American History X

American History X is a story unfolds by Danny the young brother of Derek who involves in neo-Nazi actions in late 1980s and early 1990s in Los Angles. Driving by his hate to minority groups, Derek kills two blacks and wounding another in brutal way while they are trying to steal his car. As result Derek sentenced to three years in the state prison where he undergoes a transformation in terms of thoughts and believes to leave as changed man.

The movie is trying to deal with racism and its distractive impact on the society. Derek's father racism thoughts and his violence death lead Derek to engage in hate crimes organization. The U.S Department of Justice defines hate crime as “the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability.” Data from National Crime Prevention Council says people like Derek and his gang commit hate crimes for following reasons;

• They are ignorant about people who are different from themselves (and terrified of the difference).
• They need to be able to look down on others in order to compensate for their own low self-esteem.
• They have been brutalized themselves (though not by their victims) and therefore see brutalizing others as fair game.

We can say that Derek was committing hate crimes because of the third reason. Derek was seeking revenge for his father death. Moreover, Derek was overwhelmed by anger and he chose to direct it towards minorities. This anger was portrayed in more than a scene. For example; the dinnertime discussion about Rodney King incident ended up with dramatic violence when Derek started attacking his sister who share her mother and guest their liberal opinion.

Shallow values do not live for a long time and the mask has to fall down someday. Values and believes have built on frail foundation fall down at the first real test. IN the prison Derek saw how his neo-Nazi brotherhood dealing with eachother and how they are dealing with colors people. They are buying drugs from Mexican gang and deal it to their own white people. Derek was not happy about that and he walked away but, wasn't that simple. This action made the gang angry at him; the gang rape him on the shower room on the guard watch.

The movie's massage is calling people who are adapting or may adapt racism to rethink before they go farther and do something they will regret. The movie is represents Derek as example of how a man could change. In prison, as Derek is walking away from the gang brotherhood he is hooking up with black inmate, Lamont. Lamont, who was sentenced to six years because he stole a TV, has a big influence on Derek transformation. Thought at the beginning Derek scorn Lamont, but after while he realized that Lamont is his only true friend. Moreover, Derek was sure that his going to be attacked by blacks and it was just a matter of time before that happens. Yet, the only harm he got while he is in prison was not from blacks, it was from his neo-Nazi brotherhood.

Though Derek has changed forever, he could not just walk away from his past and take break. There are two issues he must take care of right after he got out of the prison. First issue his brother Danny, Danny was following his big brother steps. He become skin headed, adapting Nazi thoughts and have tendency to use violence against minorities. Second issue was his relationship with neo-Nazi organization. He tried to cut his relationship with all his old brotherhood and send clear massage to his organization mentor to say away from Denny.

Derek succeeded convincing his brother to get racism out of his mind and change his attitude, but he could not save him. In addition, he cut his relationship with everyone related to his dark past yet, they won't let him live in peace. The price that Derek has to pay to learn this lesson was not cheap. He lost his brother and causing troubles not only for himself, but also for his family members.