Dr. Carl Yonker

Derek Black was once the heir apparent to lead the white nationalist movement in the United States. Born in 1989 into an infamous white nationalist family, Derek was considered a prodigy in the movement. He had his own radio show and a website that targeted young people and worked to make white nationalism more palatable to a mainstream audience. In 2013, however, he publicly renounced his white nationalist beliefs. It was a watershed moment in a gradual awakening, which in 2024 turned into a national crusade against racism.[1]

Derek’s journey from being a leading young voice of the white nationalist movement to being one of its most vocal opponents offers valuable insights into the mechanisms of how white nationalism is propagated and what makes it appealing and suggests pathways for how people can escape its grip. His story demonstrates that people can change their views, but doing so is not easy and can be isolating. It highlights the power of community, engagement in dialogue, education, and empathy in challenging racist ideologies.

These insights form the core of Derek’s recently published memoir, The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism – A Memoir (Abrams Books, 2024). They were expanded on in an interview he gave last summer for the For a Righteous Cause Report.

In the memoir, Derek came out as transgender while not considering that aspect of identity crucial to a remarkable political transformation. Today, Derek uses they/them and she/her pronouns. This article will use masculine pronouns in discussing Derek’s years as a leading racist activist.

White nationalism is a social movement with an ideology that promotes the belief that white people constitute a distinct and superior racial group. It advocates for the preservation of white cultural and political dominance. It considers race a biological category that divides humanity into distinct groups and predicts their behaviors and capabilities. It sees Jews as non-white and in control of global media and finance, propagates the notions that white culture and “whiteness” are under attack and must be defended and preserved, and, in some of its manifestations, calls for the establishment of a white-only nation or the segregation of races, based on the perceived threat of multiculturalism and immigration to white identity.

Like other extremist ideologies, white nationalism draws people in through a combination of psychological and sociopolitical factors. One of its key attractions is the sense of community, belonging, identity, and meaning it offers. It appeals in particular to young white men who feel alienated and increasingly isolated and seek to find unambiguous answers to their pressing questions about the world that are not provided by their existing communities or the ones in which they were raised.[2]

These young men gravitate toward white nationalism because it gratifies their ego with little effort on their part. It infuses in them a sense of value by creating a shared identity with other disaffected white men through the belief that only they and their look-alike are worthy, only they understand reality for what it is, and only they are willing to make the necessary sacrifices for civilization to survive.[3] White nationalists believe they are working to bring about an “apocalyptic future they all believe is inevitable” and are no longer passive participants in the world.[4]

However, the factors that usually draw people to the movement were experienced in an entirely different way by Derek Black – an insider in the white nationalist movement, not an outsider drawn to and joining it. Derek was immersed in the culture of supremacist racism from an early age, internalizing its beliefs, participating in its community, and becoming a key figure in the movement.

Derek’s father, Don Black, is a former leader of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), one of several organizations that claim the mantle of the infamous 19th-century organization, and the founder of Stormfront, the first major white nationalist website, which has served as a hub for racists, neo-Nazis, and other far-right extremists since the early 1990s under its motto “white pride world wide.”[5] Derek’s godfather is David Duke, the former founder and leader of the Knights of the KKK, and his father’s oldest friend.[6]

Actually, Duke was more than just a “godfather.” He was also a mentor and even a second dad to Derek. Duke and Don Black met as teenagers in the white supremacy movement in the 1960s, and they became close friends. While Don attended the University of Alabama, Duke attended Louisiana State University, where he met and married Chloe Hardin, a fellow believer in racial segregation and white supremacy. They had two daughters before divorcing.

After the divorce, Chloe reconnected with Don Black, and with Duke’s blessing, they began dating, eventually marrying in the late 1980s, with Duke as the best man. Derek was born shortly after, and the families merged. Duke frequently spent holidays with the Blacks, and both men worked together to advance their white nationalist agenda and educate Derek.

