This Chicago Anti-Nazi Group Needs Funds, & Samantha Bee Is Helping Lead The Push

By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 16, 2017 3:23PM

Samantha Bee / Getty Images / Photo: Bryan Bedder

Life After Hate, the Chicago-founded organization that works to counteract white supremacism and Neo-Nazism, was expecting a federal grant, which had been announced under the Obama administration. But last June, well into the Trump transition, that funding was eliminated. Since then, folks have been stepping up to help with support—including Full Frontal host Samantha Bee.

Bee and her Full Frontal crew are trying to amplify Life After Hate's crowdfunding campaign, which it launched after the Department of Homeland Security nixed the expected $400,000 grant, which was part of the Countering Violent Extremism initiative. Life After Hate was founded in Chicago in 2011 by Christian Picciolini, a reformed neo-Nazi skinhead and Chicago native. The organization reaches out to white extremists in attempts to educate and de-radicalize. Requests to the group have shot up 20 percent since Trump was elected.

In the wake of the Charlottesvile attack and President Donald Trump's much-blasted, equivocating response, Bee is looking to throw her celebrity weight behind the cause. “The group came to our attention during a field piece because we learned about the imminent loss of that grant,” Bee told Entertainment Weekly. “We heard it was the only organization outside of the FBI that was doing this type of work — trying to extract people out of the life of violent white supremacy.”

The fear of that lost grant was of course realized shortly after the segment was filmed. It's due to air next month on Full Frontal, but after last weekend Bee didn't want to wait until then to help get the word out.

“It’s crazy that we need [Life After Hate] more than ever,” she told People. “These things are not waning, the intensity is growing... [I]t’s sad that we have to crowdfund these amazing organizations that the administration would seek to take away a grant from. In the grand scheme of things it’s such a small amount of money for the work that they do."

Life After Hate "trains and supports former hate group members as mentors and educators who de-radicalize and disengage potential violent extremists," according to the organization. "In recent months, the organization has experienced a remarkable increase in phone calls and emails concerning the intensification and spread of hate speech and hate crimes stemming from the alt-right movement in the United States."

Donations can made here.

Watch a video below for more information about the organization. And take a look at a clip with Picciolini engaging white nationalist Richard Spencer, excerpted from the upcoming documentary Angry White Men: Healing From Hate.