i mean, come on. what town doesn t have a reputation for racism? i m going to talk to the people about this. wait a minute. okay. wait a minute. i have to talk to you. please just say what you said again when you saw me. it s so nice to see a person of color in my town. oh, my. can i give you a hug? sure. oh, thank you. what do you think about the town? do you like it? i like this town. this is a pretty decent town. would you say this is a warm and welcoming town? yes. we d welcome you just like we welcome anybody else. but the way that this world s coming to, the only hope is in jesus. i really appreciate your passion, and i appreciate you putting your arm around me right now. i m going to put my arm around you because i appreciate you. i was having a lack of black in my life. i appreciate it. having a blackout. you know what i mean? how do you feel living in this town? does it bother you? is there any problems? no. not at all? it does not bother me. no r
through your veins. it is the same blood that was in the veins of your ancestors for a thousand generations. for many years nobody really said anything against him. so the assumption is that most people in harrison must agree because we never said that he doesn t speak for us. we don t think that we re perfect. we believe that we probably have the same amount of racists as most communities. that s good to know. no more, no less. but you just have one very loud one. this is what he does, 24/7. hi, guys, i want to introduce you to our guest today. this is kamau bell. hi. hi. i m just going to hug you. patty is part of a task force that is working to counter what she says is thomas robb s agenda. to discourage anyone who s not white from moving into town. as i m driving into town, there s this sign that seems like it s telling me to turn around. you know. that s a victory for them. that s exactly what they want. you know, they didn t even have
i have heard about this gentleman in town named thomas robb. he talks as if he s speaking for harrison. he s not. i d say if you took a survey 99% of the people that live here wish he would shut up. okay. thomas robb, have you heard that name before, first of all? yes. you kind of look like i said lord voldemort. you got really like don t say it three times, he might show up like beetlejuice. this town is real peaceful. and any drama that people want to bring here, it s not right. it s just not right. there i was, harrison, arkansas. and i heard all about this guy thomas robb. he s the leader of what is apparently the knights of the ku klux klan. it s so racist that the kkk added a fourth k just to took up the racism a notch. this is the kkkk. [ laughter ] i was like i ve got to meet this guy. i had to call him up and go hey, man, can i come to your creepy compound? i didn t actually call him up. that would be weird.
klux klan is still in the hood. it s a good place to live, good place to raise kids. it s about as close to modern mayberry as you can get. modern mayberry. would you recommend a black guy like myself buy a house around here? sure. sure. you d fit right in, i m sure. right in? yeah. we have heard there s still like a klan presence, like a kkk presence. has that happened here? years ago dawson did have kind of a bad reputation. small town. it s just totally just disappeared. okay. now it s been over for years. do you see black people around here ever? whenever i was growing up there wasn t really a lot because the kkk s like headquarters are just right down the road. i see them around town when i work at dairy queen down there. it s funny because you re the youngest person we ve talked to and we talked to some older people in town and they said like somebody said the klan hasn t been here for 50 years. no, they re they were trying to put a good face o
i appreciate it it s not a compound. i m sorry. to your church. thank you for welcoming me to your church. and you know, next week i ll bring my friends and we ll have a barbecue. probably not. okay, all right. bye-bye. drive careful. thomas robb and his new klan may not be as scary as the old klan, but i still wouldn t want them living on the outskirts of my town. by wearing a suit and tie, by presenting hate speech as folksy news, he s trying to take the kkk mainstream again. and that s way more dangerous than any group wearing a hood and hiding in the shadows. but unless he picks up some ryan seacrest tv skills, i don t see it happening. this here is the real story of harrison, arkansas. it s the story of people like these who are fighting back against the ignorance of racism. i didn t think this town would be embracing of the ignorance, but i didn t know that there would be such a spirit against it.