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

Derek’s major contribution to the white nationalist movement is to adjust its semantics to make it approachable in the mainstream and acceptable for politicians to espouse. Derek does this through manipulation of the language and presentation. Derek successfully distances white nationalism from the Ku Klux Klan and historical violence and reframes it as something acceptable for mainstream white America. This process begins before Derek, with the efforts of Don and Duke, but Derek’s construction of a children’s white nationalism game, lectures on language, and personal actions in politics and on his radio show lead the movement to a new level of acceptance in United States politics and society. 

Derek is conflicted internally throughout Saslow’s book. As he is continually exposed to new perspectives, cultures, and scientific research, his internal conflict with the indoctrination he received in his youth grows. Derek is intelligent enough to feel that his ideology is wrong, but it takes years of internal debate to arrive at the conclusions he needs to renounce white nationalism.

Derek’s friends practice nonjudgmental inclusion throughout Derek’s transformation to subtly guide him away from white nationalism without directly confronting him on the topic. Derek’s racial and religious minority friends continue engaging with him socially because they believe he will acknowledge their humanity, and such acknowledgement will lead him to recognize them as equals and abandon white supremacist beliefs. They interact with Derek in ways distanced from white nationalism and ignore the ideology altogether.