Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism

by Christian Picciolini

Overview

A stunning exploration of how to heal a nation reeling from extremist violence from a viral TED speaker and onetime white-supremacist leader who now work as a peace activist disengaging hateful radicals.

At fourteen, Christian Picciolini was recruited by a now notorious skinhead leader and encouraged to fight with the movement to "protect the white race from extinction." Soon, he had become an expert in racist ideology, a neo-Nazi terror who roamed the neighborhood, quick to throw fists. By the time he left the movement years later and was able to see clearly for the first time, Picciolini found that his life was in shambles and the nation around him was coming apart.

Told with startling intimacy and compassion, BREAKING HATE is the inside story of how extremists have taken the reins of our political discourse and a guide to how everyday Americans can win it back. The forces pushing to polarize and radicalize us are many—from fake news to coded language to Russian trolls to a White House that often aims to inflame rather than to heal. Increasingly, the information with which we construct our world views is segregated by social media stars and advertisers with murky motives to validate our worst impulses. As Picciolini demonstrates, our modern world systematically normalizes extremism in such a way that we grow blind to it, only recognizing it in the wake of tragedy.

Drawing on profiles of extremists that he works to free from violent ideology and on his own painful history leading and then escaping from an infamous neo-Nazi group, BREAKING HATE explains why terrorism and violence have come to characterize our daily lives and why that doesn't need to be the case.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781549181900
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	02/25/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 5.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Christian Picciolini is an award-winning television producer, a public speaker, author, peace advocate, and a former violent extremist. After leaving the hate movement he helped create during his youth in the 1980s and '90s, he began the painstaking process of making amends and rebuilding his life. Christian went on to earn a degree in international relations from DePaul University and launched Goldmill Group, a counter-extremism consulting and digital media firm. In 2016, he won an Emmy Award for producing an anti-hate advertising campaign aimed at helping people disengage from extremism. Christian's life since leaving the white-power movement over two decades ago has been dedicated to helping others overcome their own hate. He now leads the Free Radicals Project, a global extremism prevention and disengagement network. He has spoken all over the world, including on the TEDx stage, sharing his unique and extensive knowledge, teaching all who are willing to learn about building greater peace through empathy and compassion. Christian's involvement in, and exit from, the early American white-supremacist skinhead movement is chronicled in his memoir White American Youth. His disengagement work is spotlighted in his MSNBC documentary series Breaking Hate. On February 25, 2020, Picciolini will publish his follow-up book, Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Foreword xiii

Introduction: Nation of Hate xvii

Prologue-The Crossroads of Union and Division xxv

Part 1 Pre-Radicalization-"The Marginalized Seeker"

1 Warning Signs: The Prelude to Hate: Kassandra 3

2 What Leads Us to Extremism: Kassandra 11

3 The Hate We See: Daniel 25

4 Hate Becomes Normalized: Ben 39

5 White Pride Worldwide: Kassandra 51

6 Extremist Recruitment: Reggie 61

7 A Mental Health Crisis: Kassandra 67

8 Toxic Masculinity: Dallas 81

9 The Propaganda of Hate: Kassandra 91

10 The Threats We Ignore: Kassandra 99

11 Terror by Another Name: Koval 105

12 A Withdrawal from Hate: Kassandra 111

Part 2 Radical-"The True Believer"

13 Lone Wolf: Dylann 121

Part 3 De-Radicalization-"The Enlightened Seeker"

14 The Seven "L" Steps of Disengagement 135

15 Link: See the Child, Not the Monster: Koval 139

16 Listen: Filter Out the White Noise: Omar 147

17 Learn: Mapping the Journey: Ben 161

18 Leverage: Filling Potholes: Daniel 173

19 Lift: The Quest for ICP: Reggie 179

20 Love: Building Bridges: Daniel 187

21 Live: Free Radical: Kassandra 191

22 TBD (To Be De-Radicalized): Richard 207

Acknowledgments 219

Appendix I Resources and Support 223

Appendix II Recommended Further Reading 225

About the Author 229

Editorial Reviews

"This riveting narrative portrays on an intensely personal level the impacts of extremism. Encouragingly, it also identifies a method for recovery. Picciolini's experience and practice reinforce the truism that hate is a learned behavior, and it can be unlearned. Breaking Hate should be required reading for all citizens who care about dangerous behavior, want to understand it, and are committed to reducing it."—James Clapper, former US Director of National Intelligence

"Riveting, horrifying, and hopeful, Breaking Hate provides a careful and detailed account of how to stop society's death spiral into extremism, and when we need it most urgently."—S.E. Cupp, nationally syndicated columnist and CNN host, author of Losing Our Religion

"With piercing insight and unrivaled compassion, Breaking Hate tells the tragic story of how extremism has torn our communities asunder and how every American can work together to end the epidemic of violence that has taken so many of our loved ones. In a country where more than 96 percent of mass shootings are perpetrated by men, we need to find ways of helping our boys grow into healthy young men who not only reject hate but also feel they have paths forward in today's economy."—Andrew Yang, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate

"Gripping and timely...Written with authority and first-hand experience...Breaking Hate is filled with rare insights that put today's rise of white supremacy into perspective — and shows us how to stop it."—Ali Soufan, former FBI special agent and New York Times bestselling author of Anatomy of Terror: From the Death of bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State

