( THE ARTICLE INCLUDES SPOILER!!! )
American History X is basically a movie that portrays racism: the causes and the effects of it. With these aspects, the audience’s mind starts to shake and at the end, they see the huge reality in society. This happened to me when I watched the film even I am already an anti-racist because its scenes are extremely effective, clear and we don’t see such things in real life with our own eyes.
In the movie, the major character, Derek, becomes a racist comes from his racist family, especially from his father. When his father killed by a non-white, Derek's hatred for black people increases and it was evident in the movie that discrimination begins more powerful after that point. Derek becomes a neo-nazi and with his group, they are against the whole black people. They are tattooed, their houses and rooms are full of with their ideology. Also, they always attack to non-whites and it reflects directly the hatred.
However, Derek’s and (his younger brother) Danny’s ideology exists more psychological than others because their ideology exists after learning it from their father figures. The psychological hatred and violence in Derek’s mind are due to the false charges that introduced to him through his father after he (the father) killed. Danny’s ideology against blacks introduced to him through his brother’s hatred. So basically, there is a transition in ideology from father figures or role model to the children.
Derek is a well-educated person. If his father had not to be killed by a non-white, he would not have become a racist, even his father’s accusations to him. That is to say, the father’s death is the most evident event that creates hatred and violence in his mind because, after his father’s death, he begins to show violent acts to them. He does what they did to his father in his mind and in his deeper sides. Derek thinks unconsciously that it is the right thing. As far as I am concerned, his ideology against blacks or discrimination happened in the movie unconsciously because he learned these from his father and from his father’s death.
Derek, as a neo-nazi, when three non-whites come to steal his car, he kills two of them in an extremely cruel way and I think he consciously takes the revenge of father’s death in that scene. However, his frustration led to him harsh circumstances. After he is imprisoned, the turning point in his life begins to start slowly because he sees the reality of racism and violence. He even becomes friend with a black person because of that person’s friendly and truthful behaviors or favors. The scenes with his black friend always remind me the equality and humanity. These scenes are the only funny and happy scenes in the movie and they demonstrate racist, violent, unequal historical facts as absolute nonsense.
Danny is also an educated teenager who studies in high school and follows his brother’s ideology. He reads books about Nazis and we learn that his favorite book is Adolf Hitler’s "Mein Kampf" because when his teacher gives him homework about politics, he uses this book. So, Danny’s role model is Derek and he lives like his brother. However, when his brother goes out of prison and tells him the whole reality, it makes sense in his mind because these are the words from his role model. While his role model is a killer, Danny himself is killed by a black child because of the same hatred. In the ending scene, I see the same cause which is the loss of a person because of the hatred. It is the same thing because, in the end, the only thing is always death or loss whoever dies. OR DIES FOR WHATEVER.
