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David LaMotte

Musician, Speaker, Author

Nailing stuff to my house…

I have learned to pay attention to the words, “Somebody oughta…” It is universally acknowledged that the United States is at a particularly divisive point in our history. Not, as some have said, the most divisive (try the early sixties or the Civil or Revolutionary wars), but definitely a hard time. It’s leaving me wondering […]

The KKK has announced a march. How do we respond?

On November 10, 2016, The Loyal White Knights of Pelham, a North Carolina branch of the Ku Klux Klan, announced a “Victory Klavalkade Klan Parade” to take place on Dec. 3rd, 2016.  The stated purpose of the march is to celebrate Donald Trump’s victory and the sense of validation they have gained from it. As […]

Football or Marriage? What does ‘politics’ mean?

A couple of weeks ago, Deanna and I watched the third presidential debate on my laptop in the living room, and then went to bed feeling pretty discouraged. We weren’t saddened because we think we are going to ‘lose’. We were just feeling the darkness of our current national political process, and the damage that […]

Hospitality in my digital living room

In my line of work, I get to move through a lot of different spaces. Not only geographically, but socio-economically as well. I spend time with folks who are quite wealthy, and folks who are extremely poor, people of various skin tones, political persuasions, identities, nationalities, orientations, abilities, and challenges. I treasure that, and I […]

One Southerner’s Thoughts on the Rebel Flag

Today the rebel flag will be removed from the Capitol grounds of South Carolina. The South Carolina House and Senate, by overwhelming majorities in both houses, voted to take it down this week, and Governor Haley signed the bill yesterday. I’m a Southerner. My father’s father’s father’s father was one Thomas Jefferson Talley LaMotte, who […]

The Klan went home, the community stayed

In the end, the best defense against bigotry is forging communities that are strong enough to withstand it. Really knowing each other is the starting place for healing all of our wounds. Learning each other’s stories and struggles leads to a broader sense of who ‘us’ is, and there is no victory over ‘them’ so complete, or so healing, or so effective, as welcoming them into ‘us.’ That is the radical subversion of fear by love.

Klansmen, Crips, Clowns, Memphis and Me

This Saturday the Ku Klux Klan is promising to have one of its largest rallies ever in Memphis, Tennessee. I’m headed there too. The Memphis park formerly known as Forrest Park, after Civil War general, slave trader and first Grand Wizard of the KKK Nathan Bedford Forrest, now bears the innocuous moniker “Health Sciences Park” […]