The 1998 film American History X, directed by Tony Kaye, delves into issues of race, class, gender and ethnicity as it confronts us with the story of the Vinyard sons Derek and Danny. Reeling from the shooting of their father at the hands of a black gangster, Derek and Danny become heavily involved in a neo-Nazi gang. The movie sheds light on racial tensions and relationships both in everyday Los Angeles and in prison, which stabilize the concepts of race and ethnicity, as they rooted in stereotypes that filmgoers can easily pick out and understand.
Derek finds himself easily blaming blacks and other people of color for the problems he faces, as well as what he perceives is happening to white Americans in general. “We're so hung up on this …show more content…
The other white inmates in the Aryan Brotherhood associate with the Mexicans and help run drugs inside the prison (American History X). Derek rejects them and their protection because of their hypocrisy on race relations. For this snub, Derek is brutally raped by the Aryan Brotherhood. His rape is feminizing and degrading as these men use their bodies as a source of power and violence over him. Prison rape reinforced the masculinity of the Aryan Brotherhood members who were disrespected by Derek and the rape was designed as a weapon to put him back in his place. This is the turning point for Derek as he learns what it is to feel degraded and humiliated. His friendship with Lamont, a black man serving six years for his crime of assaulting a police officer was nowhere near the brutality and hatred of Derek’s crime, a sentence of only three years for what was murder (American History X). This aspect of the narrative informs the audience about suburban and urban environments and their police surveillance as well as ideas of what a criminal looks like (Muhammad, 75-76). This friendship along with the outside partnership of Mr. Sweeney helps subvert the idea of black criminality while also helping to show how Derek is protected from future bodily harm from other inmates due to Lamont’s help (Muhammad,
Derek finds himself easily blaming blacks and other people of color for the problems he faces, as well as what he perceives is happening to white Americans in general. “We're so hung up on this …show more content…
The other white inmates in the Aryan Brotherhood associate with the Mexicans and help run drugs inside the prison (American History X). Derek rejects them and their protection because of their hypocrisy on race relations. For this snub, Derek is brutally raped by the Aryan Brotherhood. His rape is feminizing and degrading as these men use their bodies as a source of power and violence over him. Prison rape reinforced the masculinity of the Aryan Brotherhood members who were disrespected by Derek and the rape was designed as a weapon to put him back in his place. This is the turning point for Derek as he learns what it is to feel degraded and humiliated. His friendship with Lamont, a black man serving six years for his crime of assaulting a police officer was nowhere near the brutality and hatred of Derek’s crime, a sentence of only three years for what was murder (American History X). This aspect of the narrative informs the audience about suburban and urban environments and their police surveillance as well as ideas of what a criminal looks like (Muhammad, 75-76). This friendship along with the outside partnership of Mr. Sweeney helps subvert the idea of black criminality while also helping to show how Derek is protected from future bodily harm from other inmates due to Lamont’s help (Muhammad,