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

by Eli Saslow

“You knew a moment like this was inevitable,” Don told Derek over the phone that summer, and it was true, because in fact they had often predicted it together on the radio. Eventually, the white supremacy embedded into America’s history would again rise fully to the surface, Derek had told his listeners. Sure, maybe whites could accept or even encourage multiculturalism when it posed no imminent threat to their interests. It was easy for whites to be humane and benevolent when they were still securely in place at the top of the social hierarchy—when the economy was booming, and everyone had jobs, and a disproportionate share of the wealth and power was still going to white families. But now a black man had risen to the country’s most powerful position, income growth had stagnated for middle-class whites, and a presidential candidate was promising to “take the country back.” It was the moment Derek had spent the first twenty-three years of his life trying to instigate. To be a white nationalist had always meant rooting for chaos and delighting in upheaval.