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Life After Hate

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Life After Hate
Founded2011
FounderChristian Picciolini, Angela King, Arno Michaelis, Antony (Tony) McAleer, Frankie Meeink, and Sammy Rangel
TypeNon-profit
Legal status501(c)(3)
Headquarters917 W. Washington Blvd., Suite 212, Chicago, IL 60607 USA
Erroll G. Southers, Pete Simi, Vidhya Ramalingam,Humera Khan, Damian Loth, Tony McAleer.
Websitehttps://www.lifeafterhate.org/

Life After Hate is a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by Arno Michaelis.[1] Its stated mission is to help "people leave the violent far-right, to connect with humanity, and lead compassionate lives.”[2] In January 2017, the Obama administration awarded the group $400,000 as part of a grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Countering Violent Extremism Task Force.[3] However, DHS advisor Katharine Gorka and other aides of President Donald Trump decided to discontinue the grant in June 2017.[4][5][6] A crowdfunding campaign established after the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally has raised $429,500 to go towards the organization.[7][8]

History

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Tony McAleer's voice
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Life After Hate was founded in 2011 by Angela King, Frankie Meeink, Arno Michaelis, Antony (Tony) McAleer, Sammy Rangel, and Christian Picciolini. The organization was named after an online blog entitled "Life After Hate," created by Michaelis.[9][10]

From the age of 17, Arno Michaelis was deeply involved in the white power movement. In 2007, Michaelis began writing a memoir and co-founded the online magazine Life After Hate.[11]

Angela King is one of the organization's co-founders, is currently its Director of Special Projects, and is the only co-founder employed by Life After Hate. King is an ex-white supremacist who struggled to forgive herself after being a Neo-Nazi.[9] King was raised in Southern Florida by parents she describes as racist and homophobic. King joined hate groups in her early teens after being bullied throughout school and dealing with tensions at home. She found people welcomed her aggressive and violent tendencies. After eight years of being involved with extremist groups, she was imprisoned. In 1997, she was involved in a robbery of an adult video store. After fleeing to Chicago, Illinois, she returned to Florida, where she was arrested and incarcerated at the Federal Detention Center in Miami. She was originally sentenced to seventy months but was eventually granted a reduced sentence for her cooperation.

During her sentence, King met women who held her accountable for her beliefs but ultimately disarmed her aggression with compassion, which began the process of disengagement. King was released in 2001, determined to begin a new life. She completed three degrees, culminating in an M.A. in Issues of Social Concern, and graduated from the University of Central Florida (UCF). The University's literary magazine, Pegasus, interviewed her years later to explore her experiences and life's work.[12]

Programs

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ExitUSA

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ExitUSA is an organization that specializes in disengagement of individuals who were previously involved in hate groups and reintegrating them back into society as full functioning individuals that are capable of obtaining jobs and building healthy relationships within their communities. ExitUSA continues to use social media to help the ex-radicals deny their previous beliefs. "Asked about 'the Trump effect,' Picciolini said the president's election has emboldened the white supremacist movement. Calls to ExitUSA, a program through Life After Hate, have gone up from two or three per week before the election to 15-20 per week, he said."[13][14]

#WeCounterHate

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In partnership with Possible, a company based in Seattle, Life After Hate created a social media business to spread messages of love to combat the hateful comments often displayed. The program uses computers that specialize in detecting hateful tweets. Once detected, #WeCounterHate sends a message to the author of the hateful tweet saying that a dollar will be donated to Life After Hate for every retweet that occurs. After the message is sent, many delete the original post and others will not share it.[14]

Notable events

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Grant repeal

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During the Obama administration, Life After Hate was awarded a $400,000 grant to combat extremist groups. This grant was one of 31 grants to organizations countering extremism made in January, 2017 and announced by then DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson.[15] The grant was revoked by the Trump administration due to what Homeland Security explained as a normal review process and not based upon ideology.[16] A former government official close to the Trump administration, however, reported that the grant was revoked in response to Twitter posts critical of Mr. Trump by Picciolini himself.[17] DHS spokesman David Lapan denied these claims stating that this grant and others were reviewed with guidance from then DHS Secretary John Kelly.[18]

Colin Kaepernick donation

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In March 2017, Colin Kaepernick donated $50,000 to Life After Hate for Interventions, travel expenses, social media, analytics software and refurbished laptop computers.[19][20]

References

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  1. ^ "History — Life After Hate". Life After Hate. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  2. ^ "About," Life After Hate. Retrieved August 15, 2017
  3. ^ Schulberg, Jessica (August 15, 2017), "Controversial Trump Aide Katharine Gorka Helped End Funding For Group That Fights White Supremacy," Huffington Post. Retrieved August 15, 2017
  4. ^ Otterson, Joe (August 15, 2017). "Sam Bee Looks to Aid Reformed Neo-Nazi Group Life After Hate in Wake of Charlottesville". Variety.com. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  5. ^ Rozsa, Mathew (23 June 2017). "Trump's Department of Homeland Security is defunding an anti-Nazi program".
  6. ^ Nixon, Ron; Sullivan, Eileen (August 15, 2017). "Revocation of Grants to Help Fight Hate Under New Scrutiny After Charlottesville". New York Times. Retrieved August 19, 2017.
  7. ^ "Public Good". publicgood.com. Archived from the original on November 21, 2019. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  8. ^ Pashman, Manya Brachear. "Fight against extremism for former neo-Nazi from Chicago ramps up after Trump, Charlottesville". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  9. ^ a b Bates, Claire (August 29, 2017). "I was a neo-Nazi. Then I fell in love with a black woman". BBC News. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  10. ^ "Providing A Way Forward From Hate - The Story Exchange". thestoryexchange.org. 26 October 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  11. ^ Einbinder, Nicole. "Everything you need to know about Life After Hate — the organization that's partnered with Facebook to tackle white nationalist content on the platform". Insider. Retrieved 2023-07-31.
  12. ^ "Life After Hate". Pegasus Magazine. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  13. ^ "Life After Hate". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  14. ^ a b McClure, Jewels. "No more hate". The Observer. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  15. ^ "Statement by Secretary Jeh Johnson Announcing First Round of DHSs Countering Violent Extremism Grants | Homeland Security". www.dhs.gov. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  16. ^ Nixon, Ron; Sullivan, Eileen (2017-08-15). "Revocation of Grants to Help Fight Hate Under New Scrutiny After Charlottesville". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  17. ^ "Life After Hate co-founder says grant rescinded by Trump administration". Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  18. ^ https://www.governmentattic.org/40docs/DHSemailHateGorka_2017.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  19. ^ "March 2017 Donations". March 31, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  20. ^ Thompson, Phil (August 10, 2017). "Chicago activists rally behind Colin Kaepernick". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
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