[Music]
I'm proud to call myself a Mississippian
I've always felt a profound sense of
belonging here
it's not just the land
the people
we talk
food we eat
[Music]
foreign
the way we treat one another
[Music]
that doesn't mean that I agree with
everybody who lives here
this state was segregated
it was us
and them
[Music]
Jim Crow may be long behind us
but the state
still separate still divided
culturally politically
it's as if the whole country
even the whole world is polarizing into
separate camps that disagree with one
another
can barely even talk to one another
is this tribalism just part of human
nature
or can we bridge the gap that separates
us from them
Fusion
how can you hate me
when you don't even know me what makes
hatred turn deadly
Mass killing a thousand people at a time
can we find a path towards Unity after
all the years that I spent doing
destructive things I want to try to
repair it
the real lesson of our history is that
when you expand the circle the story of
us can also include
them
this is my journey
to discover the ties that bind us
this is the story of us
foreign
ourselves into us and them in many
different ways
by nationality religion gender
or which team you support some of these
divisions are harmless but others expose
the darkest side of human nature
divisions that once seemed consigned to
history
are still with us
in fact
they appear to be on the rise
I want to understand how
so I'm traveling to Maryland to meet
musician Daryl Davis he spent his life
trying to heal a hateful divide
[Music]
yeah man
thank you music is the thing thank you
it brings people together man
you
made yourself some very interesting
friends yeah I'm telling you why
why well you know in the fourth grade I
was one of two black kids in the entire
School
consequently all of my friends were
white most of my guy friends were
members of the Cub Scouts and they
invited me to join so I joined the Cub
Scouts on Scout day we had a March from
Lexington to Concord to celebrate the
ride of Paul Revere and I was the only
black Scout in this March and somewhere
down the parade route there was a small
group of white Spectators a couple kids
couple adults and all of a sudden I
began getting hit with uh bottles and
soda pop cans and rocks debris from the
street by this particular group of white
spectators
and my first inclination was oh those
people over there don't like the scouts
so when I got home my mom and dad who
were not at the March asked me how did
you fall down and get all scraped up I
told them I didn't fall down I told them
exactly what happened for the first time
in my life
my parents sat me down and explained to
me what racism was
I literally thought they were Liars I
did not believe it I could not get my
head around the idea that someone who
had never laid eyes on me would want to
inflict paint upon me for no other
reason than the color of my skin it made
no sense
and I formed a question in my mind and
that question was how can you hate me
when you don't even know me
so I figured in my adult life who better
to ask than someone who would join an
organization whose whole premise is
hating those who do not look like them
and who do not believe as they believe
so I began seeking out members of the Ku
Klux Klan
okay now listen but how do you know
where to go to find these people I mean
they're not nothing
absolutely but you know what when they
had a uh a rally in a public park yeah
they have to apply for a permit yeah so
that's public information yeah so I can
go there and get the name get the number
and calls and ask for a meeting
how many people have called you crazy
everybody
but it's a good kind of crazy because
you know what if I can walk away with
changed hearts we all need to be crazy
how do you
know that a person who has had one set
of beliefs has changed that set of
beliefs
when a Clans one or plans woman
sheds that clothing
they have shed their ideology and given
that Robin Hood to their enemy a black
man
yeah they're done look at me they've
done that to you yeah I I have a bunch
of rose and hoods
man so these are a couple of the clan
robes that I have in my collection I
have quite a few more this clan robe
Grand dragon robe was owned by a fellow
named Bob White Robert White
and he was sent to prison for four years
for conspiring to bomb a synagogue and
went back to prison for three years for
assault with intent to murder two black
men with a shotgun he went on to become
one of my best friends his day job
Baltimore City police officer
now the gentleman behind you here
uh chairman gentleman Loosely
all right
how did this come to be a way of life
well because we all have to have a
belief
you got to change that culture you know
and show them other things that they can
believe in
they can be somebody without believing
that I need all this around me
the mindset of racists seems so
