"Erasing Hate"

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It's a documentary that will air on MSNBC on Sunday from 9-10 pm.

Here's info about the documentary from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SLPC):

For years, Bryon Widner thrived on hate as a violent skinhead – a razor-carrying "enforcer" who helped organize other racist gangs around the country. His hate was literally etched on his face in the form of tattoos with racist and violent themes.

But with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center – the nation's leading monitor of hate and extremist activity – Widner left the white power movement and endured nearly two years of excruciating laser treatments to remove the tell-tale tattoos so that he could start a new life with his wife and children.


On Sunday night, his story will be told in "Erasing Hate," which airs at 9 p.m. EDT on MSNBC. The one-hour documentary recounts Widner's life within the white power movement, the decision that led him and his wife to leave it, and the procedures he received.

"This is a powerful story of human redemption," said Joe Roy, the SPLC's chief investigator, whose meeting with Widner led to the removal of his tattoos and, ultimately, the documentary. "Bryon, by his own admission, did horrible things in his life. But he made the decision to reject racism and leave behind his life of hate and violence. We see so many people in our work who have gotten caught up in the hate movement, usually when they're young. What we hope is that Bryon's story will inspire others to change."

More from the SPLC Hatewatch Blog:

It’s hard enough trying to overcome a history of violence and race hatred for a new life of redemption and purpose. Imagine trying to do so with the evidence of your evil past etched indelibly on your face in the form of tattoos proclaiming racist and violent themes.

After spending 16 years as a vicious brawler and razor-carrying enforcer for white-power skinhead gangs operating in Indiana and Ohio, Bryon Widner (above) became a husband and father – and realized he didn’t want to raise his family in the hostile culture of white supremacy and violent lawlessness he once embraced and promoted. But the co-founder of the Vinlanders Social Club skinhead gang – at one time one of the largest and most notorious of the nation’s skinhead groups – knew that his marked face would forever frustrate his efforts to rejoin the respectable world.

(snip)



It’s hard to overstate the difficulty of leaving a group like the Vinlanders, who in their prime were considered among the most violent of the skinhead crews. Widner around 2001 joined the Outlaw Hammerskins, a more-violent faction that had broken away from the dominant Hammerskins in 1999. Infighting eventually drove Widner and five allies to leave the slowly disintegrating Outlaw Hammerskins in 2003 and form the Hoosier State Hammerskins, which later united with an affiliate, the Ohio State Hammerskins, to form the Vinlanders Social Club.

“The Vinlanders were made up of people who were too extreme for the rest of the movement,” said Joe Roy, the SPLC’s chief investigator, who initially made contact with the newly penitent Widner and narrates portions of the documentary. “All skinheads are violent, but they were up there at the top.”

Sounds fascinating.