that question and respectfully listen to their response. And because he listened respectfully, they respectfully listened to him. Frequently, friendships would develop, leading some members to leave the Klan, even giving their Klan robes to Daryl. There has been media coverage of his daring work, as well as a documentary released in 2017.
In our polarized time, I hear about some families having a difficult time with communication about current events and that the holidays have added stress because of these strongly held differences of opinions. I wonder if we could take a page out of Daryl Davis’ book and learn to listen respectfully to others who have different views than us? We may not reach an agreement, but it could be a way to remind us of who we are. We are all God’s children.