entrenched it's hard for me to believe
they could ever really change
like
so I'm traveling with Daryl to Memphis
to meet one of his exkk friends
Scott Shepherd
my friend Morgan Freeman yeah nice to
meet you sir
Scott
why don't you happen to
get involved with the Ku Klux Klan
being from Mississippi Delta you know
with clansing all around me I didn't
have any self-confidence
and I got sucked in
buy some of their recruitment tactics
you know that they use to get young
people in that are troubled just like
gangs in the big cities
from the very beginning when I joined
and and took the oath
there was an immediate feeling of
importance
how long were you involved almost 20
years
do you think that period in your life
it was a way to get attached find a home
yes sir a meaning
I grew up in a really A Dysfunctional
Family
a alcoholic father where he was very
violent but I can't blame it on that I
take full responsibility for the
decisions I made the clan absolutely
Bound by the rules of November no blacks
and no homosexuals no Jews did you have
any sense that
that wasn't
quite the way it should be I always had
an internal internal battle within
myself because I was raised by a black
lady so many of us in the South were yes
Rebecca raised my mother
my brother my sister all of us
and
you know I I distanced myself from her
and it was constant battle Within Myself
knowing that I really wasn't doing right
put me to break from the KKK I left the
restaurant one night
from having dinner and the police pulled
me over
I feel the sobriety test
at third me into the court system
well when I got inside an alcohol and
drug treatment center there was people
in there of all color religions
sexual preferences I mean just you know
the whole gamut of different people
and I got to know them sat down
we had intimate conversations with each
other
talked about our lives
they say to been planted I was changing
nice to meet Daryl
that was stuck between a rock and a hard
spot you know trying to figure out where
my life was
and I needed guidance
I sent him my phone number and said sure
you know I'll be happy to talk with you
I had heard about Daryl
and saw what he was doing
and of course I told him before I
thought it was a nut case
you know I have an obligation he's
looking for somebody to trust
so why would I turn my back on someone
who's looking to trust me to looking for
something different and I've always
believed if you sit down with your worst
enemy
for five minutes
you will find something in common
if you sit down with them for 10 minutes
you'll find even more in common and if
you build upon those commonalities in
that relationship it will turn into a
friendship and then those things that
you have in contrast such as trivial
things like skin color will begin to
matter less and less
I felt trust I felt trust with you know
Daryl and what he said it made sense
you look back on that
what do you think of it what do you
think of them as an organization I
despise them
and would do anything I can to break
down the racial barriers in this country
but there definitely is still a threat
we can legislate Behavior
but we cannot legislate how they think
the day we legislate it for glass to
stood on the bus after the Rosa Parks
bus boycott
did not change the mindset that came
over time through Grassroots
conversation
thank you I'm on your side
Scott welcome home
I appreciate it I'm glad to be home
been a long journey
Daryl Davis has proven
that when you open your heart to someone
you give them the opportunity to open
their heart to you
[Music]
and an open heart
it's an open mind
if more of us had the courage to get to
know the people who claim to hate us
I believe we could Bridge The Divide
between us and Them
look around today
and it's hard to have hope
a new generation is joining the hate
groups
and they no longer feel the need to hide
behind hoods and Roads
[Applause]
and around the world leaders are coming
to power who promise division not Unity
we need only to look at history to see
the horror of where we might be headed
[Music]
I've come to the capital of Bosnia and
Herzegovina Sarajevo
a city where three different cultures
have lived side by side for Generations
there are Orthodox Christian serbs
Catholic croats and Muslims
but in 1992 that piece came to an end
Civil War and ethnic violence rage
across newly independent Bosnia and
Herzegovina despite all ASAP as of the
European community
for 50 years Bosnia has been a part of
the communist state Yugoslavia
but in the early 1990s Yugoslavia broke
apart into five separate states
Serbia's leader Slobodan milosevic saw
the breakup as an opportunity to capture
territory from Bosnia
Elizabeth used his state-controlled
media to spread anti-muslim and
anti-crowad propaganda
encouraging serbs living inside Bosnia
to turn on their neighbors the war that
followed took the lives of a hundred
thousand people
