As far Chicago, our city was designed with racism in mind, with neighborhoods segregated by expressways and train tracks. Even suburbs, like Highland Park, have long histories of barring Jewish and black people. That history that has always existed has come out of the shadows because of the social and political climate.
Christian PiccioliniHate crimes have increased since the election of Donald Trump. So I'm not surprised. I'm hopeful, very vigilant. We're seeing the same thing as what happened in 1933, when a politician stokes fears and grievances to rally them for a nationalist cause. But nationalism to the exclusion of other people is not nationalism, that's xenophobia.
Christian PiccioliniI'm not in contact really with people from Chicago Area Skinheads movement and couldn't say who they now support politically, but I can tell you through my research online in which I've been doing interventions with people who are part of hate groups, that I've discovered essentially thousands and thousands of pro-Trump neo-Nazi accounts.
Christian PiccioliniI have two sons, ages 23 and 25, and know that parents need to listen more and speak less. Young people today don't always know what's going on or how they fit in, and if someone walks up to them and says, 'Hey, kid: If you listen to me I'll give you power and a sense of purpose,' it can hold tremendous appeal.
Christian Picciolini30 years ago in white supremacy, we had a strategy called leaderless resistance. The concept was: stop shaving our heads, stop getting tattoos and instead try to blend in as much as possible. It was a really concerted effort to try and tone down the rhetoric and make it a little more palatable to the mainstream. And it certainly has penetrated the mainstream now. We're seeing people who were supportive of our cause back then also supportive of Donald Trump's cause, certainly with the recent cabinet appointments.
Christian PiccioliniThere are also people that still choose to support racist rhetoric because they feel white dominance in America is slipping through their fingers. To them, "diversity" is a codeword for white genocide. They claim that their "homelands" are being overrun by minorities and are desperate for solutions that ensure their "white survival." This fear, of course, is irrational and solely based on a loss of white power and control.
Christian Picciolini