Fighting extremism and white supremacy requires people to create meaningful communities, along with providing a sense of purpose and identity, said Christian Picciolini, a former neo-Nazi and founder of the Free Radicals Project.
Picciolini’s message, including his own story of joining then leaving the white supremacy movement, was part of the latest Mayor’s Council Against Hate meeting. Around 70 people filled the seats of The Camp House on Tuesday night to listen to Picciolini, who detailed the factors that led him to create an identity as a neo-Nazi.
At 14 years old, Picciolini was recruited and found meaning in turning the hatred he felt for himself toward other groups, he said. The bullying he experienced as a child made him susceptible to neo-Nazi propaganda. The identity they created for him was intoxicating. It was not until he had two children and began interacting with people of different faiths, ethnicities and worldviews through a record store he owned that he decided to leave the movement.
Now, as a speaker and advocate, he works with others trying to leave the white supremacy movement and educates local groups, such as the one in Chattanooga on Tuesday night. Today’s white supremacy movement looks much different than it did when he joined. In the 1990s, the movement shifted away from skinheads in combat boots, Picciolini said.
“It’s not how it used to be anymore with shaved heads and Klan robes,” he said in an interview before the Tuesday meeting. “It’s the average kid these days who’s getting sucked into these movements. I think that even if we’re not addressing it ideologically, a good practice is just treating everybody with compassion, because we don’t know who’s going to benefit from it the most.”