Morgan I'm meeting with
come up here prominent Muslim TV
journalist who lived through the war
this is
spectacular
I see
maybe a dozen minarets out there
that's unusual for European city isn't
it Ottoman Empire founded the Sarajevo
in the 15th century we have more than
100 mosques but we have seven Catholic
churches for Orthodox churches and for
synagogues
[Music]
Broadcasting
in 1992 and you predicted that war would
come how did you know I had the
interviews with every president of iOS
of Republic everyone knew but I am first
who said over average
after three days
April 5 war starting in Israel we were
sleeping
citizens media politicians when we're
starting you mean you had Serbian tanks
and stuff in the streets here overnight
first organized from this position
it's a snipers directly attack on the
city front line around Sarajevo and we
stay on the siege
four years
the Bosnian Serb Army backed by
milosevic hoped to divide sarajevil's
ethnic groups but to besieged Citizens
continued to see one another as friends
and neighbors no matter what their
ethnicity
Cena used his television show to make
sure a Voice of Unity could still be
heard
um
we was together together Serbian all
creation Jewish from sarajeva all
Bosnian or Muslims together
cannot even tried to end the war when
his studio phone rang live on air a
little of Washington said call me live
in program and I said I have one
question for you you are leader of
serbians can you call or Serbian who
hold guns to stop fire surreal
and he said okay
okay after that I I said live in program
president of Bosnia can you call us and
he called
and I asked him can you call your
Bosnian people with the guns to stop
fire and he said okay and we have two
days
piece of peace
some called
Senate peace
this is this is good two days we have we
have
peace
but the piece did not pass
outside of Sarajevo the device of
bretovic of slobanon milosevic was
tearing Bosnia apart
ethnic cleansing began and soon
there came the horror of genocide
to see the devastation cause when a
country splits into Us and Them
selves is taking me into the Bosnian
Countryside
it was here in a town called treveniza
that the clash between ethnic groups
will be remembered for Generations
it's now the final resting place of at
least eight thousand Muslim Fathers and
Sons
all killed in July 1995.
they were all civilians just like Saint
odd and his son Faja
today I'm here in Savannah with you with
my son pleasure hi Morgan
it's a pleasure to meet you pleasure
welcome
what in the world happened here
so Morgan uh what actually happened here
it's a genocide this border of Serbia is
near
very very close
they came here they wanted to kill
everybody and just together to give this
territory to separate it from Bosnia and
pass it to SAC to serve yeah
the Serbian Army collected all women men
and children into these factories over
there
and from there they were separated and
Men boys they were
they took them all around these
mountains to kill them and they show
them
from there they started to the mass
killing you know a thousand people at a
time
that's graveyard last
soon after
NATO bombing helped end the war
but it was too late to save the victims
of treveniza so you were five six years
old I was six years old and there were a
lot of boys my age that were killed that
they hear
and
I still can't believe like how is it
possible
for people to be blind
because of their own belief and how can
they not see this Humanity for me it's
like unimaginable that exists people who
can do this kind of at the Clancy
the entire family lions were wiped out
here
the Serbian nationalists hoped to kill
off the very idea that Bosnia could be a
Melting Pot of ethnic groups
but that belief is still alive in zenad
and his son feija
this is flower of celebrity
and this represents mothers
around one coffin of a small child
so this is like the mothers from the top
with the scarves yeah and these are like
their hands on the car on the car
this is actually my first time here so
it's even harder for me to handle all of
this
I'm crying I just can't imagine that you
can
go through this and then come out whole
on the other side
you have to learn to live with it yeah
but also you can't forget it
at one point you can forgive but not
forget
you have to forgive each other
not say forget yeah yeah
forget you'll do it again yeah
the heart-wrenching story of Bosnia
shows the Dark Side of humanity
people who once shared a common Yugoslav
identity began to see their neighbors as
the source of their problems because
they could no longer see their Humanity
but
there is hope amid the horror that
happened there
there are people like sinat
he's proud of his Bosnian Muslim
identity sees himself as a global
citizen
happy to live alongside surge
croax Christians and Muslims
and he's using his voice in the media
to promote that belief
