Ian Beardsell's Reviews > Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist

How does a young rising star of the "white nationalist" movement, brought up immersed in a tight-knit family of white supremacists, come to realize that his "freedom of speech" and so-called rational ideas are hurtful to his fellow citizens, and eventually come to renounce and critique those past views? Washington Post writer Eli Saslow takes us on a fascinating journey, based on interviews with the subject himself, Derek Black; his father, Don Black, who had once been a KKK Grand Wizard and now a prominent blogger on "Stormfront"; along with various friends and acquaintances the younger black met at New College in Florida.

Derek Black was never some backward yokel. He was intelligent, well-educated, and ostensibly open-minded. When friends and colleagues at New College discovered his background, they were shocked, as Derek seemed such a reasonable, outgoing guy, completely fitting into their progressive college.

Perhaps this is what really worked in Derek's transition: although the majority of the campus shunned him and wanted him removed from their midst, a small group of friends, which included a small circle of Jews and Latin American immigrants that had already got to know Derek before he was "outed", did their best to continue to treat him as a friend. They didn't ostracize him, but kept a low-key friendship going. The Jewish group even invited him to their weekly Shabbat dinners! One young woman, Alison Gornick, started to get to know him better and better at these dinners and thought of Derek as salvageable--that calm rational discussion and debate of his ideas over time, would turn him around. Much to everyone's credit, it worked!

Perhaps this is not a strategy for every single racist, but I think every American concerned about race relations and the current tension in their country, much of it spurred on by the current occupant of the White House, should read this book. Folks need to realize that simply ostracizing, ridiculing, and belittling others whose views may be reprehensible to them does not usually work very well. Like Derek Black, much depends on the environment in which they are raised. If everyone in your family and extended social circle believes crazy stuff and you are totally immersed in it, it is most difficult to use rationality to think your way out of the very medium in which you and your loved ones live and breathe. Being called names and scorned doesn't really make you want to reach out to discover the viewpoints of the other side.

White nationalists are generally scared people, I believe. They see a way of life where their unacknowledged past-privilege of living in a great nation with tremendous wealth and resources must now be shared and distributed differently. Many of their familiar industries and jobs that go with them have been sent to the lowest bidder by faceless corporations. The world is a much smaller place due to international trade and social mobility, and the majority of people in it are not white-skinned but come from much different cultures. A knee-jerk reaction to such change is xenophobia, and in a sense that is understandable on one level.

It is not until we can feel somewhat safer in an expanded milieu and with the incredibly accelerating pace of change, that we can stop blaming the "other" amongst us. It is not until we learn more science and facts that we can see that there actually is no such thing as race. These are the conclusions to which Derek Black, the erstwhile superstar of white supremacy came after just a few years of being in that expanded milieu, with the guidance and support of a few people who cared about him as another person. Perhaps that is something valuable that the USA needs to learn right now.