White Supremacy – Confronting the culture of hate and extremism

On 4th December 2019, EFD and the U.S. Embassy hosted an exchange of views with Christian Picciolini, a former white supremacist. The goal of the event was to hear and learn directly from someone who succeeded in moving out of a life of hate and violence. As Europe witnesses a growth of far-right, white supremacist groups, it is critical to understand the factors and dynamics that make such ideology attractive in order to devise effective prevention measures.

Christian Picciolini is an award-winning television producer, a public speaker, author, peace advocate, and a former violent extremist. Christian’s involvement in, and exit from, the early American white-supremacist skinhead movement is chronicled in his memoir White American Youth. He now leads the Free Radicals Project, a global extremism prevention and disengagement network, and has helped over 300 individuals leave hate behind. This work is spotlighted in his MSNBC documentary series Breaking Hate. His forthcoming book, Breaking hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism, will be released on February 25, 2020.