Why hate?

American History X is about David McKenna telling a story about Derek Vinyard, a young "neo-Nazi", who lives in Venice Beach, California.  It's about Derek's hatred he had against blacks, and how he has passed on to his little brother. Throughout the movie it shows racial injustices, prejudices and stereotypes. In the book “Fires of Hatred” By Norman M. Naimark he states “the chief architect of the genocide, who was gunned down on the streets of Berlin in 1921 by an Armenian nationalist”(Naimark 57).This relates to the movie because it is after Derek's father was killed, that his anger grew towards African Americans. Similarly, it is when the chief died, that the Nazi’s hatred towards the Armenians grew as well. The pattern they both show makes you wonder if it really takes the death of someone to spark such hatred?  My answer is no.   It is just an excuse to give someone a reason to hate a group of people. In the story, Derek goes to prison after killing a black man who is trying to steal his car. He gets out of prison only to find that his little brother Danny was following his footsteps and was involved in the same group of neo-Nazi. The neo-Nazi were a group white kids that were influenced by Adolf Hitler's beliefs. They hated blacks, Jews, and any other race other than whites. “Jews posed a threat of serious contagion to all healthy European nations” (Naimark 59). Naimark talks about how the Nazi’s had their reasons why Jews should be exterminated. This relates to the movie because the neo-Nazi were convinced that African Americans were a burden and they posed a threat to their society. Danny was being convinced and manipulated that all of that was true. In ways how Hitler was convincing his army of Nazi’s. Derek time in prison made him realize that we was being influenced in hating blacks for no reason and they really did mean well. Bonilla-Silva states in her book “whites live a white habits that creates and conditions their views” (Bonilla-Silva 123). In other words, whites live in their own little bubble, and that bubble influences their views.  In the beginning of the movie Derek wanted to believe what his belief's were justified. This all ties into race and ethnicity because it is a lesson about reality but also about how wrong your own reality can be.