Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist

At the now renamed Derek Black Memorial Conference, Don and Duke discuss the power the internet has given them to recruit white supremacists and spread their ideology globally. Don says of the internet, “[W]e can get our own message out now” (237). They notice the spread of their movement into the mainstream, adopted by politicians across the country, giving them “covert allies in surprising places” (238). The crowd at the conference is also “younger than ever before” (239), filled with “disaffected young men.” One such disaffected young man is Spencer, “a PhD student who left Duke University to launch a popular blog called Alternative Right” (239).

Derek is in Michigan trying to move on from his prior life. He concluded that white nationalism is wrong, but two decades of conditioning “hardwired it into every part of his subconscious” (240). He is learning to trust the government, exposing himself to popular culture and music for the first time, and “retraining his brain.” He couch surfs to meet new people and engage with multicultural America; he and Allison travel to immerse themselves in foreign cultures; he never, as a personal rule, discusses white nationalism. Out of fear, he shares his address only with Allison and his parents.