Derek Black's Transformation, Part 2

Derek Black

Today is Part II of Derek Black’s transformation story, from leader in the white nationalist movement to someone who is actively working to make America a place where everyone has a seat at the table, regardless of race or any other differences. It’s a powerful story that highlights courage, both in those who reached out to him in love, and in Derek himself to confront his own misbeliefs and then to publicly break with his past, at great personal cost. I’m sharing it in the format of an outline for a musical. Check out last week’s newsletter for Act I. 

Here’s a rough outline for Act II. 

Scene 10: 

High energy song: MAKE HISTORY

Derek plans and hosts his own conference for white nationalists. The song highlights Derek’s celebrity status among his crowd, and his father Don’s determination that he won’t just study history, he’s going to make it. Derek urges attendees to seize this moment, when the ideas they’ve been advocating for decades are finally hitting the mainstream. He highlights David Duke’s overtures to the Tea Party, Donald Trump’s insistence that Barak Obama was not born in the USA, and growing traction for the term “White Genocide”. 

Scene 11: 

Restless and melancholic song: NO SAFE SPACE

Derek returns to a campus that’s in uproar about his presence. Faculty argue over what to do with him and decide to honour his 1st Amendment rights, as long as he isn’t threatening anyone. Students give him a wide berth, or shout insults. Some drop classes if he’s in them. He nearly gets beaten up at a party and gets permission to move off campus, in everyone’s best interests. Matthew Stevenson, having researched Stormfront and listened to the podcast discusses Derek’s antisemitism (including such quotes as “Jews are NOT white,” “Jews worm their way into power over our society,” and “They must go”) with roommate Moshe, but the young men see inconsistency between Derek’s general friendliness to everyone, and the things he believes. Matthew suggests maybe Derek’s never had a friend who was a Jew. They decide to give him a chance at that potentially transformative friendship and send him an invite to Shabbat dinner, Friday night. 

Scene 12

Speedier song: WHAT AM I DOING

Derek prepares for dinner, worried that he might be about to get ambushed. Moshe and Matthew argue with roommate Allison about whether this is a terrible idea. Several friends inform Matthew that they’re not coming, if Derek is. Juan shows up though and gets invited to just treat Derek as he always has, as if none of the white nationalist stuff had ever happened. Derek arrives with a bottle of wine and the dinner proceeds with just the four of them, only to recur week after week and the old friends trickle back including, eventually, Allison, who discovers that she not only likes Derek but instinctively trusts him. But, if you’re white yourself, is it really okay to be friends with a white nationalist?  

Scene 13

Matthew’s Song: HESED IS THE POINT

One year later, Matthew finds a Stormfront conference nametag on Allison’s desk and is horrified. What is going on? She confides that she went to Derek’s 2nd annual conference with him, in hopes of understanding his worldview better so that she can challenge it. But it was super discouraging because, although Derek never used any racial slurs, he still believes and talked about “white genocide” and the people all around him said such awful things she sometimes thought she might throw up. What’s more, everybody there adores him and has ever since he was like 10 years old. Why would he ever want to walk away from that. 

Matthew tells her that going onto his turf is a very dangerous idea. He can be very persuasive. Moshe joins in, talking about how people are campaigning for him to be expelled because he hangs around in public. They’re discouraged that after a whole year of spending time with Derek, he is still leading white nationalism. But then Matthew regrounds himself on the real issue. They haven’t befriended him to change him. That’s his business. Their job is just to love him, wherever he’s at. 

Scene 14

Large group number, high energy: US AND THEM

Students hold a campus, anti-racist rally aimed at addressing racial incidents on campus that have happened since Derek was outed. Speakers talk about a sense of lost safety. Derek listens from a discrete distance and realizes that his rhetoric has actually hurt people. He realizes that he could believe in white nationalism when his “us” only included white people. But now, that belief system is asking him to agree that his friends don’t belong in the country that is their home. It demands that they be uprooted and sent somewhere else for no reason other than that white nationalists see them as “them.” He is coming to believe that America’s brightest future lies, not in reinforcing a white “us” and in getting rid of “them” by unfriendly policies and deportations, but in redefining “them” as part of “us.” 

He reviews with his friends all the things that he used to believe that have been disproven to him, and why the science does not support his previous opinions. Friends suggest you can’t call yourself a part of a movement if you don’t believe in more than a 50th of what they stand for. Derek realizes that he doesn’t. But if he breaks with white nationalism, he becomes a “them” to the people who’ve always been closest to him. 

Scene 15

Reflective solo: COMPLICIT

Racial issues have become a huge talking point in the 2012 elections, with mainstream candidates parroting some of the messages Derek had worked to get out there. Then George Zimmerman is acquitted for fatally shooting unarmed Trayvon Martin, a black teen walking through the neighborhood that he suspected of being up to no good, and considered a threat to his safety. Derek hears hs father and Duke talking about the case on the podcast that used to be his, where they say it was totally reasonable for Zimmerman to feel threatened. This sort of unfortunate thing is what happens when you have a bunch of different races and cultures cheek to jowl in society. Everyone would be better off in their own place. Derek feels sick at the realization that he contributed to the death, helping to create Zimmerman’s sense of fear. He can’t just wash his hands of white nationalism and quietly go away. He has to make a public break with it and state to the world that it’s not only wrong, it’s harmful. 

Derek writes out his arguments against white nationalism and sends them to the Southern Poverty Law Center, instructing them to publish in full. 

Scene 16

Energetic group number: BETRAYED

Derek’s family think at first that he’s been hacked. When they learn the letter is for real, they express disbelief, grief and betrayal. Derek keeps saying, “we’re family. No matter what. Family is more important than politics.” Don says “THIS family is politics”

Scene 17

FINALE/CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK- REPRISE

Don and Derek return to the restaurant where the show started. It’s Don’s 60th birthday. He wanted to see Derek and his family told him that he’d have to leave his party to do so, because Derek wasn’t welcome there right now. So they sit together with Don bringing up all the issues where they used to agree, and Derek rebutting Don’s arguments. They hunt for some area of agreement. Derek says his father taught him to look at the facts head on and stand up for what he believed, no matter how unpopular and no matter what the cost. Don agrees, “I did teach you that.” And then there’s the fact that, no matter what, Derek will always love his dad, and here is dad, skipping his 60th birthday party to spend time with his son. Derek no longer believes in Us and Them. Don still does. But both agree that the other will always be a part of their Us. 

CURTAIN

What do you think? It's a bittersweet ending, but I think anything brighter might not be true to the story.

What do you think of the impact of a production like this in schools and communities? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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