Derek was raised in West Palm Beach, Florida, a diverse town with a sizable Jewish population and Haitian and Hispanic immigrants, where Chloe was born. After Derek finished third grade, Chloe and Don pulled him out of the public school system, concerned it would corrupt his beliefs, and he was homeschooled through high school.[7]

At school, Derek had been friends with Black, Jewish, and Hispanic kids, always polite, friendly, and pleasant in personal interactions. Derek recalled that it seemed very normal to be living in a community with so many Jews and getting holidays off in the fall, despite his family being “obsessed with Jews…this Jewish conspiracy that the world is run by Jewish people.”[8]

However, he maintained a distance and separation – no Jewish or non-white friends visited his home, while his white nationalism was kept separate from his interactions with those friends.[9] This duality – separating between parts of his life that stood at complete odds, essentially cultivating two identities – would characterize Derek’s life until he left the movement.

For Derek, being born into and growing up in the movement was akin to growing up in a religious community – most are very comfortable in the environment in which they were raised, not really questioning the worldview, beliefs, and understandings that define it. Yet, unlike the ability to be passively part of a religious community, being part of the white nationalist movement is “a fundamentally activist” form of affiliation.[10] Derek went beyond basic active participation and “ended up leaning very hard into the activism aspect of it, becoming a spokesperson, running for office, and becoming more publicly visible” than others who grow up in the movement whose parents are major activists.[11]

Don Black never forced his son into the spotlight. But by the time Derek arrived at university in 2010, he had spent more than a decade transforming into an internationally recognized celebrity in the white nationalist movement his parents and Duke helped create. At age 10, Derek set up the website Stormfront for Kids and, several years later, established a radio show, first on Stormfront and then on an AM station that broadcasted in South Florida.[12] The deep involvement strengthened his confidence in his family’s and the movement’s ideology and strengthened his conviction he would one day lead it.[13]

Critical to Derek’s and Don’s efforts to grow the movement was to constantly refine the message of white nationalism so that it would have broader appeal. They rebranded it as a more mainstream and intellectual movement. Eschewing the use of overtly racist language, epithets, and threats of violence, Don and Derek sought to present their ideas as legitimate intellectual debates about culture, demographics, and the future of Western civilization. Under the veneer of intellectualism and rationalizations, they also framed their ideology not as one of hate and violence, but as a defensive, rational, data-driven argument about preserving cultural heritage and identity.

For Derek and Don, it was about fighting for the rights of whites and protecting white heritage, not fighting against minority rights.[14] Derek reflected how he was “drawn to and affirmed by going to conferences and white nationalist events with [my] dad [featuring] tenured professors who are credentialed in ways that anyone in society theoretically respects and says, ‘oh, that’s an expert’ […] So I felt I was the person… who had all this factual support behind [my ideology].”[15]

In 2008, Derek won a seat on the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee, winning 167 of 287 votes in his precinct after canvassing the neighborhood, going door to door asking for votes using all the movement’s talking points. Yet, in the end, the Republican party refused to seat him because he declined to sign a loyalty oath to the party. However, it was a moment that reaffirmed in Derek’s and Don’s minds that mainstreaming their ideology within the Republican party was the correct approach.[16]

And then, a shift occurred. It wasn’t a sudden awakening, far from that. The turning point in Derek’s journey as heir apparent to Don’s legacy began when he arrived at New College of Florida in Sarasota in the fall of 2010 to complete his bachelor’s degree.

Derek had been unsure about attending college, but his mother insisted. Initially, he enrolled in a community college. After seeing his high grades, his parents encouraged him to transfer to a four-year school, believing a degree would bolster Derek’s bonafides as a white nationalist intellectual.

New College of Florida is known for being affordable, highly ranked, and an eccentric haven for non-traditional students, especially homeschooled ones like Derek, who were accustomed to self-directed learning. There, Derek studied German and medieval history. Despite New College’s liberal and multicultural reputation, Derek’s parents were unconcerned and unworried about its potential to change or challenge Derek’s white nationalist beliefs. On the contrary, they believed it was Derek who would impact and influence the thinking of people on campus.[17]

They were wrong.