that's the kind of voice the world needs
one that inspires us
to believe in our common Humanity
looking back to Bosnian War now seems
like a turning point
[Applause]
the beginning of a backlash against the
global Merchant of cultures and
economies that have erosed ways since
World War II
across Europe the Middle East and the
Americas nationalism is on the rise
we've got our country back
can we hope to escape this fractious
tribalism
to find out I'm headed to Manhattan
speak with a man with a rare Insight on
National and global politics
the 42nd President of the United States
William Jefferson Clinton
it seems like at one point the world was
kind of coalescing coming together the
other hand we're getting out towards a
kind of tribalism what's going to happen
I don't know
depends in general we're experiencing a
period of this kind of tribal
nationalism you see all over the planet
we don't need you here
people think that I can't stand all this
change that's understandable
it was never going to be that simple to
build
a so-called New World Order
dominant groups whether ethnic or racial
or religious or economic tend to see the
world in zero-sum games that is if
somebody gets more I must be given less
and nobody gives ground willingly
I believe the real lesson of our history
is
that when you expand the circle of
opportunity you have multiplication not
just addition and when you shrink it you
don't just have subtraction you get
division
then you in the end do ray worse
President Clinton gives the example of
Europe a continent devastated by the bit
of rivalries that caused two world wars
is now a prosperous United economy
former enemies have turned their back on
Division and embraced Unity
the motto of the United States of
America a Pluribus Unum means out of
many one one nation rises from a diverse
collection of states and today
many Americans regard their country's
ethnic diversity with pride
we are now probably
the most diverse
community on the planet I would say I
mean in terms of people who can call
themselves American and I believe it is
made us a lot stronger Queens for
example we're doing this interview in
New York City in Manhattan
Queens is now the most diverse urban
center with more than two and a half
million people in the world and we have
many many American counties with people
from a lot of countries but as you know
we have many people who feel
threatened by all these immigrants
coming in
boy that's always been the case though
hadn't it always but it's never stopped
us no not yet we're still here and we
are thriving because at every critical
juncture when we could have gone back
we found a way to go forward looking
outside America
do you think the whole world will ever
come together
I do but I think we have to do it in
steps people need
personal
experience with
the other so that the story of us can
also include
them
and that's not going to happen literally
billions of times this is not going to
be an easy deal Martin Luther King's
words The Arc of history as long but it
bends toward Justice it also bends
toward
growth
inclusion intelligence but it's a rocky
road always has been and all of us have
a complicated way of our identifying Who
We Are
who is we who is us who is them
it's the oldest question in human
society
President Clinton's words resonate with
me
who are we and who are we not could be
the most ancient and most difficult
questions societies ask themselves
One Tribe living deep in the Central
American jungle may have found the
balance between tribalism and globalism
I'm in Panama headed up River from
Panama City
and into a different world
I've learned of an indigenous group that
has developed an unusual balance between
us and Them
the emperor live in and around the
rugged and inhospitable area that
separates North and South America the
Darien Gap
the group I am meeting today lives less
than three hours in Panama City
but their way of life remains largely as
it always has been
[Music]
here
I'm very good me too yeah my name is
Nelson Nelson yes how do you get a name
like Nelson
um when I born yeah yes my teacher gave
me that name Nelson Brown Nelson Mandela
yeah
perfect yeah yeah how come you speak
English
there is a missionary School outside
from here near the city stay for four
years there very good yeah Morgan this
is my Village here up on this hill and
let's go and see it what kind of thing
yes
[Music]
how many structures we are around
134 people here between kids and adults
so it's around 28 houses each house is
one family ah
life here may look to be free of Western
influence
but look deeper and you find signs of
contact The Village has a thriving
jewelry and carving industry that caters
to weekly visits from tourist boats
it looks like we're busy right now he's
carving a lot of boats A Little Canoe
this kind of wood is we call a cocobolo
it's kind of like a Rosewood yeah but
