All language subtitles for The Story Of Us With Morgan Freeman.S01E04.Us And Them

(music)

MORGAN: I'm proud to call
myself a Mississippian.

I've always felt a profound
sense of belonging here.

It's not just the
land...it's the people.

Way we talk, food we eat...

(music)

Thank you greatly.

...the way we treat one another.

That doesn't mean that I agree
with everybody who lives here.

This state was segregated.

It was us and them.

(music)

Jim Crow maybe long behind us
but the state is 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?

NARRATOR: How does
division spawn hate?

DARYL: How can you hate me...

...when you don't even know me?

NARRATOR: What makes
hatred turn deadly?

(explosion)

FEDJA: Mass killing, a
thousand people at a time.

NARRATOR: And can we find
a path towards unity?

MEGAN: After all the years
that I spent doing destructive

things, I wanna
try to repair it.

BILL: The real lesson of our
history is that when you expand

the circle, the story of
us can also include...

...them.

(music)

NARRATOR: This is my journey...

...to discover the
ties that bind us...

...and become a
humanity inside us.

(music)

This is The Story of Us.

We divide 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...

NEO NAZIS: You will
not replace us!

NARRATOR: ...they appear
to be on the rise.

NEO NAZIS: Jews
will not replace us!

(music)

NARRATOR: 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.

(piano blues music)

DARYL: Yeah man!
(laughs)

Thank you.

MORGAN: Music is a thing.
DARYL: Thank you.

MORGAN: Thank you.

DARYL: It brings
people together, man.

MORGAN: You made
yourself some very...

DARYL: Interesting friends?

MORGAN: Yeah.

I'm tellin' ya. Why?

DARYL: 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

but 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, couple
kids, couple adults

and all of a sudden I began
getting hit with bottles

and soda pop cans and rocks
and 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

and 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 them.

I could not get my head
around the idea that someone

who had never laid eyes on me
would want to inflict pain

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
them and who do not believe

as they believe.

So I began seeking out
members of the Ku Klux Klan.

KU KLUX KLAN: Power!

MORGAN: Okay, no listen,

but how do you know where to go
find these people? I mean...

DARYL: No, they're
not hard to find.

MORGAN: They're not?
DARYL: No, they're not.

MORGAN: They wear masks,
they wear hoods and...

DARYL: Absolutely.

But you know what when they have
a rally in a public park...

MORGAN: Yeah.

DARYL: ...they have
to apply for a permit.

MORGAN: Yeah.

DARYL: So that's
public information.

MORGAN: Yeah.

DARYL: So I can go there
and get their name,

get their number and call
and ask for a meeting.

MORGAN: How many people
have called you crazy?

DARYL: Everybody.

(laughing)

But it's a good kinda
crazy, cause you know what,

if I can walk away with changed
hearts, we all need to be crazy.

MORGAN: How do you...know that
a person who has had one set of

beliefs has changed
that set of beliefs?

DARYL: When a Klansman or
a Klanswoman sheds

that clothing... they have
shed their ideology

and given that robe and hood
to their enemy, a black man,

yeah, they're done.

MORGAN: Look at me,
they've done that to you?

DARYL: Yeah.

I... I have a bunch
of robes and hoods.

MORGAN: Oh man!

DARYL: So these are a couple
of the Klan robes that I have

in my collection;
I have quite a few more.

This Klan robe, Grand Dragon
robe was owned by a fella 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 to black men

with a shot gun.

He went on to become
one of my best friends.

His day job...

...Baltimore City
police officer.

MORGAN: Under the
color of the law!

DARYL: Yeah. Now the gentleman
behind you here.

I use the term
gentleman loosely.

(laughs)

MORGAN: Alright.

How did this come
to be a way of life?

DARYL: Well because we
all have to have a belief.

You gotta 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.

KU KLUX KLAN: White Power!

NARRATOR: The mindset of
racist seems so entrenched,

it's hard for me to believe
they could ever really change.

So I'm traveling with
Daryl to Memphis to meet

one of his ex-KKK friends.

(music)

DARYL: Scott Shepherd,
how you been man?

