Daryl Davis Quotes

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Daryl Davis

Profession : Musician

Birth : March 26, 1958

It's very important that we learn how to communicate... and learn to respect each other.

Daryl Davis

When you make friends with me, you have a friend for life.

Daryl Davis

In most of my encounters with Klan members, we would discuss reasons for why they were members in the first place.

Daryl Davis

Music is indeed the universal language and unites people.

Daryl Davis

If you don't keep hatred in check it will breed destruction.

Daryl Davis

Invite your enemies to sit down and join you. One small thing you say might give them food for though, and you will learn.

Daryl Davis

You don't change the system without changing the people behind the system.

Daryl Davis

Racism is a cancer. You cannot ignore it and it'll go away. If you ignore cancer, it simply metastasizes and consumes the whole body.

Daryl Davis

The most powerful tools you can have are information and knowledge.

Daryl Davis

Everybody likes music. And rock 'n' roll - that was the music that brought white youth and black youth together for the first time in American music history.

Daryl Davis

There's no more denying it, or saying we live in a post-racist society. All you have to do is turn on the TV and see all these hate crimes.

Daryl Davis

My father was the first black Secret Service agent. He wanted to get into the FBI but J. Edgar Hoover, who was the head of the FBI, was a racist and he said we don't want any black people.

Daryl Davis

He spoke nine languages. You know some people can just pick up an instrument and play. My father was like that with languages.

Daryl Davis

When I experienced racism here in my own country, I was not prepared for it. I had never heard the word racism.

Daryl Davis

I'm always thinking 'how can I blend something?' whether it's musical instruments, voices, or the people around me.

Daryl Davis

In my band, I'm the band leader. As a band leader, our job is to bring harmony to the voices we have on stage.

Daryl Davis

Rock 'n' roll was uniting black kids and white kids, and rock 'n' roll is not being given credit... for being just as important to the civil rights movement as the activists.

Daryl Davis

I've heard stories of pickup bands that can't follow, but here's the thing: If you want to play with Chuck Berry, you listen to his greatest hits and learn the format of the songs, but don't try to play it note-for-note.

Daryl Davis

I wanted to visit India because I have always wanted to explore the country. More than that, I have always found the caste system in India identical to the racism in the United States.

Daryl Davis

I met a white man once, who claimed that every black man has a gene which makes him violent. To which, I said I had never been violent and that he was wrong.

Daryl Davis