Synopsis
From the former heir apparent to White nationalism, an astonishing memoir of a childhood built on fear, and of breaking from a community of hate
Derek Black was raised to take over the White nationalist movement in the United States. Derek’s father, Don Black, was a former Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan and started Stormfront, the internet’s first White supremacist website—Derek built the kids’ page—and David Duke was a mentor. Racist hatred, though often wrapped up in respectability and American history, was all Derek knew. It was their inheritance, their community, their identity.
Then, while in college in 2013, Derek publicly renounced White nationalism and apologized for their actions and the suffering that they had caused. The majority of their family stopped speaking to Derek, and they disappeared into academia, convinced that they had done so much harm that there was no place for them in public life. But in 2016, as Derek watched the rise of Donald Trump, they recognized language and arguments they had once helped cultivate—and they knew that they couldn’t stay silent.
The Klansman’s Son is a thoughtful, insightful, and moving account of a singular life, with important lessons for our contentious times. The place where Derek’s world turned upside down—New College of Florida—has become a prominent battleground in the fight over race, gender, and education, and few understand the ideology, motivations, or tactics of the White nationalist movement like Derek. As coded language and creeping authoritarianism spread the ideas of White nationalists, this is an essential book from a powerful voice.