American History X: Hatred at it's worst

American History X is a powerful movie that portrayed the harsh realities of racism and the prejudices, stereotypes and injustices toward blacks and other minorities by white supremacists. The movie shadows the life of a teenager named Danny who looks up to his older brother Derek who is a Neo-Nazi and the leader of a skin head gang. Because of his involvement in a murder which was a hate crime against a black man who attempted to break into his home he was sent to jail. Danny and Derek had a very close brotherly relationship and Derek cared for and looked out for his brother very much. So much that once he found out that his younger brother had begun to follow in his footsteps after his departure to prison, he started to change his life and his views. Another reason for Derek changing his ways was a result of another inmate who he became friends with helped him gain a new perspective about his views of blacks and white supremacy. Derek began to realize that there are people in the world with good qualities who were not white and then on he abandoned those negative views to embrace more positive ones. He began to realize that hatred was the main reason he landed in prison. There was a pivotal moment in the movie that briefly explained a big part of why Derek had negative views of African Americans. Derek’s father was killed and that is one of the reasons Derek’s hatred for African Americans was shaped. This reminds me of an excerpt from Norman A. Naimarks book Fires of Hatred that stated that “the chief architect of the genocide, who was gunned down on the streets of Berlin in 1921 by Armenian nationalist” (Naimark, 57). This coincides with the movies story because of the way that Derek’s father was killed, the book referred to when the chief died, the Nazi’s hatred of the Armenians grew the way Derek’s hatred grew against blacks. Also, the Neo-Nazis hated blacks, Jews, Hispanics and any race other than Whites, similarly Nazis hated the Jews because they were a “threat” to their land and their supremacy. They also shared the beliefs that the negative feelings they had against other races were reason enough to kill them and annihilate as many of them as possible. The violence and aggression shown in the film truthfully portrayed the types of things that actually occurred as a result of the beliefs of Nazis and Neo-Nazis. This movie shined a light on the negative side of race relations. Due to racism and stereotypes, minorities and whites have a hard time getting along with one another. Different races, especially minorities have a long history of being portrayed as less than human and unfortunately this has long been the attitude of our culture. Much like during the Nazi era this movie has portrayed the pure hatred and severe brutality displayed toward minority individuals because e of the belief or white supremacy.