6 Sworn Enemies Who Teamed Up and Kicked Ass
Making friends is easy when you're a kid: you just become buddies with whoever's sitting next to you, or has the same sweater, or owns Castle Grayskull. It's a lot harder when you're an adult, especially if you and the other person come from different backgrounds, and double-especially if one of you is super racist/a drug fiend/literally at war with your country.
And yet, despite all odds, some truly remarkable friendships started that way. Hope you have some handkerchiefs ready when we tell you about ...
#6. Teen Skinhead and the Gay Kid He Tried to Kill Meet as Adults, Become Buddies
In 1981, a violent young skinhead named Tim Zaal ran into a gay teen named Matthew Boger and, suddenly, their lives turned into a deleted scene from American History X: Zaal and his friends beat the crap out of Boger and left him for dead in an alley. Zaal personally delivered the boot in the forehead that snuffed out Boger's consciousness, then high-fived his friends and drove away, convinced he'd just murder-kicked a complete stranger.
This year, Zaal and Boger attended the Academy Awards together. Willingly. As pals.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
It was almost as shocking as seeing Jonah Hill there.
Obviously, the reconciliation didn't happen overnight -- Zaal and Boger wouldn't meet again for 24 years. In the meantime, Zaal became a full-fledged white supremacist and even worked as director of recruitment and propaganda for the White Aryan Resistance, which we're guessing involved scrolling through a lot of Internet comment sections. However, Zaal renounced the neo-Nazi lifestyle (despite the dazzlingly low cost of hair care) after spending some time in jail and finding out that one of his son's first words was the N-one.
Spencer Murphy
"I was halfway through giving him his second swastika tattoo when I thought, 'Wait, this is wrong.'"
Meanwhile, Boger recuperated from getting skull-stomped and became a successful hair stylist, but he still harbored some ill feelings toward non-gay people. To deal with that, he started volunteering at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles -- the same place where Zaal talked to students about his past. When they met, Zaal and Boger thought they were strangers. Then they started talking.
Hate 2 Hope
"Your scalp looks familiar. Have we met?"
While reminiscing about the good ol' days, the two uncovered the truth of their brutal acquaintanceship, which sort of put a damper on the whole evening. They didn't speak to each other for a few weeks after that, but eventually Boger reached out to Zaal and invited him to lunch. Mortified and probably half-convinced he was on a special hate-crimes episode of This Is Your Life, Zaal apologized for trying to pound Boger's head into brain gravy. Boger, clearly a much larger man than his stature suggests, replied: "But you are a good guy -- now."
Now Zaal and Boger are close friends who regularly team up to educate others on tolerance. The documentary about their story got snubbed at the Oscars, but we're pretty sure they'll get another shot when someone inevitably does a full-length drama about them starring Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper (they have experience playing unlikely friends, after all).
#5. The Apartheid Prison Guard Who Inspired Nelson Mandela
AFP via South China Morning Post
While celebrating the 20th anniversary of his release from political imprisonment, South Africa's President Nelson Mandela, the Nelson Mandela of inspirational world figures, described how one friend "reinforced [his] belief in the essential humanity" hidden inside everyone. That friend? A prison guard working for the same oppressively racist Apartheid regime that kept Mandela locked in a tiny prison cell for 27 years.
Nelson Mandela Foundation
"Thank you. Now let's never see each other's faces again."
The guard's name is Christo Brand, and he met the civil rights icon when he was only 18 and didn't have a care in the world besides guarding political prisoners and being super racist. Despite having fully imbibed Apartheid's haterade, Brand's prejudices retreated in the face of Mandela's kind, humble demeanor, not unlike ears melting at the splendor of Morgan Freeman's voice. Before long, Mandela was providing fatherly counsel on the value of education, and Brand was secretly sneaking him stuff like food, his favorite shampoo, and babies. Specifically, Brand helped Mandela see his newborn grandson, who was the first child he'd seen in decades.
Time
"Hey, man, this sandwich tastes kinda weird."
A friendship of this sort is kind of like a spicy burrito: under wraps by necessity and liable to wreck your shit if enjoyed too liberally. So Brand and Mandela not only kept much of their friendship secret, they also devised a special code that allowed them to circumvent government attempts to extract information from Mandela. Meanwhile, Brand also taught Mandela how to speak Afrikaans from behind bars, which allowed the future statesman to address white South Africans in their own language on the day of his release. Without Brand's help, Mandela might have needed to use an interpreter, which could have been disastrous.
South African Broadcasting Corporation
Given the quality of the interpreters in South Africa, he might have started a civil war.
The rest is history: Brand returned to Robben Island to work with formerly imprisoned activists to heal old Apartheid wounds, and Mandela rocketed to political and philanthropic greatness. Meanwhile, some filmmakers found this story so inspiring that they did a movie about it ... based on another prison guard, who exploited Mandela's prison mail to fake being his friend. Because some people's essential humanity is hidden a little deeper than others'.
#4. Black Musician Kills the Klan With Kindness
Black musician and author Daryl Davis has a collection of over 20 KKK robes in his house. No, he's not blind, a ghost fetishist, or a Chappelle's Show character. The truth is even more amazing: each robe in Davis' menagerie of racist wares represents a Klansman he has managed to reform through sheer force of friendship.
Daryl Davis
"Incidentally, anybody wanna buy a tablecloth?"
But how did Davis end up befriending people we imagine would sooner shank him than shake his hand? It all began at a bar, which makes perfect sense, since this is the sort of odd coupling that seems possible only when your BAC gets you confused with a jug of moonshine.
Back in the early '80s, Davis, a traveling musician, decided to share his craft with the patrons of an all-white country-western bar. After his performance, a guy approached him to say he was impressed that a black man could play the piano as well as Jerry Lee Lewis. Davis proceeded to blow the man's mind by letting him know that not only did Lewis learn to play rock 'n' roll by imitating black people (like, you know, everyone else) but he was a personal friend. The man, in turn, surprised Davis by mentioning he was a Ku Klux Klan member.
Daryl Davis
Then they recorded a rap album together, judging by this photo.
Somehow the two logical adversaries hit it off, and Davis never forgot the night he won over a racist man with his magic fingers. Nearly eight years later, the musician tracked down his barroom buddy hoping to gain insights from Klansmen for a book he was writing. Through his pal, Davis arranged meetings with other KKK members, sometimes without letting them know he was black at first -- some turned violent and attacked him, but others became so comfortable with the open-minded musician that they let him attend their Klan meetings. Here's a video of a KKK Imperial Wizard proclaiming his respect for Davis during a rally (he drops an N-word while doing it, but hey, it's something):
By the way, that guy eventually quit the Klan because of Davis, as did many others. In fact, Davis has even been credited with singlehandedly buckling the Maryland KKK under the weight of amity. Turns out some people are really awful, but others just want someone to hug them and talk about rock music.
