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

by Eli Saslow

Don and Derek didn’t much care about the legitimacy of Obama’s birth certificate, but they were buoyed by the fact that by mimicking white nationalist rhetoric, Trump had amassed a massive following on the far right.

The purpose of Kabbalah, they reminded him, was less about being observant or pious than about putting his faith to practical use. They told him to set an example on campus by respecting human dignity and always seeking out the best in himself and others. “Reach out and extend the hand, no matter who’s waiting on the other side,”

They changed tactics together over the next several years, focusing less on Jews and more on third-world immigration, swearing off the Klan, and starting the National Association for the Advancement of White People. Their goal was to reposition white nationalism not as a hateful cause but as a modern civil rights movement for whites.

Derek thought the white race was facing imminent decline and singular racial persecution. She believed minorities had a harder time in the United States because they were victims of structural racism and oppression; he believed people of color were more likely to struggle because of their own biological deficiencies. She thought greater diversity made for stronger communities; he found diversity so threatening that, at least theoretically, he wanted to separate people by skin color onto different continents, even if that meant disrupting millions of lives.

“Intrinsically, white people in this country always expect that their interests should come first,” Derek told Allison that summer. “American history is so fundamentally based on white supremacy that it’s still the basis for most of our culture and our politics.”