At the small liberal arts school, Derek, at the time 21 years old, began more closely interacting with people of diverse backgrounds and worldviews, building new relationships and a community separate from his family and white nationalist ones.

Initially, Derek also kept his white nationalist beliefs hidden. In his first semester in the fall of 2010, he bonded with another student, a Peruvian immigrant named Juan, who had transferred from a community college. He also bonded with an Orthodox Jew named Matthew Stevenson over a shared love of music. He even briefly dated a Jewish girl.

Derek recalled that despite arriving at New College with deeply antisemitic views, he discarded his anti-Jewish beliefs quickly, ceasing to see Jews and Judaism as something alien or strange while maintaining his other white nationalist beliefs.[18] He also recalled the disconnect he felt when realizing that the Jewish global conspiracy, which he and his family believed existed, never manifested itself or seemed real on a day-to-day basis and personal level.[19]

But his ability to keep his two identities and lives separate changed dramatically in early 2011 when he was “outed” on the university’s online forum as a racist white nationalist while studying abroad in Munich. At that point, Derek’s worlds collided, and he was confronted by his friends’ confusion, hurt, and questions.

After his views were exposed, peers and friends at New College openly grappled on the Forum with how best to address the situation, the debate open for him to see. Some thought outing him was inappropriate; some hoped New College could be the source of transformation for him. Some argued Derek should be ostracized, urging their classmates to consider how his presence on campus could affect the experience of minority students.[20] The final point impacted Derek the most – it made him uncomfortable to think he was harming a community and people he genuinely cared about, and it hurt him to see people he knew and cared about recoil from him and not come to his defense.

Despite this, Derek’s white nationalist convictions remained largely unmoved. He believed he could navigate and weather the storm, remaining part of both communities that held nothing in common but to which he was deeply committed. When Derek returned to campus in the fall of 2011, some ostracized him, but some did not.

Two Jewish New College students, Stevenson and Moshe Ash, made a decision to engage Derek directly. They did so regularly, inviting him to Shabbat dinners and other social gatherings. These interactions were not framed as debates or attempts to convert him but rather as opportunities for him to engage with others as a person, not as an ideology. The first dinner set the framework for those that followed – Derek joined Stevenson, Ash, and Juan at Stevenson’s place on campus, where they ate and discussed an array of topics they shared an interest in, from mundane campus gossip to class schedules, studying abroad, music, religious history, theology, and history.

This is not to say Stevenson and Ash were not prepared to discuss ideology; they were, having read more than 4,000 of Derek’s posts on Stormfront and listening to episodes of his radio program. Yet they were convinced a non-confrontational, relational approach would be most effective at chipping away at Derek’s beliefs.[21] Stevenson believed that by not getting into arguments, Derek would keep returning and stay engaged. It wasn’t about building a case to convince Derek, but building a relationship that made Jews and other minorities more human to him and thereby dismantle his racist, conspiratorial views.

To those who criticized his decision not to confront Derek, Stevenson countered that the dinners and relationship-building themselves were subversive acts that would undermine his worldview. Another friend, Allison, took a more direct approach but also did so in a respectful and relational manner. She directly engaged Derek in ideological discussions and challenged his core convictions. Allison initially opposed Stevenson’s idea to engage with Derek and invite him to Shabbat dinners. However, she eventually changed her mind and became the most engaged in challenging his views in their conversations.

It’s rare and challenging to change people’s minds by presenting arguments or telling them they are wrong. The real difficulty lies in getting them to reconsider who and what they care about. Through the meetings with his friends, Derek realized his belief system was not based on facts or logic but was tied to a deep commitment to his family and to a community that cared about him and that he cared about in return.[22]

Coming to terms with this was destabilizing because Derek had always considered himself someone who formed beliefs based on reason and was open to changing his mind. This caused his commitment to the white nationalist community to waver, and he became more open to the arguments Allison and others were posing.