Good to see ya.
SCOTT: Good to see ya.

DARYL: My friend
Morgan Freeman.

SCOTT: Hey, nice to
meet you, sir.

MORGAN: Scott... how did
you happen to get involved

with the Ku Klux Klan?

SCOTT: Bein' from
Mississippi Delta, you know,

the Klans been all around me.

I didn't have any
self-confidence...

KU KLUX KLAN: Do you
accept the light of Christ?

SCOTT: I do, yes.

And I got sucked in...by 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.

KU KLUX KLAN: For God!

God!

For country!

For Country!

For Family!

Family!

For the Klan!

Klan!

SCOTT: From the very beginning
when I joined and...

and took the oath, there was an
immediate feeling of importance.

MORGAN: How long
were you involved?

SCOTT: Almost 20 years.

MORGAN: You think that
period in your life,

it was a way to get attached?

SCOTT: Find a home, yes sir.

MORGAN: A meaning.

SCOTT: I grew up in a really
dysfunctional family,

an alcoholic father;
well he was very violent.

But I can't blame him on that,
I take full responsibility

for the decisions I made.

MORGAN: The Klan are absolutely
bound by the rules of no "them,

no blacks, no...
SCOTT: Exactly.

MORGAN: ...homosexuals.
No Jews".

Did you have any sense that
that wasn't quite

the way it should be?

SCOTT: I always had an
internal...internal battle

with it myself because I was
raised by a black lady and...

MORGAN: So many of
us in the South were.

SCOTT: Yes.

Rebecca raised my mother, my
brother, my sister, all of us.

And...

...you know, I...I
distanced myself from her

and it was a constant battle
within myself knowing

that I really wasn't
doing right.

MORGAN: What made you
break from the KKK?

SCOTT: I left a restaurant one
night from having dinner and

the police pulled me over.

I failed the sobriety test.

And that threw me
into the court system.

Well, when I got inside the
alcohol and drug treatment

center there was people in
there of all color, religions,

sexual preferences, I
mean just, you know,

a whole gamut of different
people and I got to know them,

sat down, we had intimate
conversations with each other,

talked about our lives.

The seed had been
planted; I was changing.

MORGAN: How'd you meet Daryl?

SCOTT: I was stuck between a
rock and a hard spot, you know,

trying to figure out where my
life was and I needed guidance.

DARYL: I...I sent him my phone
number said, "sure, you know,

I'd be happy to talk with you."

SCOTT: I had heard about Daryl
and saw what he was doin' and,

of course, I told him before,
I thought he was a nut case.

ALL: (laughing)

DARYL: 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, 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.

And if you sit down with
them for ten 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.

SCOTT: I felt trust, I
felt trust with, you know,

Daryl and what he
said, it made sense.

KU KLUX KLAN: White power!

White power every day!

MORGAN: When you look back on
that, what do you think of it?

What did you think of
them as an organization?

SCOTT: I despise 'em and will
do anything I can to break down

the racial barriers in this
country but they're definitely

still a threat.

DARYL: We can legislate
behavior but we cannot legislate

how they think.

The day we legislated for
blacks to sit on the bus,

after the Rosa
Parks Bus Boycott,

did not change the mindset
that came over time through

grass roots conversation.

Thank you.

MORGAN: I'm on your side.

Scott, welcome home.

SCOTT: I appreciate it.

I'm glad to be home.

Been a long journey.

MORGAN: Daryl Davis has proven
that when you open your heart

to someone you give them the
opportunity to open their heart

to you.

And an open heart
is an open mind.

If more or 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.

NARRATOR: But 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 robes.

HATE GROUP: Blood and soil!

Blood and soil!

NARRATOR: 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.

(background voices)

(music)

NARRATOR: 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
peace came to an end.

(gunshot)

NEWS REPORTER: Civil war and
ethnic violence range across

newly independent Bosnia and
Herzegovina despite all peace

efforts of the
European Community.

NARRATOR: For 50 years Bosnia
had 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.

Milosevic used his
state controlled media

to spread anti-Muslim and
anti-Croat propaganda...

