Derek Black grew up schooled in racist ideology and was heir-apparent to the white nationalist movement. But after entering college, he ended up reexamining his extremist beliefs and eventually repudiated them, denounced white nationalism, and publicly divorced himself from the movement. It was quite a shock when all this happened several years ago, and Eli Saslow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning feature writer with the Washington Post, recounts this remarkable transformation in intimate, riveting detail in Rising Out of Hatred (Doubleday, $26.95). While the book focuses on the journey of a single former white nationalist, parts of the story reflect America’s larger ongoing struggles with racism. As Saslow suggests, Black’s personal evolution could provide lessons for the nation’s own way ahead. Indeed, one of the main takeaways of the book is the potential for dialogue and moral reasoning to overcome hateful dogmas.
