Dark Days in America

Though American society as a whole has come a long way since the dark days of slavery and segregation, it is a bit discouraging to know that the beliefs behind such acts still live on today. Whether in the mind of an adult who has not has not accepted how times have changed, or a child who's parents have planted the seed of hate toward another people in his early years, the corrupt idea that one human being is superior to another due to his race is one that only does harm to humanity as a whole. Set in contemporary times, "American History X" tells the story of how two young brothers, who start along the same path, develop into different people because of how open they allow their minds to be, and how hatred and racism can ruin a person and those they love.

One of the most powerful elements of the film is how brutal and overwhelmingly vivid some of the scenes are. From the beginning, the viewer's attention is captured when we see Danny, the protagonist , being awoken after hearing what sounded to be someone breaking into his home. Realizing that there were three black men attempting to steal his brother Derek's car, he runs to his room and wakes him up. After hearing what was going on, Derek quickly got up, grabbed his pistol, ran outside and shot two of the men, killing one and severely wounding the second. The third man managed to escape. Filled with rage and hate, Derek forces the wounded man to place his mouth over the curve, stomping on his head after he had complied. Though the average person's respond would be to call for help in such a situation, Derek's first impulse was to take justice in to his own hands. He got out of bed that night with the intention to kill. He did not care so much that his property was being violated. All that mattered to him was that he had a valid excuse to bring harm to an African American. His hate had blinded him, hindering his self-control, and worst of all, setting an example for his younger brother, Danny, that he would later wish he could take back.

As the film develops, we get to learn more about Derek and the type of person he is. We learn that, unlike many of the skin-heads around him, he is intelligent and outgoing. Derek is a man amongst boys. He is a great leader, with the ability to speak in public, to convince, and use what seems to be valid reasoning as to why minorities should be hated and banished. It is this charismatic personality of his that allows him to recruit so many of the youth in the area, brainwashing one by one, instilling beliefs of an America dominated by the ideals of white supremacy. As portrayed in one of the scenes, Derek get a group of young men to vandalized a local market owned and maintained by immigrants. The boys, seemingly without a conscience, go in and destroy the place, even beating some of the employees. Though the workers had done them no wrong, the sole belief that they deserved it because they were not born in America, an idea introduced to them by Derek, is enough to drive such a hateful act. In essence, such closed-minded beliefs wastes a lives. In this case, Derek demonstrates that he has a trait of leadership that he could be using to improve the world he believes is being infected by minorities. What he fails to comprehend is that it is he who is the one doing the disservice to mankind. Instead of using this "gift" and charisma for good he is not only damaging his own life, but the life of the young men he has influenced, and the community as a whole as well.

One of the more complex points that "American History X" tried to get across was that there are always two sides to a story. Though the film is mainly focused on the hate crimes committed by a neo-Nazi group, it also makes an effort to show that the hate experienced by Danny and Derek had some deep roots. For example, Danny, the younger brother witnesses a group of black student assault white student after he had told the teacher that one of the black student was cheating on the test. To Danny this seemed like a declaration of war because all he saw was black and white. To him, there was no other reason. Conflict between races