...encouraging Serbs living
inside Bosnia to turn

on their neighbors.

The war that followed took
the lives of 100,000 people.

SÈNAD: Morgan!

NARRATOR: I'm meeting with
Sènad Hadzifejzovic...

SÈNAD: Come up here!

NARRATOR: ...a prominent
Muslim TV journalist who lived

through the war.

MORGAN: This is...

...spectacular.

I see...

...maybe a dozen
minarets out there.

That's unusual for a
European City isn't it?

SÈNAD: Ottoman Empire founded
Sarajevo in the 15th century.

MORGAN: Okay.
SÈNAD: We have

more than 100 mosques but we
have seven Catholic churches,

four Orthodox churches
and four Synagogues.

(foreign language)

MORGAN: Now you were
broadcasting...in 1992 and you

predicted that war would
come, how did you know?

SÈNAD: I had interviews with
every President of Yugoslavia

Republic.

Everyone knew but I
am first who said.

After three days, April 5th,
war starting in Sarajevo.

We were sleeping.

Citizens, media, politicians
when war starting.

MORGAN: You mean you had
Serbian tanks and stuff

in the streets here overnight?

SÈNAD: First grenades
from this position.

(explosion)
(multiple gunshots)

Grenades, snipers directly
attack on the city.

Front line around Sarajevo and
we stay under siege four years.

(explosion)

(music)

NARRATOR: The Bosnian Serb
Army, backed by Milosevic,

hoped to divide Sarajevo's
ethnic groups but the besieged

citizens continued to see
one another as friends

and neighbors, no matter
what their ethnicity.

Sènad used his television show
to make sure a voice of unity

could still be heard.

SÈNAD: We was
together, together.

Serbian, all Croatian,
Jewish from Sarajevo,

all Bosnian or Muslims together.

NARRATOR: Sènad even tried to
end the war when his studio

phone rang live on air.

SÈNAD: Leader of Bosnian Serbs
call me live in program

and I said, "I have
one question for you,

you are leader of Serbians,

can you call all Serbian who
hold guns to stop fire

on Sarajevo?"

And he said, "okay".

Okay and after that I...I
said, live in program,

"President of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, can you call us?"

And he called and I ask him,
"can you call your Bosnian

people with guns to stop
fire" and he said, "okay".

And we have two days...

MORGAN: Of peace.
SÈNAD: ...of peace.

Some call Sènad peace.

This is...this is good, two
days, we have...we have...peace.

(music)

(explosion)

NARRATOR: But the
peace did not last.

Outside of Sarajevo,

the divisive rhetoric of
Slobodan Milosevic

was tearing Bosnia apart.

Ethnic cleansing began.

And soon, there came
the horror of genocide.

(multiple gunshots)

NARRATOR: To see the
devastation caused

when a country splits
into us and them,

Sènad Hadzifejzovic
is taking me

into the Bosnian countryside.

It was here, in a town
called Srebrenica,

that the clash between ethnic
groups will be remembered

for generations.

(music)

It's now the final resting
place of at least

8,000 Muslim fathers and
sons all killed in July 1995.

They were all civilians, just
like Sènad and his son, Fedja.

SÈNAD: Today I'm here
in Srebrenica with you

and with my son, Fedja.

FEDJA: Hi, Morgan.

It's a pleasure to meet you.
MORGAN: Pleasure.

FEDJA: Welcome.

MORGAN: What in the
world happened here?

FEDJA: So Morgan, what actually
happened here, it's a genocide.

SÈNAD: This border
of Serbia is near.

MORGAN: Uh huh.

SÈNAD: Very, very, very close.

FEDJA: They came here, they
wanted to kill everybody

and just to gather...to
give this territory,

to separate it from Bosnia
and pass it to Serbia.

MORGAN: Back to Serbia.
FEDJA: Yeah.

The Serbian Army
collected all women,

man 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 to shoot them.

From there they started to...
the mass killing, you know,

a 1,000 people at
a...at a time to...

MORGAN: Mass graveyards.
FEDJA: ...mass graveyards.

