Walking Away From Hate by Jeanette and Lauren Manning

 

  

   Last December I was distraught and shocked to learn that a student at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, shot and killed a teacher and another student. The shooter’s action had been motivated by neonazi, white supremacist ideology. That same month, a neonazi, white supremacist rammed his vehicle into a group of people at a Christmas Market in Germany, killing five people and injuring several others. (Please, note that I type the word neonazi without capital letters on purpose).

    Neonazi hate groups are part of a reality that is often ignored. Interestingly, the members of these extremist groups consider themselves a “political movement.”

  These hate groups recruit young people in a state of vulnerability. The vulnerable young people who fall prey to the brainwashing of these groups—or I should say to the brain-tainting-- happen to be angry and insecure. They have a need for validation and often feel like outcasts. They may have a need to be accepted by their peers and they lack a sense of purpose.

  These neonazi violent groups entice them by making them feel that they care about them, but the reality is different. The hate groups are based on neonazi ideology. They teach the followers to loathe anybody they consider non-white, gays and Jews; they hate black people; they resent immigrants, falsely accusing them of stealing their jobs. Instead of white supremacy, the ideology should be called white insecurity or white perversion.

  How can we prevent people from joining hate groups or from sympathizing with hate ideology? We need to raise awareness on the spread of neonazi ideology. Other hate extremist groups--ISIS, for example-- follow the same pattern and strategies.

  Lauren Manning belonged to one of these groups in the past. She knows what it is like to be part of such a group. She was able to get out of the hate group despite the dangers and threats she encountered, and is now working to share her story and help others in similar situations.

   Two years ago, I received a copy of On Account of Darkness  by Ian Kennedy, published by Tidewater press, a small publisher from Canada. I wrote a review on it at My Writing Life blog: Awareness, Reflection, Inspiration. Soon after that I navigated the site of the small Canadian publisher, and Walking Away from Hate caught my attention. I included Walking Away from Hate in my mental list of books to be read, but it took me two years to get to it. The book is not present in the library system I count on, so I chose to purchase it directly from Tidewater Press. I did not use Amazon.

  I approached the read with trepidation due to the unpleasant nature of the topic. However, I was eager to understand how young people are lured into the network of falsehoods that coax them to believe in the existence of a so-called superior white race. 

    Five years after she left the white supremacist group, Lauren Manning learned about the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and about the murder of Heather Heyer by a white supremacist. It summoned up memories of her past: “I had been living under a rock for the last few years, not paying attention to current events, but I couldn’t pretend I was shocked to hear of the Charlottesville tragedy. Back when I’d advocated for the division of humanity, I’d known many lost and angry souls in search of a life purpose. Their discussions had revolved around violence and what they considered cleverly crafted methods of returning society to an all-white population. Back then, I believed them. I was one of them, totally immersing myself in their culture while desensitizing myself to my emotions. I’d taken their ideology as gospel and would have gladly died for it.”

 Walking Away from Hate shows how Lauren became involved in a neonazi, white supremacist group, and how her choices pulled her away from her family. Even though Lauren had grown in a healthy, loving environment, she had been exposed to the ideology of her maternal grandfather, who later became estranged from the family. Her grandfather had migrated to Canada from England in 1954. He had fought in the Second World War. Yet he resented immigrants. He disliked gays, black people and Jews and had always been clear about his bigotry. Eventually he severed his relationship with Jeanette and her family, but traces of his ideology may have contributed  to Lauren’s choices when she was in a state of vulnerability, after losing her dad to leukemia at age 16.

  I think it is important to highlight that races do not exist. It has been proven by science.

   The obsession with classifying people into different races makes me uncomfortable; it has been a trend that may perpetuate biases and stereotypes. Science has shown that there is only one race: the human race. Putting labels on people on the basis of something that does not exist is absurd, but we are caught up in a pattern that has emphasized a way of dividing people. Race is a societal construction used to divide people into categories. For this reason, whenever I can avoid ticking the box, I do so.

  Walking Away from Hate is shared in Jodi Picoult’s literary style: mother and daughter narrate their experiences in alternating sections of the book. The conversational style of their prose is engaging and introspective, and it keeps you turning the pages, because you have no idea what is going to happen next. You keep wondering how far she is going to go before she comes to her senses and returns to her family.

  One aspect of the book that I’d like to emphasize is how women in the group were viewed as a means to an end.  Women were simply considered a medium to have children. Their choices and talents were ignored, disregarded and ridiculed. They are never treated as equals.

   The unsafe situations Lauren went through and the emotional and physical violence she had to put up with stunned me. The poor choices that led her to drink alcohol and to neglect herself and surround herself by people whose actions were about hate, criminality and violence made the read heartbreaking, but I love that at the end she was able to leave that behind and to rebuild an authentic life of health and hope not only for herself, but also for the benefit of her family, friends and for those who need her experience to understand that choices make a difference.

