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

by Eli Saslow

The red pill was the revelation of a thorny, hidden truth buried within America’s founding, and the more Derek dug into American history, the more red pills he found. There was the popular effort to repatriate slaves back to Liberia in the early nineteenth century. There was Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, which had been named after U.S. president and proud white nationalist James Monroe. There was Abraham Lincoln, the great abolitionist, debating in public with Senator Stephen Douglas in 1858. “There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality,” Lincoln said. “And I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” It felt to Derek as if he were being let in on a secret. White nationalism wasn’t just a fringe racist movement but something much more forceful and dangerous: a foundational concept embedded in the American DNA.