A Former White Supremacist Explains How to Combat White Supremacy

Christian Picciolini has dedicated his life to deradicalizing extremists and educating federal agents on best practices. But under Trump, the government no longer seems to care.

Photo by Kobi Swissa

After the shooting by an alleged white supremacist in El Paso that left 22 people dead, it seems highly likely that there will be more race-based bloodshed on the horizon. That’s a grim prediction, but how could anyone wager otherwise? Since the massacre, police have apprehended a number of other white supremacist men who were plotting attacks in places like New Jersey, Ohio, and Nevada.

But just as dangerous as the individual hate-mongers, argues Christian Picciolini, is the larger bureaucratic framework that turns a blind eye to — and sometimes encourages — this behavior.

We’d be wise to listen to Picciolini: Not only is he the founder of the Free Radicals Project, which provides counseling to extremists questioning their involvement in hate movements, but he once embodied the very cruelty he now seeks to treat, having spent eight years as a member of a neo-Nazi faction.

“I went searching for identity and purpose,” he tells GEN, recalling his recruitment into a…