Major sources for the section on gender and masculinity include Michael Kimmel’s Healing from Hate, which emphasizes the role that masculinity plays in radicalization, and Christian Picciolini’s Breaking Hate. For a discussion of women in the white nationalist movement, see Caroline Kitchener, The Women Behind the ‘Alt-Right’.

Kimmel and Picciolini are also key sources for the role that trauma and shame play in making kids vulnerable to white nationalist engagement. Picciolini is particularly focused on this issue. He sees the attraction of white nationalism as based on typical teenage searches for identity, community, and purpose, with a critical factor being the presence of what he calls individual “potholes,” unresolved traumas centered on experiences of shame. The documentary video Healing from Hate explores the role of trauma in individual cases, through conversations with former white nationalists.

The key role that grievance and a sense of unfairness play in radicalization of all kinds, including white nationalism, is the core thesis of Why People Radicalize, by Kees van den Bos.

Research on vulnerability is also explored in J.L. Berger, Extremism, and discussed in Preben Bertelsen, Danish Preventive Measures and De-radicalization Strategies: The Aarhus Model, which examines conditions that led to radicalization in a European context.

One important theme shared by all these sources is that poverty or unemployment alone are not risk factors. However, in contexts of rapid economic or social change, those with fewer resources are more likely to perceive their situations as unjust, especially when compared to others who have fared better during periods of transition.

“Women comprise about a quarter of the white supremacist movement.”

“The emotion of shame is the primary or ultimate cause of all violence. The purpose of violence is to diminish the intensity of shame and replace it, as far as possible, with its opposite, pride.”

“Hatred for others often reveals itself as the projection of gaping deficits of love or respect for oneself.”