Former White Supremecist Explains How He Turned Toward Then Away from Racism

Christian Picciolini explains how he was pulled into Neo-Nazism and white supremacy. And then explains how he walked away.

At 14, Christian Picciolini went from naïve teenager to white supremacist -- and soon, the leader of the first neo-Nazi skinhead gang in the United States. How was he radicalized, and how did he ultimately get out of the movement? In this courageous talk, Picciolini shares the surprising and counterintuitive solution to hate in all forms.

Identity - Community - Purpose


The importance of personal connection with individuals different than we are.

The problem is our disconnection from each other.
Hatred is born of ignorance.
Fear is its father.
Isolation is its mother.
When we don't understand something we become afraid of it.
Pull people in and bring them closer.
Fill in their potholes.
Find someone that is undeserving of your compassion and give it to them.

What a great example of the importance of sociology and understanding identity and our social network and group belonging.  Also shows the importance of ingroups and outgroups and we think about outgroups.


Here is his website.  And here is a synopsis from his book, White American Youth:

As he stumbled through high school, struggling to find a community among other fans of punk rock music, Christian Picciolini was recruited by a now notorious white-power skinhead leader and encouraged to fight with the movement to "protect the white race from extinction." Soon, he had become an expert in racist philosophies, a terror who roamed the city, quick to throw fists. When his mentor was arrested and sentenced to eleven years in prison, sixteen-year-old Picciolini took over the man's role as the leader of an infamous neo-Nazi group.
Seduced by the power he accrued through intimidation, and swept up in the rhetoric he had adopted, Picciolini worked to grow an army of extremists. He used racist music as a recruitment tool, launching his own propaganda band that performed at white-power rallies around the world. But slowly, as he started a family of his own and a job that for the first time brought him face to face with people from all walks of life, he began to recognize the cracks in his hateful ideology. Then a shocking loss at the hands of racial violence changed his life forever, and Picciolini realized too late the full extent of the harm he'd caused.
Raw, inspiring, and heartbreakingly candid, WHITE AMERICAN YOUTH tells the fascinating story of how so many young people lose themselves in a culture of hatred and violence and how the criminal networks they forge terrorize and divide our nation.