the ambra regular tourist business is a
sign that their culture is valued by
others and worth maintaining
is also a source of Revenue with which
to buy a handful of Western Goods that
make their lives easier
you don't have a lot of
modern conveniences but you got those
200 horsepower outboard engines yes in
the old days we use um we call palanca
see the current I don't imagine it'd be
hard to get up River yes now we have
motor and it's more easy of course yeah
on the other hand unlike many other
indigenous cultures in Central and South
America
the emperor have not taken to western
clothing
their loin cloth is not only practical
in this climate it's also part of their
identity
I asked Nelson to introduce me to a
village Elder to understand how the
emperor managed to live Between Two
Worlds all right now there's a big city
not too far down river
cars big hotels tall buildings paved
streets
how come you don't want to go there
yeah
hey one of the big things that the
emperor people have
is the Emperor of people like to live in
the in the jungle you know live together
like a family
because he can eat he can work in the
jungle and all the people here they love
each other you know what traditions you
have that you're holding on to that we
wouldn't see in the city
this is one of them hey we use these
many years ago the fruits that we call
agua which is this one tattoo you can
see and also this can work for mosquito
net for some blood
for your hair we use these Paints the
ink for the baby or the baby can be safe
enough on the different tops around
that's fantastic better too it's amazing
to me that every culture particularly in
yours
you have knowledge of
plants what they're good foreign
you know everything is here
[Music]
this is a culture that trusts the jungle
to provide
including remedies for its ills
like the fever that has Afflicted this
girl
the emperor Dogwood checked Western
medicine when people are seriously
injured they take them to the hospital
in Panama City
but for most ailments the MRI do what
they have done for Generations
They Call On Healing spirits and prepare
remedies from healing plants
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
not bad not bad not bad
it's a blending of us and them that has
worked for the emperor for centuries
they take what they need from the
outside world but they cherish and
maintain that traditional way of life
are completely connected to the natural
world around them
Forest
River
living percent is surrounded by the
jungle
they've developed a deep spiritual
connection
it's while you're still in here primal
[Music]
even as the modern world creeps closer
and closer
our modern world is a mosaic of
different tribes
each with its own customs and belief
systems
in many places those tribes live
shoulder to shoulder
the challenge we face is learning how to
accept those who are not like us
[Music]
I come to Los Angeles to meet someone
who has faced that challenge head on
CE Roper was born into the Westboro
Baptist Church a religious cult
notorious for its hate written
interpretations of the Bible
tolerance of homosexuality
Megan grew up indoctrinated into these
divisive beliefs
[Music]
what did Westboro Baptist Church come
from
it was started by my grandfather in
1955. God hates facts
except you repent you sure
your grandfather started this movement
right so we thought it was our duty to
go out and warn people when we saw them
sinning
to rebuke them
so that they wouldn't go on in their
path to hell
[Applause]
anybody who came out against what we
were saying we thought they were coming
out against the word of God so we
started protesting churches we started
protesting the government we thought
that
God was punishing America by killing her
soldiers in battle we thought we have to
go to these families at these funerals
and say this is a curse God has cursed
you because you're fighting for a nation
that has made God its number one enemy
thank you
it's of course we believe that Outsiders
were all evil or delusional
and so the
Megan hot stop a minute
they're about 80 people in your church
and you think 80 people are right
and maybe seven billion are wrong right
yeah
Megan Phelps real poop is one of the
strongest Advocates of the hateful
ideology of the Westboro Baptist Church
she spent her days greeting division
condemning those outside her occult to
damnation in hell
is to wear this shirt and others like it
are you going to all these places
holding up these signs and stuff yeah we
protested every single day in Topeka but
we were also traveling across the
country we believe that the nation had
been promoting this lifestyle that God
calls abomination
decides who God loves not you and I
believed that I was doing good I
believed that I was doing what God
wanted
went on Twitter yourself right just done
spreading the word of
right church right
so in 2009 I started tweeting for the
