In an era in which antisemitism seems to be everywhere, R. Derek Black’s memoir, The Klansman’s Son, is frighteningly timely. Black grew up as the ultimate white supremacist. Black’s mother was once married to KKK Grand Wizard David Duke; their father, Don Black, was a proud KKK leader whose hero was Adolf Hitler.
Throughout Derek’s childhood, Don shepherded his son to rallies. There, crowds with loud voices (and sometimes torches) were encouraged to vent their growing grudges against their “enemies.” Chief among these enemies are the Jews, scheming to weaken the white world through integration and other liberalisms in order to replace white people. Next on the list are people of color. (Young Derek loved their Confederate costume and flag, a tribute to the good old days.) Then come the immigrants from anywhere but Northern Europe. These “animals” roam across our border, eager to drug, rape, and then murder decent, law-abiding white Americans.
At these rallies, Derek was urged to speak as well. They were so good at it that, at ten, they were interviewed on television by Jenny Jones, the Jerry Springer of her day. As the internet began to gain traction, Derek and their father created “Stormfront,” a website for white nationalists (Derek helpfully writes “Stormfront for Kids”). The two also aired a radio show called “Don and Derek Black,” in which Don invited his son to orate on the many ills that had befallen the nation, causing America — and white lives — to become significantly less wonderful. All these modes of communication gained exponential traction in 2016 amid a contentious election, and amid the national rifts that characterized the following years.
But in 2016, Derek was seventeen, and soon after, at college, they were exposed to other points of view. Their new friends were people of color, queer people, Jewish people — one of whom Derek dated, and another of whom hosted the Shabbat dinners Derek regularly attended. Soon, Derek began to experience an existential crisis: they still loved and wanted to please their parents, yet they couldn’t help seeing the humanity of their peers. At first, Derek solved this dilemma by keeping their white nationalist side separate (and secret), but soon, the truth spilled out, and Derek’s very presence created a furor on campus.
The resolution of this conflict and its aftermath form the high point of the memoir. Finding out how this child of neo-Nazis shifted so dramatically to the other side of the ideological spectrum is fascinating — and, in our times, exemplary and educational.
Sonia Taitz, a Ramaz, Yale Law, and Oxford graduate, is the author of five books, including the acclaimed “second generation” memoir, The Watchmaker’s Daughter, and the novel, Great with Child. Praised for her warmth and wit by Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, People and The Chicago Tribune, she is currently working on a novel about the Zohar, the mystical source of Jewish transcendence.
