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

Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist (2018) is a biography of disavowed white nationalist Derek Black, authored by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eli Saslow.

Derek is a former white nationalist wunderkind. Derek is the son of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and Stormfront online hate group creator, Don Black, and the godson of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, white supremacist politician, and notorious public figure, David Duke. Derek’s parents remove him from public school and groom him to be a rising star in the movement through homeschooling, white nationalist conferences, and familial relationships. By age 19, Derek is famous in the white nationalist community for his presence on Stormfront, his AM radio show, cable news appearances, and lectures reforming the movement from its violent past into mainstream ideology.

Derek leaves his family and their ideology for the first time to attend a progressive liberal arts college where he befriends immigrants, Jews, and LGBTQ students. He forms personal relationships with them and for the first time views members of these groups as human beings rather than abstract concepts.