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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Rising Out of Hatred, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ostracism vs. Open Dialogue
White Supremacy and Racism
Family, Community, and Values
Redemption
Rhetoric and Language
Summary
Analysis
Don has been predicting Trump’s victory for weeks, but when it happens, he is nevertheless stunned. He has always steeled himself for disappointment, assuming history would remember him as a loser and a bigot. But now he feels that the movement has prevailed. Neo-Nazis wear T-shirts showing Trump and Hitler walking side by side. Trump is appointing a cabinet filled with people who are very sympathetic to white nationalist views. Don no longer thinks of Washington, D.C. as “enemy territory”—now he feels like he wants to go there.
The wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election illustrates how powerful the white nationalist movement is, particularly when it joins with other white supremacist groups like neo-Nazis or the KKK. But it also shows how dangerous those movements can be, in that together they have now become a part of mainstream politics and are normalizing hateful ideologies.
Themes
Two weeks after the election, Richard Spencer hosts a white nationalist conference in the Ronald Reagan building. Spencer speaks eloquently, talking about how white nationalists willed Trump into office. He considers himself a “racial identitarian,” and his white power think tank is called the “National Policy Institute.” He makes use of theatrical flair, hammering his fist against a lectern and staring into TV cameras that are there, explaining that the U.S. is white people’s creation and their inheritance. Several people in the crowd give the Nazi salute, and it becomes one of the symbolic moments of the 2016 election. Spencer tells them that this is just the beginning.
Spencer again illustrates the importance of using implicit rather than explicit language, using “racial identitarian” as an identifier rather than calling out his ideology as racist, or using the “National Policy Institute” as a name for something entrenched in the white power movement. Using words like this makes his message easier for the public to accept and more difficult to call out as racist, which manipulates the white nationalist movement’s image. At the same time, it invites more extremism into the mainstream, as with these attendees who give the Nazi salute in a prominent D.C. building on national television.
Themes
A few days later, an opinion piece appears in the New York Times under the name R. Derek Black, entitled “Why I Left White Nationalism.” He discusses how he was once the future of the white nationalist movement. Through many talks with devoted people at New College who invited him into their dorms rather than ostracizing him, he began to realize the damage he’d done. He denounces the people who used a wave of white anger to take the White House.
Taking up the moniker of “R. Derek Black” is another symbolic gesture Derek makes through his name. Even though he has changed his name officially, Derek also acknowledges the harm he did under his own name as a white nationalist and doesn’t want to shy away from that.
Themes
Derek writes that the wave of violence and anger has only risen. More and more people are being forced to recognize that the country is susceptible to its worst instincts when the message is packaged correctly. No checks and balances can redeem what has been unleashed. This is “the greatest assault on our own people in a generation,” and white nationalists need to be clear that Donald Trump’s “callous disregard for people outside his demographic is […] destructive.”
Denouncing white nationalism and Donald Trump’s use of the movement to gain political power while sowing divides in the country is yet another key step in Derek’s redemption. It is not enough for him to stop spreading ideology and admit his mistakes. Part of truly making amends for the damage he has caused means becoming actively anti-racist and vocally opposed to the white nationalist movement at every opportunity, and Derek’s language shows that he is trying to do that in no uncertain terms.
Themes
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Don reads Derek’s op-ed and clicks over on Stormfront. There, they call it “Treasonous,” and “liberal dribble.” Don wonders why Derek is actively opposing them now—maybe he wants to be an “anti-white activist.” Derek doesn’t know if he wants to be an activist, but Allison helps him realize that he had built up a massive debt to society—particularly to people of color—in fueling the white nationalist movement. He starts speaking at different colleges and gives occasional interviews about his transformation.
Derek’s statements opposing the white nationalist movement further alienated him from his former community, because it reflects that he not only has given up their values, but he has become actively opposed to the values he once held. Again, Allison helps Derek understand that this is a necessary part of making amends for attracting people to the white nationalist movement.
Themes
Meanwhile, Richard Spencer has just arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, six miles from the White House. He wants to have a presence in Washington, D.C. since white nationalists are “basically becoming a part of the establishment.” He starts to receive tons of media requests after his conference speech. He is considering a run for the U.S. House of Representatives out of Montana and launches a new website for the alt-right, speaking to an audience that has suddenly become rapt.
The “alt-right” is a blanket term for a conservative movement that’s based mostly online and has roots in white supremacy and white nationalism. Spencer’s speech demonstrates why these white supremacist movements are harmful in all their forms, because together, they have gained enough power to become part of the political “establishment” and effect real change based on racist ideology.
Themes
Spencer likes Alexandria for its “historic southern charm,” with its Jefferson Davis statue. But the city is diverse and liberal, and he starts wearing a hat to conceal his identity. Many people ignore or glare at him in public, and many former friends have disavowed him. He wants to inoculate himself from this by building a headquarters for the alt-right with a media staff and security guards. Meanwhile, he sees flyers with his face on them under the notice “MISSING DOG,” explaining that Spencer is a neo-Nazi and must be “shunned and humiliated.”
Based on Derek’s experience thus far, the book suggests that the kind of ostracism and attacks that Spencer is experiencing only push him to be further entrenched in the white nationalist movement. Instead of “shunn[ing] and humiliat[ing]” Spencer or treating him like a dog, it might be more effective to engage with his ideas, as this is the strategy that ultimately changed Derek’s mind.
Themes
Soon, white nationalist flyers circulate through Alexandria and beyond in response. Spencer didn’t make them, but they are the product of the racist movement he inspired. Meanwhile, people also protest outside Spencer’s apartment each weekend morning, and twice Spencer is punched in the face. He starts to pretend not to be Richard Spencer in public out of self-defense.
Again, the book suggests that attacking people like Spencer will only make them angrier and more committed to the movement. While some may believe that trying to change Spencer’s ideology after so many years is naïve, the book affirms at least that attacking people on an individual level is completely ineffective.
Themes
A few months later, in spring 2017, Don flies into Washington and goes to dinner with Spencer. Spencer wonders if he’d gone too far with his speech; being tied to an extremist movement may have quashed his political career. But, like David Duke, Don thinks that it can provide Spencer with opportunity. It fuels the undercurrent of anger and turns his campaigns into spectacles that people want to be a part of.
Don’s thought process demonstrates why white nationalism can be dangerous, because it can be a gateway into making people even more extreme and violent. Once people have already bought into Spencer’s beliefs, it is easy for them to follow Spencer into more and more extremist views, as they’re attracted to the ability to vent their anger or be a part of a spectacle.
Themes
As the night goes on, Don talks to Spencer about Derek, and Don later texts his son. Derek is happy to hear from Don, but their relationship has been very estranged. His parents haven’t visited him since he left Florida. In their eyes, Chicago is an unsafe place with gangs and racial minorities. Derek wants to find a way to bridge the divides between them, and so he books a flight home.
Now that Derek is actively opposed to white nationalism and attempting to counteract it at every turn, it has created an almost unbridgeable divide between Derek and his parents. Now, Don finds it easier to talk to someone outside his family who shares his values rather than his own son.
Themes
