Christian Picciolini Quotes

United States, Writer
November 3, 1973

Christian Marco Picciolini is an American author and public speaker who is the co-founder of a nonprofit peace advocacy organization called Life After Hate. He wrote a memoir, Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead, which details his time as a leader of the American white power movement. An updated version of the story was published as a paperback in 2017, titled White American Youth: My Descent into America's Most Violent Hate Movement--and How I Got Out.

Also known as Speaker

We caught that individual and we proceeded to beat him brutally. And at one point when I was kicking him on the ground and his face was swollen, covered in blood, he opened his eyes and they connected with mine. that was the first time I felt empathy for one of my victims. And that was the last time I hurt anybody.

Christian Picciolini
- Eyes
- Individual
- Empathy
He advised parents and teachers not to "attack or confront" those drawn into extreme, black-and-white thinking, but to "build a bridge of empathy" and listen - to try to understand the underlying pain, even if the ideology is abhorrent.

Christian Picciolini
- Empathy
- Bridge
- Attack

It’s kind of the same thing you look for if your kid’s getting into drugs or getting into gangs

Christian Picciolini
- You
- Same
- Kid
Over time, my customers and I would strike up conversations about music that led to deeper discussions, allowing me to humanise people that were once the objects of my hate. I began to develop empathy for them – and also received it at a time when I least deserved it, from those I least deserved it from. Once I began to connect with others that I once hated, I could no longer justify that hate.

Christian Picciolini
- Hated
- Others
- Connect
Music was the vehicle for propaganda

Christian Picciolini
- Music
- Propaganda
- Vehicle
I had already been a part of the punk-rock subculture, so I was already searching for something to express my anger.

Christian Picciolini
- Anger
- Express
- Searching
I felt a sort of energy flow through me that I had never felt before — as if I was a part of something greater than myself

Christian Picciolini
- Energy
- Myself
- Part
The truth is, I never met or had a meaningful dialogue or engagement with anybody that I thought I hated. And when they took the step to try and reach me, the demonization of them that I had in my mind started to crack.

Christian Picciolini
- Never
- Hated
- Anybody

Hatred is bred through ignorance. Fear is its father, and isolation its mother. Yet, we are born of empathy and so we hope to return.

Christian Picciolini
- Fear
- Ignorance
- Empathy
Over the last 14 years I have actually helped over 100 people disengage from the same movement that I was a part of.

Christian Picciolini
- People
- Movement
- Helped
I'd traded my natural empathy for acceptance. I confused hate and intimidation with passion, fear with respect....When I reconnected with the empathy I had as a child and accepted compassion from others when I probably least deserved it, the hate disintegrated and my warped ideology stopped making sense.

Christian Picciolini