As a black man in America, I have lived the truth.
— Ron Stallworth
I didn't take a lot of crap from people, and I didn't follow the conventional rules of behavior that we're supposed to follow - because if I had, I never would have accomplished what I did.
Trump has given white supremacists everywhere permission to come out of the shadows.
My mother never liked that I worked undercover. She always worried.
That's one reason I retired as a sergeant and not at a higher rank... I refused to 'play the game' the way the bosses wanted the game played. It is a decision that has cost me money in retirement pay but one that I have never regretted.
Two Klansmen were working for NORAD monitoring U.S. air space for missile attacks. I contacted the Pentagon, and the next day, they were reassigned to a posting near the North Pole.
I had to learn to navigate the political and religious currents in a state where Mormonism dominates despite not being Mormon.
Let's face it. Nobody predicted Trump. He's a fairytale nightmare that none of us could possibly have imagined. Shame on those 63 million who - especially those Obama voters who crossed over and voted, shame on them for putting this idiot in the White House.
I would be very honored to meet President Obama.
I know that in spite of my varied career accomplishments, the one that will always excite and intrigue is the KKK investigation. It has defined me in ways unimaginable and has always fascinated those who hear its tale.
This celebrity thing has been interesting. It's hard to get used to, because I don't see myself as a celebrity.
I went to school with a lot of kids whose fathers and mothers were part of the El Paso black history.
Racism is a part of human nature, and you're not going to eradicate it; all you can do is try to keep it in check.
When you hear Donald Trump say 'America First,' that was a Klan slogan from the early 1900s. Trump simply resurrected it. It's a clear example of his racist attitude.
Personally, I never had any negative encounters with the law growing up.
I've never concerned myself with what anyone thought about my activity, be they people within my profession or people outside of it, and I definitely wouldn't concern myself with anything coming from a racist bigot like a Klan member.
I was playing a role and acting. But it was different than Spike Lee's movie. Spike can say 'cut' and move to the next scene. But I was pretending to be a white supremacist, one of them. I had to act like them to make the ruse a success.
A lot of people said I tried to speak white on the phone. That is farthest thing from the truth and offensive.
People in Hollywood will say things one minute and change it the next.
What David Duke was preaching to me in 1978 about the Klan and what the Klan wanted to do regarding immigration is the same rhetoric, the same position that Donald J. Trump advocates and ran on and is trying to implement.
At various times in my undercover career I had either a full beard, a short-cropped beard, Fu Manchu, a plain simple moustache or just a goatee. We did that - generally we would have a look that we would maintain for anywhere from 3 to 6 months.
The KKK members that I was dealing with never saw me because my interaction with them occurred over the phone. They were convinced that I was 1) white, and 2) a racial supremacist like them based strictly on my telephone conversation with them.
I phoned the KKK Grand Wizard David Duke in Louisiana and asked why my membership was being delayed. He said my application was on his desk and promised to deal with it personally. It was the first of many conversations with David Duke. We talked about his family, the weather, and about his political ambitions.
I never thought America would be stupid enough to put this idiot in the White House. Up until a half hour before they declared Trump the winner, I still thought that it wouldn't happen. I never thought that we, as a nation, had fallen so much that we would be foolish enough to do that.
Donald Trump is the physical embodiment of what David Duke wanted to achieve and failed.
In my opinion, Spike Lee is a national cultural treasure - to the black community in particular but to America in general.
When people come up to me and ask for my autograph and everything... I find it funny that people want my autograph.
I joined the police force with one motivation in mind: to become a high school PE teacher. After a year of working, I realized that a) I was making twice as much money as I would in the teaching profession, and b) I was having too much fun. I stuck it out for 32 years and no regrets.
I learned at an early age how to traverse the white world, the white-dominant world. I learned, and I was successful at it. I learned the nuances - I learned how to act, how to be - but I always was conscious and aware of my blackness.
It's kind of like an out of body experience, watching my words being spoken by the actors, watching the portrayal of me by John David Washington.
I think Black Lives Matter is a necessary, modern group of activism and should be applauded. I encourage them to continue in their efforts.
The Ku Klux Klan has never died in America.
The military is a microcosm of American society, so it really is not unusual that they would have Klan people and white supremacy people connected to them.
Too many people are afraid to talk about the issue of race. We should be willing to address it, and more importantly, when it rears its ugly head, we should be willing to take a stand and try to stomp it out, whatever the action may be at a particular time.
What I am is what you get. My wife will tell me all the time, 'You probably shouldn't say that.' But the fact of the matter is, when you get under my dander, I have to express myself.
If one black man aided by a bevy of good, decent, dedicated, and open liberal-minded whites and Jews can succeed in prevailing over a group of white racists by making them look like the ignorant fools that they are truly are, imagine what a nation of like-minded individuals can accomplish.
I wanted to be an undercover cop, blending in with the public, looking like a black militant or a long-haired hippie yet having a gun on my hip, a badge in my wallet, and able to enforce the law. To me, that was the neatest thing in the world. It was also challenging.
When you're undercover you try to stay as true to your identity as you are. You know who you are, and you know how you normally function. If you try to put on a pretense, such as assuming a fake voice, you have to put on that fake voice all of the time. And you can't afford to slip out of it. It's too dangerous.
My experience working the KKK assignment influenced the rest of my career in law enforcement in that it taught me to think and act on my own initiative when my superiors in the department stood in my way.
It was extremely dangerous to be a black man in the KKK. If I'd been exposed, it could have all gone horribly wrong. The Klansmen were armed, and there was always a peril.
We had a cop or two that were questionable, and probably they shouldn't have been on the job, but they were. You have that: a police department reflects the community that it serves, and it's going to have a bad apple or two, but when those bad apples are discovered, they need to be discarded as quickly as possible so the whole bureau doesn't rot.
'Malcolm X' is my favorite Spike Lee movie.
I'm just a kid from El Paso, Texas.
I don't feel like I'm a hero.
I would sit at the table with the black kids during lunch, and we'd do our banter back and forth. But occasionally, I'd get up and I'd go sit down with the white kids and chat with them and what not. Of course, because I come from the black table they would look at me like, 'Why are you here?'
The white nationalist position, David Duke has always espoused that. The belief that immigrants are a threat to America and that we need border control, David Duke espoused that, and he talked about it during the time I was dealing with him.
You cannot sit quiet while the KKK and other white supremacist groups rear their ugly heads.
The Klan was one of the most violent terrorist groups that has ever existed in the United States.
When I became a cadet, I immediately decided I wanted to be an undercover cop because I don't like uniforms.
Skinheads and Neo-Nazis are commonly known to openly attack people who get in their way or don't agree with them and their agenda.