"Breaking Hate is a groundbreaking book. It reveals the depths of the modern white-power extremist movement and illustrates how easily the children of good-hearted, proud Americans can become transformed and corrupted...A sorrowfully necessary book for the dark period America has found itself in."—Malcolm Nance, counter-terrorism analyst for NBC News and New York Times bestselling author of The Plot to Betray America, from the foreword

"At a time when the bonds of multiracial democracy and pluralism are being torn by political strife, growing hate group activity, and acts of white-supremacist terrorism, Christian Picciolini provides us a roadmap to a new sense of community and justice. As a former extremist himself, Picciolini knows what turns people into ticking time bombs and what it takes to defuse them; and more to the point, what it takes to prevent still more fuses from being lit. In Breaking Hate, he combines a keen sense of history with human psychology, sharp storytelling and the kind of hopefulness it will take to emerge from our current moment a healthier and more just nation. In this impressive volume he provides a critical glimpse inside the broken humanity of not only individual extremists, but the brokenness of America itself."—Tim Wise, author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son

"Christian Picciolini changed the way I see the seduction of hate groups and the vulnerable people lured into them. Let him do that for you, too."—Sarah Silverman, comedian

"A rare, exquisitely narrated tale of journeys to the edge and back, Breaking Hate illuminates a creeping danger that threatens to polarize American society and split it asunder. It documents Christian Picciolini's inspired efforts to turn back a tide of hate about to engulf us all. A must-read for anyone who cares to understand what feeds violent extremism, and how it can be countered."—Dr. Arie Kruglanski, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland and author of The Three Pillars of Radicalization

"Those who ignore Picciolini's agonizing and dire warnings about the pervasive and systematic alt-right movement, do so at all of our peril. We must instead listen intently to what he is telling us, and internalize his poignantly told personal story and fervent efforts to repair fractured souls lost to forces beyond their control. Our survival as a civil society may depend upon it."
—Glenn Frank, coauthor of From Broken Glass: Finding Hope in Hitler's Death Camps to Inspire a New Generation

"A candid look inside the radical and violent behavior that unites those in these movements....As the world is currently waking up to the devastating consequences of racism, perspectives like [Picciolini's] can help us understand the lure of white supremacy."—TED.com

"As an outspoken advocate who has denounced racism and resolved to "repair the harm I once caused," Picciolini sets an instructive example for those questioning their own extremism."
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

01/10/2020

Picciolini (White American Youth), head of the Chicago Skinheads for several years until he renounced white supremacy in 1996, now directs the Free Radicals Project, an organization that deprograms "formers," alt-right members seeking to escape their former lives. Here, the author shares gripping stories of his toughest cases and how he uses identity, community, and purpose to repair his clients' emotional and physical "potholes." The most compelling examples include Kassandra, abducted by an undocumented immigrant with the assistance of a Russian troll; Reggie, whose Muslim hatred was shattered following meetings with an Iman; and Daniel, an organizer of the 2017 Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, who met with Susan Bro at a meeting arranged by the author. The mother of Heather Heyer, who was killed at the march in Charlottesville, is also spotlighted. Picciolini faults the Trump administration for encouraging alt-right attacks and withdrawing grant funding for the author's deprogramming efforts. Picciolini and his family continue to receive death threats from the alt-right.

VERDICT This nail-biting narrative will immerse readers wanting to understand the roots and brutality of white supremacy. It will serve as a helpful resource for counselors seeking anecdotal examples of radical politics in action.—Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Library Journal

2020-01-10
A former white supremacist leader examines the sinister nature of organized hate-fueled violence.

"The delicate fibers of America's fabric have been ripped to shreds by extremism," writes Picciolini, who recounted his personal transformation in White American Youth (2017). His road to reform informs his latest book, which is partly autobiographical yet also drawn from the profiles of people who have fallen prey to the same net of hate and radical racism that had ensnared him as a teenager. In 1987, Picciolini, who felt lost as a young teenager, immersed himself in the neo-Nazi white supremacy movement and helped found two white supremacist punk bands. He openly confesses that once he met and engaged with the actual objects of his hate and rage, he couldn't justify or reconcile that hate any longer and denounced the movement. This lesson is just one of several approaches the author believes are proven deterrents against indoctrination with radical extremist groups. The author explores the ways violence integrates itself into personal histories of bigotry or intolerance and calls out racists by exposing their "protective armor" of agony, shame, fear, and insecurity, beneath which lies a "fractured human." Delving deeper, Picciolini chronicles the evolution of several former extremists he has counselled—e.g., Kassandra, a former white nationalist kidnapped and radicalized by her virtual "online Nazi boyfriend," a case that became one of the most challenging the author ever faced. He also tells the stories of Daniel, a child born into poverty and emotional abuse, and several post-combat, trauma-addled military veterans who fell "into the insidious arms of hate." As an outspoken advocate who has denounced racism and resolved to "repair the harm I once caused," Picciolini sets an instructive example for those questioning their own extremism. As he notes, "this book is my testament to how important empathy, compassion, and self-reflection are."

An inspirational and refreshing book for anyone seeking to get out of their cycle of hatred and anger.

Kirkus Reviews