Christian Picciolini reads from White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement—and How I Got Out (Hachette Books, 2017)

White nationalist rallies in the United States have drawn the ire of people across the nation and the world, and Christian Picciolini has emerged as an expert at unpacking the dangerous psychology of the white supremacist movement. Picciolini himself was recruited by a now notorious skinhead leader and encouraged to fight to “protect the white race from extinction.” Eventually, at sixteen Picciolini became the leader of an infamous Neo-Nazi skinhead group in one of America’s most violent hate organizations before a shocking loss motivated by racial violence changed his life forever, and he realized the full extent of the harm he’d caused. After breaking with the movement, he now leads the Free Radicals Project to redeem others from its ranks.

Discussion led by Fred Gardaphé, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.