  The new beginning in her life allowed her to study, find a fulfilling job, and to discover new talents and hobbies. Her new sense of self paved the way to thrive in healthy relationships. She embarked on a path of mindful meditation daily. As she left her past behind, the support and forgiveness of her family were crucial in the process of healing and recovery.   

    I highly recommend Walking Away from Hate. Read it and share it with the teenagers in your life. Talk about it. If you are a social studies teacher, use the book to educate others on the topic. It can save lives.  

 Last but not least, I will share resources that may also be of help:

  Life After Hate was founded in 2011. This is their message: “Life After Hate is dedicated to inspiring individuals to a place of compassion and forgiveness, for themselves and for all people.” Their goal is to interrupt violence committed in the name of ideological or religious beliefs through education, intervention, research and outreach. According to the book, they help people exiting hate groups and support those who have already left, in both the United States and Canada.

 Exit USA was born in 2014 and is available to people around the world. Its mission statement reads, “No judgment. Just help. If you are ready to leave hate and violence behind, we are here to support you. At Exit USA we are dedicated to helping individuals leave the white power movement and start building a more fulfilling and positive life, just like we did.”

 

Other organizations/resources to seek support:

https://www.splcenter.org/policy-advocacy/

 https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/peril-understanding-preventing-gender-sexuality-bigotry/

www.antihate.ca

www.moonshotcve.com

 

Still I rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread me in the dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room?

Just like moons and suns

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hope springing high,

Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don’t you take it awful hard

Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines

Digging in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I’ve got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Maya Angelou

"The Japanese Lover" by Isabel Allende

There are many love stories in this novel by Isabel Allende, but it was not the title that attracted me to it. The hook was the first chapter. It narrates the story of Irina, a young woman from Moldova who is hired to work at Lark House, an imaginary nursing home located in California.

  Irina bonds with the residents of Lark House because she is kind, sensitive and caring. After an unexpected turn of events, Irina is also hired to work a few hours a week for Alma, one of the residents.

  Both Irina and Alma harbor secrets that hold the suspense of the novel till the end.

 Even though they had different backgrounds, Alma and Irina had something in common: they’d both migrated to America under difficult circumstances.  Alma had moved to the United States from Poland at age seven when her Jewish parents, terrified by the rise of Nazism, sent her to live with her uncle and aunt in America. During her childhood she met Ichimei, a family friend with whom she fell in love.

   The story is narrated from an omniscient point of view. The present and past moments of their lives alternate and the writer paints the intimate landscapes of the characters’ thoughts and emotions. We also get to know the Japanese lover through the letters that he wrote to Alma.

 This novel encouraged me to learn more about American history. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese government in 1941 President Roosevelt declared war on Japan. On the West Coast of the United States of America thousands of American citizens of Japanese background were detained and sent to concentration camps for no other reason than their race. Their bank accounts and possessions were confiscated by the government.

“The Japanese had to quickly sell off whatever they owned at knockdown prices, and to close their businesses. They soon discovered that their bank accounts had been frozen; they were ruined.”

“By August, more than a hundred and twenty thousand men, women and children would be evacuated, old people snatched from hospitals, babies from orphanages, and mental patients from asylums. They would be interned in ten concentration camps in isolated areas of the interior, while cities would be left with phantom neighborhoods full of empty homes and desolate streets, where abandoned pets and the confused spirit of the ancestors who had arrived in America with the immigrants wandered aimlessly.”

 I think this is a relevant reminder of how hate speeches fueled by fanaticism, racism and economic hardship do have consequences. Nevertheless, those consequences were presented under the veil of censorship.

“It was a temporary solution and would be carried out in a humane fashion. This was the official line, but meanwhile the hate speech spread. ‘A snake is always a snake, wherever it lays its eggs. A Japanese-American born of Japanese parents, brought up in a Japanese tradition, living in an atmosphere transplanted from Japan, inevitably and with only rare exceptions grows up as Japanese and not American. They are all enemies.’ It was enough to have a great-grandfather born in Japan to be seen as a snake.”

  Another important subject that this novel touches is that of sex trafficking and forced prostitution. This cruel horrifying “business” is one of the most profitable in the world, and it makes me wonder why it has not been eradicated yet. Is it because there are many “customers” out there who are willing to pay for sex slaves? Is it because society is too busy slut-shaming victims instead of helping them?

    This novel is about love, friendship and trust, and what I enjoyed the most about it is that the author merged the political and social aspects of it with the personal lives of the characters. The end is bittersweet, a reflection on the timelessness and endurance of love.