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
When author Eli Saslow first sought out Derek Black, he couldn’t find Derek anywhere. In 2013, having spent his life up until that point as the future leader of white nationalism in the United States, Derek disavowed his beliefs, apologized for supporting the movement, and disappeared. A few years later, when Derek was in graduate school, Saslow reached out to him for an interview. But Derek wasn’t interested in being contacted or connecting his past life to his current one.
Saslow’s introduction sets up Derek’s story as a journey to make amends for his white nationalist beliefs as well as his participation in the white nationalist movement throughout his early life. When Saslow first reaches out to Derek, Derek has taken the step of admitting his mistakes and to apologizing for the damage he has caused—which the book will go on to show are two key steps in finding that redemption.
Themes
However, in the next months, white supremacy and white nationalism became part of the political mainstream surrounding debates about immigrants, refugees, police shootings, and the rise of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Derek’s godfather, David Duke—a former KKK Grand Wizard—ran for the Senate. Stormfront, a hate website that Derek’s father Don Black founded, gained much more traffic. Each week, Derek heard echoes of language he popularized on his former radio show, like “white genocide” and “reverse racism.”
As Saslow gives more background on Derek, it becomes evident that white nationalism wasn’t just a belief system for Derek—white nationalists and white supremacists constituted his primary community, as his father and godfather were also heavily involved in shaping these movements. And as Derek reflects on the language that he helped popularize on his radio show, the book hints at how language can be a powerful tool to manipulate people into believing that they’re being victimized.
Themes
In the summer of 2016, then, Derek reached out to Saslow, explaining that he sometimes felt guilty for what was happening. He asked to meet, noting that his privacy felt less important in the wake of rising white nationalism. He and Saslow subsequently spent hundreds of hours together over several years to write this book. Saslow interviewed Derek’s family and friends, and Derek’s commitment never wavered. He may have instigated some of the country’s racial resentment, but his story might also point to a way forward.
Derek’s decision to reach back out to Saslow suggests that disassociating himself from white nationalism, admitting his mistakes, and apologizing for the damage he has caused are only part of his redemption process. In addition, he recognizes that he must try to actively rectify some of the damage that he has caused in growing white nationalism’s popularity. This involves both pointing out how white nationalism is dangerous and demonstrating how someone might escape that ideology in the same way he has.
Themes
