Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Former White Supremacist Has A Change Of Heart, Tries To Help Others Disengage

In an interview with The Root promoting his new MSNBC documentary, “Breaking Hate,” prominent former white supremacist Christian Picciolini said the alt-right’s hate problem may shatter with empathy from the people they least deserved it from, when they least deserved it.

People are joining the white supremacist movement, Picciolini explained, because they feel a sense of belonging.

“Really, it’s not about ideology; it’s about a broken search for identity, community and purpose,” he said. “And I can tell you it’s about purpose because I have Jewish mothers who contact me each week who say that their Jewish son has got a Swastika tattoo; or Mexican young people who are denying the Holocaust, they’re posting white nationalist propaganda.”

Picciolini was recruited into white supremacy at age 14, a vulnerable time in which he felt abandoned by his immigrant parents, who worked incessantly. He’s now helped more than 200 people disengage from the alt-right, he said, and found a solution in the form of empathy from the oppressed minority groups.

“Now I’m not saying it’s the responsibility of people of color, or the victims, or anyone’s responsibility to do that, but I can tell you it’s the only thing I’ve seen break hate,” he said. “Hatred is born of fear, it’s born of ignorance.”

“Breaking Hate” premiered Sunday, on the one-year anniversary of the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In the hour-long special, Picciolini brings together a former white supremacist who participated in the Charlottesville riots with the mother of Heather Heyer, the counter-protestor who was killed.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.