"Arno Michaelis, a former racist who’s now an anti-extremism activist, was a member... in the late 1980s and early ’90s... Hammerskin Nation, whose website states, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children.” Michaelis said recruiters for extremist groups target white people — often working class and ex-military — who believe they’ve been victimized and short-changed by society. “So that’s what we would do,” he said, “is look for ways that people were suffering, look for whatever is wrong in their life, and then we would try to spin that problem into our narrative and invite them in as a means to addressing that problem.” This fear of becoming a minority is one commonly shared among far-right extremists, regardless of otherwise differing ideologies. Michaelis said the reinforcement of this fear is key to the radicalization process. “All white-power ideology stems from the idea that white people are oppressed,” he said. “And therefore anything goes in order to fight this oppression, the same way that anyone else who felt oppressed would justify fighting against what they see as their oppressors.” He said it was the people who treated him with undeserved kindness that ultimately motivated him to reject racism."