Rising Out of Hatred

May 14, 2018
Persuasion triumphs over ideology in this searching account of a young man questioning his caustic beliefs by Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post reporter Saslow (Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President). Derek Black, son of white nationalist leader Don Black and godson of ex-Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke, was, at the age of 19, a star of the white nationalist movement with a radio show on which he preached racial separatism and claims of white persecution by minorities and Jews. Then in 2010 he began attending the ultra-liberal New College of Florida. His presence, Saslow writes, caused a furor, with many students denouncing and shunning him as a racist, but others reached out: a Jewish student invited him to regular Shabbat dinners, and he began a relationship with a woman who challenged his racial doctrines with scientific studies and demanded that he think about the impact of his views on people he knew. That sustained engagement eventually convinced Black to repudiate his racist views—and forced a wrenching break with his family. Saslow tells this story with an impressive evenhandedness and empathy for everyone involved. The result is a gripping and timely examination of the “alt-right” subculture and the potential for dialogue and moral reasoning to overcome hateful dogmas.

July 1, 2018
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Saslow (Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President, 2011) delivers a memorable story of a prodigal son who broke with white supremacy thanks to the kindness of strangers.It is a small irony that Derek Black abandoned the nationalist, white power movement at just about the time that a president entered the White House who consciously put white nationalist rhetoric at the center of his campaign. Black came by his race hatred naturally, following his father's ideology as the founder of Stormfront, the neo-Nazi clearinghouse, and that of his godfather, KKK stalwart David Duke. From his father, Black carried the urgent message that whites were being made victims of cultural genocide in their own country, a grievance of the loss of privilege. However, he had a different vision in which hooded, hidden supremacists would become respectable, persuading his father to outlaw "slurs, Nazi insignia, and threats of violence or lawbreaking" from the Stormfront website. Thus Charlottesville, with its clean-cut, polo shirt-wearing torchlight parade marchers. By then, though, Derek was long gone. Bright, well-read, and skilled in debate, he had gone off to college in Florida, and there, his home-schooling parents' worst nightmare was realized: He formed a bond with a Jewish girl, though he continued his agitating, and when his identity as a white nationalist was exposed, a Jewish conservative invited him to exchange ideas. Black's eventual renunciation of the nationalist cause threw his parents into turmoil; as Saslow writes, his father hoped that "maybe Derek was just faking a change in ideology so he could have an easier life and a more successful career in academia." But absent widespread changes of heart, Black's story is an anomaly, if an instructive one--and one that closes with a dark message that conflict is looming as the white nationalist movement appears to be mushrooming.A sobering book that deserves a wide audience among politics-watchers in an age of reaction.

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August 1, 2018
As the son of infamous white supremacist Don Black, Derek Black was a rising star among white nationalists, preaching racial separatism from his own radio-show pulpit by the age of 19. After enrolling at the leftist-leaning New College of Florida in 2010, where Black reasoned he could work his subversive influence from the inside, his views about racial tolerance underwent a radical shift away from his elders' philosophy. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Saslow's decision to recount Black's transformation with politically neutral detachment makes his story no less captivating. Saslow notes that Black, unlike his father and fellow racist cohorts, chose to strip his rhetoric of inflammatory language and cleverly reframe the movement in terms of white persecution by Jews and minorities. Yet, while Black's unearthed presence at the New College quickly triggered protests, his growing friendships with a Hispanic roommate and a Jewish student forced him to reexamine his formative indoctrination and eventually break with his family. Amid the current swirling controversies around racial issues, Saslow's work is both timely and encouraging.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2018

Derek Black was supposed to be a household name, at the forefront of white nationalism's push for a single-race nation. Instead, a conflicted multiyear alteration led to him disavowing his past beliefs. Salsow (Ten Letters) traces Black's upbringing and his early successes to further this ideology, continuing through his transformation to rejecting publicly white nationalism and advocating for a diverse society, while sacrificing relationships with family and lifelong friends. Black's change was partly made possible by his privileged socioeconomic status, with travels throughout the world, though the true protagonist here is not Black but rather all those around him who were appalled at his views though still willing to engage in respectful dialog. VERDICT The heart of this book is the impact we do and can have on one another through meaningful, respectful interaction. Anyone looking to learn more about the history of white nationalism, and gain clarity of the arguments against it, will appreciate this compelling biography.--Zebulin Evelhoch, NC LIVE, Raleigh

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018

Son of Don Black, founder of the huge racist Internet community Stormfront, and godson of KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, Derek Black had his own white nationalist radio show at age 19, which he broadcast secretly while attending liberal New College in Florida. Students vociferously challenged him when his cover was blown, while others reached out--an Orthodox Jew invited him to Shabbat dinners--and Black felt compelled to question his beliefs. From a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.