NARRATOR: Soon after...NATO
bombing helped end the war.

But it was too late to save
the victims of Srebrenica.

MORGAN: So you were five, six
years old when this happened?

FEDJA: Yeah. I was six years old

and there were a lot of
boys my age that were killed,

that are here 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
there exist people who can do

this kind of ethnic cleansing.

NARRATOR: Entire family
lines 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 Sènad and his son Fedja.

FEDJA: This is flower of
Srebrenica 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...

MORGAN: On the coffin.
FEDJA: ...on the coffin.

This is actually my first time
here so it's even harder for me

to handle all of this.

SÈNAD: I'm crying every time.

MORGAN: I just can't imagine
that you can go through this

and then come out whole
on the other side.

FEDJA: You have to
learn to live with it.

MORGAN: Yeah.
FEDJA: But also

you can't forget it.

At one point you can
forgive but not forget.

MORGAN: You have to
forgive each other.

Not say forget.
FEDJA: Yeah, yeah.

MORGAN: Cause forget,
you'll do it again.

FEDJA: Yeah.

MORGAN: 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 here.

There are people like Sènad,
he's proud of his Bosnian,

Muslim identify, sees himself
as a global citizen...

...happy to live
alongside Serbs, Croats,

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.

NARRATOR: Looking back,

the Bosnian war now seems
like a turning point...

...the beginning of a backlash
against the global merging of

cultures and economies that had
held sway since World War II.

Across Europe, the Middle
East and the Americas,

nationalism is on the rise.

NIGEL: We've got
our country back.

NARRATOR: Can we hope to escape
this fractious tribalism?

(music)

To find out I'm headed to
Manhattan to speak to a man

with a rare insight on national
and global politics...

...the 42nd President
of the United States,

William Jefferson Clinton.

MORGAN: It seems like at one
point the world was kind of

coalescing, coming together.

On the other hand we're heading
now towards a kind of tribalism.

What's gonna happen?

BILL: I dunno.

It depends.

In general, we're experiencing
a period of this kind of tribal

nationalism you see
all over the planet.

MALE: We don't need
y'all here, go home!

Go back to Africa!

BILL: People saying that,

"I...I can't stand all
this change."

That's understandable.

It was never gonna 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 getting less.

And nobody gives
grounds 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.

And you...in the
end do way worse.

NARRATOR: President Clinton
gives the example of Europe,

a continent devastated by the
bitter 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,

E Pluribus Unum means,
Out of Many, One.

One nation rises from a diverse
collection of states and today,

many Americans regard their
countries ethnic diversity

with pride.

MORGAN: We are now probably
the most diverse community

on the planet, I would say,

I mean in terms of people who
can call themselves Americans.

BILL: And I believe it has
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 2.5
million 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.

(music)

MORGAN: Why, that's always been
the case though, hasn't it?

BILL: Always.

MORGAN: But it's
never stopped us.

BILL: No, not yet.

We're still here and we are
thriving because at every

critical juncture of when
we could have gone back,

we found a way to go forward.

MORGAN: Looking
outside America,

do you think the whole world
will ever come together?

BILL: 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...

BILL and MORGAN: ...them.

BILL: And that's gotta happen
literally billions of times,

this is not gonna
be an easy deal.

Martin Luther king's words,

"The arc of history is 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.

(music)

NARRATOR: 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.

But one tribe, living deep in
the Central American jungle,

may have found the balance
between tribalism and globalism.

(music)

NARRATOR: 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 Emberà 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

from Panama City but their way
of life remains largely

as it always has been.

(music)

(music)

MORGAN: Si, ah.... ah.

Buenos Días!

NELSON: BUEnos Días.

MORGAN: Como esta!

NELSON: I'm very good.
MORGAN: Me too.

NELSON: Yeah, my name is Nelson.
MORGAN: Nelson?

NELSON: Yes.

MORGAN: How'd you get
a name like Nelson?

NELSON: Eh... When I born.
MORGAN: Yeah?

NELSON: Yes, my teacher
gave me that name, Nelson,

from Nelson Mandela. Yeah.

