American History X, or How I watched Edward Norton be a skinhead.

American History X is a movie that is entirely based on race relations. Needless to say, ever since I saw it the first time, I expected Edward Norton to be brutally assaulting minorities and throwing out slurs in just about every other movie he was in. The movie takes place in the 90's, and covers hatred in a way that left many people on the edge of their seat.

Edward Norton plays Derek, a white supremacist that stems from the death of his father, who was shot by a drug dealer. Derek grows up and decides it might be cool to start a white supremacist gang! What a thing to do! Derek becomes so good at the whole racism thing, that he goes ahead and shoots two guys that are trying to break into his car. He makes number three bite the curb, and then stomps his head. Now, this is just straight up hate right out of Naimark. Naimark documents cases of senseless murder, rape, and pillaging. Given Derek's love for minorities, he would have fit right in with Naimark's other villians. Sure, he has cause for his hate, but not towards an entire group of people, just the one.

Over time, Derek has some great (read awful) experiences in prison and decides to change his ways because his brother is following in his footsteps. I, personally, thought this was a great thing to add to the movie, Derek becoming a person instead of walking hatred. It shows how a person can align themselves with people that are also hate driven, and if they start to stray from the path the haters deem wrong, they'll focus their hate on them just like they would anyone else. To a person filled with hate to that degree, theres only black and white. There is a line, and its very thing and very cross-able. We see this go on through the entire movie, and of course, people die because of hate.

Theres something to be learned from this movie, and it goes right along with Naimark. People will hate senselessly. One person can do something wrong, and an entire race gets the flak for it. Whats worse, is that these things happen in the world. Skinhead gangs are still a part of the world, and they still continue to do what happens in this movie, and worse. People are driven by one wrong deed, and then go get swastikas tattooed on them and then just start mindlessly beating people they hate, and ruining lives. Don't let one bad apple drive you to become a white-supremacist.