At first, Derek remained active in the white nationalist movement, even organizing a large conference. With time, however, he slowly became less active. He stopped posting on Stormfront and neglected his co-hosting duties with his father on their radio program.

Derek’s “slow disaffiliation from white nationalism” continued as his sense of personal responsibility grew for the harm and hurt he had caused. He recognized that his involvement in the white nationalist movement had contributed to a culture of hate and division, and he felt a moral obligation to make amends.

The most painful realization for Derek was knowing that by renouncing his beliefs, he was necessarily separating himself from his family and community. Indeed, up until Derek’s public rebuke of white nationalism in August 2013, he had “been unwilling to drive a wedge between [himself] and [his] family.”[23]

This was the most difficult part of leaving the movement, more so than realizing his beliefs and community were wrong. In our conversation, Derek noted, “It was a really traumatizing thing to ultimately separate from my family and the community, but the individual facts, the arguments [of white nationalism] didn’t feel dangerous to contradict. I attribute it to [feeling like], ‘well, I was raised in a community and I didn’t come up with these things or seek them out,’ so finding out they were wrong was not earth shattering.”[24]

Derek’s experience highlights the complexity of disassociating from deeply rooted ideologies, especially when family and community ties are involved. His story demonstrates the need for both preventative measures and support systems for those affected by extremist ideologies. Change is possible but requires intentional community involvement and institutional support.

Beyond the lessons that can be drawn about leaving white nationalism, Derek’s life story also warns of the broader societal danger of the mainstreaming of white nationalism. The white nationalism of Derek Black, Don Black, and David Duke is dressed in a suit and tie, made to look respectable and intellectual rather than overtly racist in order to appeal to more moderate and conservative listeners. Cloaking extremist views in palatable rhetoric, Derek and other white nationalists sought to normalize the movement’s talking points on immigration, multiculturalism, and race in the mainstream political discourse of the conservative movement, overtaking it from within.

The past several years have unfortunately borne witness to the efficacy of this strategy as white nationalists like Don observe with pleasure how their ideas have seeped into the mainstream, advanced by influential conservatives like Tucker Carlson and others.

After leaving the movement, Derek initially remained silent, believing he had caused too much harm by speaking publicly in the past and would only exacerbate that harm by speaking in the future.

However, hearing the white nationalist rhetoric seep into the rhetoric of the Republican party and the January 6 insurrection sparked a conviction in Derek that he needed to share his story, shed light on the dangers of white nationalism, and actively fight hate, oppression, and injustice. The racists are encroaching on the mainstream of American politics, making Derek’s crusade for the righteous cause even more crucial.

[1] Southern Poverty Law Center, “Leaving White Nationalism,” Intelligence Report, 2013 Fall Issue (August 21, 2013), https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/leaving-white-nationalism/.

[2] Interview by the author with Derek Black, August 22, 2024.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] For more on Stormfront see: “Stormfront,” Southern Poverty Law Center, nd, https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/stormfront/.  

[6] For more on David Duke, see: “David Duke,” Southern Poverty Law Center, nd, https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/david-duke/.

[7] Eli Saslow, Rising Out of Hatred – The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist (New York: Doubleday, 2018), 12.

[8] Interview by the author with Derek Black, August 22, 2024.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] R. Derek Black, The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism – A Memoir (New York: Abrams Books, 2024), 42, 82, 89.

[13] Black, The Klansman’s Son, 6.

[14] Saslow, Rising Out of Hatred, 13.

[15] Interview by the author with Derek Black, August 22, 2024.

[16] Black, The Klansman’s Son, 82-92.

[17] Saslow, Rising Out of Hatred, 22.

[18] Interview by the author with Derek Black, August 22, 2024.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Black, The Klansman’s Son, 131-132.

[21] Black, The Klansman’s Son, 165-168.

[22] Black, The Klansman’s Son, 231.

[23] Black, The Klansman’s Son, 233.

[24] Interview by the author with Derek Black, August 22, 2024.