(laughs)

MORGAN: Perfect.

NELSON: Yeah, yeah.

MORGAN: How come
you speak English?

NELSON: There is a missionary
school outside from here

nearer the city, stay
for four years there.

MORGAN: Oh, very good.

NELSON: Yeah, Morgan, this is my
village here, up on this hill.

MORGAN: Uh huh.

NELSON: And let's go
and see what kind of...

MORGAN: I want to.
NELSON: Yes.

MORGAN: How many structures?

NELSON: We are around
134 people here.

MORGAN: Uh huh.

NELSON: Between kids and adults.
MORGAN: Uh huh.

NELSON: So it's
around 28 houses.

Each house is one family.

MORGAN: Ah.

NARRATOR: 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.

MORGAN: And it looks
like we're busy.

NELSON: Right now,
he's carving...

MORGAN: A boat.
NELSON: ...little boats, yes.

MORGAN: A little canoe.

NELSON: This kind of wood
is, we call, coco bolo,

it's out...it's kinda
like a rosewood.

MORGAN: Yeah.

NARRATOR: For the Emberá,
regular tourist business

is a sign that their
culture is valued by others

and worth maintaining.

It's also a source of revenue
with which to buy a handful

of Western goods that
make their life easier.

MORGAN: You don't have a lot
of...modern conveniences but

you got those 200 horsepower
outboard engines.

NELSON: Yes, in the old
days we use, we call,

palanca...in the current.

MORGAN: I'd imagine it'd
be hard to get up river.

NELSON: Yes, now, we have
motor and it's more easy.

MORGAN: Of course.
NELSON: Yeah.

(music)

NARRATOR: On the other hand,
unlike many other indigenous

cultures in Central
and South America,

the Emberá 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 Emberá managed to
live between two worlds.

MORGAN: Alright, now, there's
a big city...not too far down

river with cars, big motels,
tall buildings, paved streets,

how come you don't
wanna go there?

(native language)

NELSON: One of the big things
that the Emberá people have is

the Emberá like to live
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 the jungle, you know.

MORGAN: What traditions do you
have that you're holding onto

that we wouldn't
see in the city?

This is one of them, paint.

NELSON: We use this
many years ago.

The fruit that we call hagwa,
which is the tattoo you can see.

And also this can work for
mosquito net, for sun block,

for your hair.

We use this paint, the ink, for
the baby so the baby can be safe

you know, from the
different bugs around.

MORGAN: That's fantastic.

It's amazing to me that every
culture, particular in yours,

you have knowledge of plants,
what they're good for.

(native language)

NELSON: The jungle,
for him, is his God...

...you know, everything is here.

(music)

NARRATOR: This is a culture that
trusts the jungle to provide.

Including remedies for
its ills like the fever

that has afflicted this girl.

The Emberá don't reject
Western medicine.

When people are seriously
injured they take them

to the hospital in Panama City.

(native music)

But for most ailments, the
Emberá do what they have done

for generations.

(native music)

They call on healing
spirits and prepare remedies

from healing plants.

(native music)

MORGAN: Not bad.
LISETTE: Not bad.

MORGAN: Not bad.

NARRATOR: It's a blending
of us and them that has worked

for the Emberá for centuries.

They take what they need from
the outside world

but they cherish and maintain
their traditional way of life.

MORGAN: The Emberá are
completed connected

to the natural
world around them,

the forest,

the river...

...living for centuries
surrounded by the jungle,

they've developed a deep
spiritual connection.

It's why they're still here,
thriving...even as the modern

world creeps closer and closer.

NARRATOR: Our modern world is
a mosaic of different tribes,

each with its own customs
and belief systems.

In m any places those tribes
live shoulder to shoulder.

The challenge we face is
learning how to accept those

who are not like us.

I've come to Los Angeles
to meet someone

who has faced that
challenge head on.

Megan Phelps-Roper was born into
the Westboro Baptist Church,

a religious cult notorious for
its hate ridden interpretations

of the Bible.

NEWS REPORTER: Members of a
fundamentalist Kansas church

believe US deaths in Iraq and
Afghanistan are punishment

for the nation's tolerance
of homosexuality.