church
it seemed like it was a growing body of
people that I could preach to
one of the very first people that I
attacked was a man named David
abbottball who ran a Blog called
jewlicious
I was trying to find ways of explaining
to him that he was wrong that to reject
Jesus was going to land him in hell for
eternity
he kind of at first responded with
sarcasm and anger and hostility
but almost immediately he sort of
changed tactics
he started asking me questions about
westborough's picket signs
and I started asking him questions about
Jewish theology so throughout this
conversation I was seeing his
interactions with his friends and photos
of his life in Jerusalem where he was
living and coming to understand him and
see him as human as as a person with
good intentions who was trying to do
what he believed was right this
conversation you know it became much
more friendly
and then
did he asked me a question that I didn't
have an answer for what was the question
he was asking me about one of our picket
signs that said death penalty for
and that you know comes from Romans 1 32
that was a penalty prescribed and David
said
didn't Jesus say let he who is without
sin cast the first stone
and I responded we're not casting Stones
we're preaching words
and he said yeah but you're advocating
that the government cast stones
and I was kind of you know shocked at
that point because I had never connected
that if you kill somebody you completely
cut off the opportunity to repent and be
forgiven
and that's what we were advocating we
were telling people to repent so as time
goes on and more of these situations
come up the weight of that of all these
contradictions over time
became so heavy well now that's not
going to make you leave the church it's
just makes you start to think exactly I
stopped holding the sign but it was the
first time that I thought that the
church could be wrong about something
it became more terrifying
to stay and less terrifying to leave so
now
you're in a quandary right
you're sort of happy in and half out the
day that I actually first thought of
leaving it was just it was agonizing and
excruciating
I mean just imagine
if you thought you were going to lose
everyone that you loved and cared about
to go to a world that was full of people
who hated you for all the things that
you've been doing to hurt them there
were so many things I think our family
recipes and photos and home movies and
are the yeah yeah
so it's like trying to collect
these
like once you leave you're gonna lose
everything and everyone
and
it was like
where am I gonna go
yeah where am I going to be yeah the
idea of of losing all of them
and
it was just it was it was awful it was
terrifying
not long after I left I actually met
David abbottball and he told me about
this idea this concept in Judaism it's
too
see the Brokenness in the world and to
help repair it in as many ways as you
can find
and he said you and your family have
added to the Brokenness of the world and
you should try to do what you can to
repair it
after all the years that I spent doing
destructive things I know I can't undo
it but I want to try to repair it
Megan went through a complete reversal
of her lifelong mindset the key to her
turn around she says was the lack of
hostility in conversations with people
like David abbottball
the fact that people
are being kind and understanding and
compassionate to me that contradicted
what I had been taught to believe about
Outsiders they didn't seem to be the
demons that I'd been taught that they
were like what's the first thing that
happens when someone approaches you with
hostility how do you get hostile back
kindness is powerful
and I think it's more powerful than
hostility aggression
or anything else
it's so important for us to learn how to
reach out across these intense divides I
think we can do that your story will
help a lot I really do I hope so
[Music]
today we are inundated by news stories
that make us feel divided by how a
different political and religious
beliefs
I will compulsion to sharing news on
social media only seems to make those
issues wider
but Megan's story is encouraging it
shows that we can harness the power of
social media for good
that it can be a medium for General and
patient conversation
that can help us to find our shared
Humanity
[Music]
foreign
has shown me how dangerous it can be to
divide into Us and Them
but the people I've met
give me hope that these divides are not
impossible to bridge
we are a species that thrives on working
together I mean look at the city around
me
buildings at least for the sky
a diverse population living shoulder to
shoulder
and new technologies that help us
connect in a heartbeat
all created out of a spirit of
cooperation
contain humility
understanding
respect for our differences
and time
but I believe there is room for everyone
in the story of us
[Music]