Derek Black Show
The Don and Derek Black Show was a radio program broadcast five times a week from the Lake Worth, Florida-based radio station WPBR/1340 AM. Although WPBR has a large Haitian-American audience, the radio show promoted the ideology of white nationalism. Derek Black is the son of Don Black, founder of the large white nationalist website Stormfront. Derek Black has since renounced white nationalism and has apologised to those he believes may have been harmed by his past actions and beliefs.[1][2] This renunciation upset his father and other white nationalists and supremacists.[3]
| Genre | Talk radio |
|---|---|
| Running time | 1 hour |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | WPBR |
| Starring | Don Black and Derek Black |
| Created by | Derek Black |
| Original release | February 2010 – January 2013 |
| No. of episodes | Five per week |
| Opening theme | "I'm A White Boy" by Merle Haggard and Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner |
The first broadcast was in February 2010; the featured guest for the debut episode of the program was Gordon Lee Baum, cofounder of the Council of Conservative Citizens.[4]
Derek Black
Family
His mother, Chloe Black, is an executive assistant for the founder of the Florida Crystals company and owns a real estate business in Latin American countries.[5] She has also served as spokeswoman for a charter school, Glades Academy in Pahokee, FL, financed by Florida Crystals with the aim of lifting minority children out of poverty.[6] Before her marriage to Don Black, she was married to David Duke.[7]
Don Black, Derek's father, remains a white supremacist and was the founder of the website Stormfront.[4] He was also a Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan, and a member of the American Nazi Party in the 1970s (for a time, the ANP was known as the National Socialist White Peoples’ Party). In 1981, he was convicted of attempting an overthrow of the government of the island of Dominica using firearms and served three years in jail, from 1981 to 1984.
In 2010, Don Black and Derek Black both were a part of the Derek Black Show.
Early life
Derek Black was born in 1989 and grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida. He attended public school until third grade, when his parents took him out of school because his black teacher said the word “ain’t”.[2] He was homeschooled and his education was centered on his family's beliefs.
Homeschooling gave Derek and his father the chance to become closer. Don Black was able to take Derek with him to conferences, getting him more involved with their family beliefs.
At 10 years old, Derek Black began learning web coding, which later helped him create the Stormfront site for children with similar ideas to him.[4] He would receive critical emails and death threats,[8] but his father would tell him not to look at the messages, and Derek has said that he wasn't bothered by what critics were sending him.
After finishing high school, he enrolled in a community college and decided to run for a seat in the Republican executive committee. At 19 years old, he won the seat – one of 111 seats – with about 60 percent of the vote.[8] The committee refused to seat him because he failed to take his oath.
He later decided that he had an interest in studying medieval European history, so in 2010, he went to New College of Florida in Sarasota, one of America's top-ranked liberal arts schools. The college was about a four-hour drive across the state and it was Derek's first time away from his home. He says of his first semesters: "I’d get up in the morning, and call into my dad’s radio show … and talk about the news … and then go to class and hang out with people who were often strong social justice advocates, and trying to live both of those lives was terrifying because I knew that one day somebody was going to type my name into Google."[8]
Beliefs
Until leaving home, Derek Black's worldview had developed within the insular world of white nationalism where there was never doubt about what whiteness meant in the U.S.[2] Derek grew up strongly believing – and promoting – the idea that America was a place reserved for white Europeans and sooner or later everybody else would have to leave. As a white nationalist, Derek did not believe that the white race was above all others but instead thought that the white race shouldn't be surrounded by others. He was known for his suspicion of other races, the U.S. government, tap water, and pop culture. At age 10, he stated "it is a shame how many White minds are wasted in that system”.[2] He was also pro-choice on abortion, and against the death penalty, and was presented himself as being skeptical of the KKK or Nazism or white supremacy.[2] Instead, Derek emphasized that there was a difference between white nationalism and white supremacy and was mainly concerned with "massive immigration and forced integration" and how it would lead to white genocide.[2] One of his main beliefs was that he respected rights of all races but felt that they would be better off in their own homelands, not living together.
Once his beliefs – and ongoing participation in promoting them – became public knowledge at college, he was ostracized by most of the community.[8] In May 2013, Derek Black started to befriend several Jewish people on campus, and gradually realized that his beliefs were wrong after attending multiple Friday night dinners with Jewish friends.[9]
He recalled of these dinners:
I would say, “This is what I believe about I.Q. differences, I have 12 different studies that have been published over the years, here’s the journal that’s put this stuff together, I believe that this is true, that race predicts I.Q. and that there were I.Q. differences in races.” And they would come back with 150 more recent, more well researched studies and explain to me how statistics works and we would go back and forth until I would come to the end of that argument and I’d say, Yes that makes sense, that does not hold together and I’ll remove that from my ideological toolbox but everything else is still there. And we did that over a year or two on one thing after another until I got to a point where I didn’t believe it anymore.[8]
In 2013, Derek wrote a public statement to the Southern Poverty Law Center, publicly renouncing his views. He says: "I wanted them to know that I understood what we believed, and I was systematically disbelieving each point."[8] Derek was very hesitant to "drive a wedge" in the relationship between him and his family, especially his father.
When Donald Black saw this, he began to distance himself from Derek – not being sure whether to defend him or to shun him completely. Derek tried convincing his father to re-examine his beliefs, but failed.
Format
The show aired on AM radio between 2010 and 2013 from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday on WPBR,[10] though it had also been broadcast internationally as an internet radio show.[8] Its opening theme music consisted of Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner and the song "I'm a White Boy" by country musician Merle Haggard. The show covered national and local news.
Further reading
- Saslow, Eli (2018). Rising out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist. New York City: Doubleday. ISBN 9780385542869.
References
- Potok, Mark. "Activist Son of Key Racist Leader Renounces White Nationalism". Retrieved July 17, 2013.
- Saslow, Eli (October 15, 2016). "The White Flight of Derek Black". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
- Potok, Mark. "Racists React With Shock, Anger to Fellow Activist's Renunciation". Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- "Derek Black". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on May 1, 2010. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
- Gross, Terry. "How A Rising Star Of White Nationalism Broke Free From The Movement". NPR.org. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
- "Stormfront Founder's Wife Fronts for Minority School". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
- Flannery, Mary E. (19 September 2018). "How Higher Education Helped Derek Black Renounce White Supremacy". NEA Today. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
- Barbaro, Michael (22 August 2017). "'The Daily': A Conversation With a Former White Nationalist". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
- Getlen, Larry (6 October 2018). "How I freed myself from the KKK". New York Post. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
- "WPBR 1340 AM". Retrieved May 4, 2010.