NARRATOR: Megan
grew up indoctrinated

into these divisive beliefs.

(music)

MORGAN: Where did the Westboro
Baptist Church come from?

MEGAN: It was started by
my grandfather in 1955.

FRED: God hates fags.

Except you repent you
shall all likewise perish.

And God is not running
out of room in hell.

MORGAN: Your grandfather
started this movement?

MEGAN: 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.

(crowd chanting)

Anybody who came out against
what we were saying,

we thought they were coming
out against the word of God

so we starting
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".

FEMALE: Soldiers die
and went to Hell!

What the heck is wrong with you?

MEGAN: 'Cause of course we
believed that outsiders

were all evil or delusional
and so the...

MORGAN: Megan, stop a minute.
MEGAN: Uh huh.

MORGAN: There are about 80
people in your church...

MEGAN: Uh huh.
MORGAN: ...and you think

80 people are right and maybe
seven billion are wrong?

MEGAN: Right.

(music)

(music)

NARRATOR: Megan Phelps-Roper
was one of the staunchest

advocates of the
hateful ideology

of the Westboro Baptist Church.

She spent her days
preaching division,

condemning those outside her
cult to damnation in Hell.

MEGAN: I used to wear this
shirt and others like it.

MORGAN: Are you going
to all these places,

holding up these
signs and stuff?

MEGAN: Yeah.

We protested every single day
in Topeka but we were also

traveling across the country.

We believed that the nation had
been promoting this lifestyle

that God calls abomination.

MALE: God decides who
God loves, not you!

MEGAN: And I believed
that I was doing good.

I believed that I was
doing what God wanted.

MORGAN: You went on
Twitter yourself...

MEGAN: Right.

MORGAN: ...to start
spreading the word of...

MEGAN: Right.
MORGAN: ...the church.

MEGAN: Right.

So in 2009 I started
tweeting for the church.

It seemed like there 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 Abitbol 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 Westboro'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...he asked me a
question that I didn't have

an answer for.

MORGAN: What was the question?

MEGAN: He was asking me about
one our picket signs that said,

"Death Penalty for Fags"
and that, you know,

that comes from Romans 1:32,
that was the penalty prescribed.

And David said,
"didn't Jesus say,

he who is without sin
casts 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 cause
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...

MORGAN: Well, now that's not
gonna make you leave the church,

it's just...makes.
MEGAN: No.

MORGAN: ...you start to think.
MEGAN: 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.

MORGAN: So now...you're
in a quandary.

MEGAN: Right.

MORGAN: You're sort of
half in and half out.

MEGAN: 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'd
been doing to hurt them.

There were so many things like
our family recipes and photos

and home movies and...our...

MORGAN: Life?
MEGAN: ...yeah.

MORGAN: Your life.

MEGAN: Yeah.

So it was like trying
to collect these...

(music)

...like, once you leave,
you're gonna lose everything

and everyone.

And...

(music)

...it was like...

MORGAN: Where am I gonna go?
MEGAN: Yeah.

MORGAN: Who...who
am I going to be?

MEGAN: 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 Abitbol and he told me

about this idea, this
concept in Judaism,

it's to 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 wanna try to repair it.

NARRATOR: Megan went through
a complete reversal

of her lifelong mindset.

The key to her
turnaround, she says,

was the lack of hostility and
conversations with people like

David Abitbol.

MEGAN: 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?

MORGAN: Well you
get hostile back.

MEGAN: 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.
I have a lot...

MORGAN: And I think your story
will help a lot, I really do.

MEGAN: I hope so.

(music)

MORGAN: Today we are inundated
by news stories that make us

feel divided by our different
political and religious beliefs.

Our 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
gentle and patient conversation.

It can help us to find
our shared humanity.

(music)

This journey 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.

(music)

We are a species that
thrives on working together,

I mean look at this
city around me...

...buildings that
reach 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.

(music)

It will take humility,
understanding...

...respect of our
differences and time.

But I believe there is room for
everyone in the story of us.

(music)