As my knock echoed in the Goodwin home, two peeling bumper stickers sat on a car just behind me: “White Genocide.” “White, Straight and Proud. How else may I offend you?”

In past assignments, I’ve been abducted in eastern Ukraine, dodged Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and was interrogated by the secret police in Egypt. Every time I report in hostile environments, I put on emotional armor. And in a trailer home in Arkansas, I found myself doing the same.

White Nationalist Zach "Rhino" Taylor at a bonfire with his friends at his home near Petit Jean Mountain, Arkansas. David Scott Holloway

There is a wide gap between casual racism and white supremacy. I wanted to be conscious not to connect them as if they are closer than they actually are. I wanted to push aside the racial slurs and off-hand remarks by Tamera in order to pry open and analyze the path that she was on.

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Inside, Jacob’s parents — who appeared to have only loose political affiliations and beliefs — sat still, solemn and confused, as I asked about their son’s ties to white supremacist groups in the area.

As a Taiwanese-born Canadian, being non-white meant I could never be won over to their worldview, which was inherently incompatible with my very existence. This enabled me to sidestep any specific expectations of allegiance or opposition.

I found Tamera and Scott to be legitimately interested in learning more about me, where I came from, the things that I’ve seen, the places to which they would love to travel. We had long conversations about Taiwan and the Middle East, where I worked for most of my career.

Tamera brought me to a Hibachi grill, “food from y’all’s people,” as she put it. She said, “How could I be racist? I love your people’s food. And I love you to death.” I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or appreciative of Tamera’s attempt to find common ground.

Tamera was consistently worried about her son and would spend every opportunity in public speaking about Jacob. With Jacob’s arrest and the environment it created swirling around her, it didn’t feel like it would be a stretch for Tamera to buy into the ideology of the movement. But I don’t think she would have found her way there on her own.

It was the same warmth and openness Tamera showed me that enabled her to let in the ShieldWall Network and Billy Roper, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as the “uncensored voice of violent neo-Nazism.”