Name: Sookie Lee

Social Justice Group: Cults and Online Radicalization

Date of Fieldwork: January 13th, 2023

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s): Kalil Oldham, LREI Director of Equity and Communication

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did, and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?

We walked down to Kalil Oldham’s office on Friday and exited for our first interview for our Social Justice Project. We sat down and jumped right in.

Kalil talked to us about the communities affected by white victimization and how we have to protect those communities within LREI from being influenced and manipulated. He talked specifically about, insecure, young, white boys who feel as though they are misunderstood. How these hate groups draw them in through the internet and told us to ask around about the psychology of how those young boys are so easily manipulated.

He touched on the subject of how he got into his work and gave us a great resource “The Southern Poverty Law Center” to reach out to about the spread of hate groups in the U.S. and how we can stop it.

The interview was a great way to lead into all of our others to come and I learned a lot about our topic!