Rising Out of Hatred: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Back on campus, Derek logs out of Stormfront for good. He tells Don he wants to retire from the radio show but doesn’t tell him about withdrawing from white nationalism; he wants to recede quietly. He and Allison happily spend their final months at school together, now with little ideology left to debate. Derek plans to go to the medieval studies graduate program at Western Michigan University, while Allison has one more year left at New College. They agree to visit each other every few months and live together in Florida during the summer and winter breaks.

Before the end of school, Allison and Derek take a trip to Disney and then to New Orleans. They stay for a night with one of Derek’s old white nationalist family friends. When the man is talking about his ideology, Allison excuses herself from the room, done with listening to it. On their drive back to Florida the next day, she reminds Derek of the infrastructure he built for the movement and how many people he influenced. She tells him that he has an obligation to publicly denounce white nationalism.

Derek hesitates at this request; this would mean hurting his family. But Derek is increasingly ashamed when he thinks about white nationalism. This escalates after President Obama tries to pass immigration reform in the first months of 2013, and then in April 2013 when two Muslim immigrants carry out a terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon. The ensuing wave of Islamophobia is fostered by white nationalists like John Tanton, who in turn influences several lawmakers like Ted Cruz, Jeff Sessions, and Steve King. Derek feels like he helped feed a monster, and Allison affirms that he’s caused too much damage not to talk about the issue in public.

Derek quietly dreads his graduation ceremony, worried about what will happen when he accepts his diploma. But Chloe and his grandmother are coming, and there is no way to get out of walking in the ceremony. Don, on the other hand, will not come—he and Derek agreed this was for the best, fearing a student revolt at his presence. Don explains it as “one more sacrifice to the cause,” but this sacrifice hurts them both. Still, Don thinks that he’s won out against the liberal arts school—that Derek is still a committed white nationalist.

At the ceremony, Matthew introduces himself to Derek’s family, but they cut the conversation short when they see his yarmulke. They listen to the commencement speaker: a Florida judge named Charles Williams, one of the first Black men on the Florida civil court. He has made documentaries about civil rights and been given awards by the NAACP. He gives a speech about the importance of fighting oppression and promoting fairness and inclusion.

After the speech, the students start to receive their degrees, and Derek grows very nervous that the others will boo and glare when he takes the stage. Only Allison understands how much New College has changed him in the last few years. Derek wonders why he hasn’t just given a statement disavowing his white nationalism. As he walks to the stage, he sees James Birmingham standing in an anti-Nazi T-shirt. Derek steps onto the stage, and he hears one yell of “racist,” and then nothing. A few of his friends clap, but most sit in silence. He had arrived as a white nationalist and would be leaving as a white nationalist.

A month later, Derek is still living in Sarasota for the summer. He starts a letter about his beliefs, but he is having trouble knowing how to begin. He wants to apologize for the damage he caused and condemn racism. He wants to change his name so he can begin anew. But he knows that his family will be upset and might never speak to him again—they would consider him a “traitor to the cause.” Still, Allison warns that if he doesn’t do it soon, the problem will follow him to graduate school. She reminds him of some of the horrific things he’s said and how he has to take responsibility for the damage he’s caused. She assures him that despite what his family does, she loves him, and she will still be there for him regardless.

In July 2013, Derek visits his parents at home. If he’s going to break their hearts, he wants to do it in person. Chloe greets him with a hug, and they spend time building new windows together for the house; Don takes him to buy a new cell phone battery while happily talking about the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. The jury ruled that Zimmerman acted in self-defense in 2012 when he killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager. He thought Martin “looked suspicious” wandering around a gated Florida neighborhood, and so he followed Martin to within 70 feet of Martin’s apartment and shot him during a confrontation.

The verdict prompts another divisive argument about race. According to one poll in The Washington Post, 90 percent of minorities considered the shooting “unjustified,” compared with only 30 percent of white people. White nationalist talking points about Black aggression and Black-on-white crime resurface. Donald Trump weighs in, saying that Black and Hispanic people commit an overwhelming amount of violent crime in major cities. Traffic surges on Stormfront.

Listening to Don talk about the trial, Derek grows frustrated. His father’s reasoning sounds uninformed and cruel. Derek helped instill fear about Black people being violent, and now Derek knows the theory was utter nonsense. Young Black men are the victims of both structural and interpersonal prejudice. Derek can’t listen to any more, and he steers the conversation away from politics. When they get home, he declares that he has to leave. Derek knows his father’s points horrify him—but so does the memory of his former self. He knows he must renounce white nationalism.

Derek drives immediately to a nearby bar and takes out his laptop, drafting his letter. In it, he writes that he is disavowing white nationalism. He has harmed people of color, people of Jewish descent, and many others, and he does not want to contribute to that harm any longer. White nationalism is not a positive identity that asserts cultural values, but an antagonistic creed that detracts from other groups who have been historically disadvantaged. Oppression against white people does not exist. Derek explains that although this change seems abrupt, his awakening has been gradual. He can’t support an oppressive movement any longer.

Derek sends the letter to Allison, who expresses how proud she is of him for writing it. She also knows his family will be angry, but even though Derek acknowledges this, he insists he has to send it immediately or he’ll lose his nerve. He attaches it to an email to the SPLC, asking them to publish it in full.