Emily Tomkins
Soc 361
American History X
Blog assignment 4
What is There to Understand
American History X takes place in the mid 1990’s that address
issues, with racism, colorblindness racism, and class statuses within our
society. The main character, Edward Norton plays a young man by the name Derek
who just recently was released from prison who murdered two African American
men that he had problems with before. His younger brother Danny actually
witnesses him murdering the two men in the front of his house. This event marks
a major life change for not only Derek, but for Danny as well. Derek was
involved with a white supremacist group that he joined after his father had
died as a fireman during his job. He blamed minorities for that event because
he died in a minority neighborhood. He truly cared for his father, but he was
not perfect.
I think a powerful scene is when the family was sitting at the
dinner table and his father starts to talk about Affirmative Action where he
basically was saying minorities were taking away jobs from hard working
Americans. The issue that the father was
making is an example of how colorblindness is affecting society in all sorts of
ways, and when people reinforce the stereotypes it creates more of the social
divide among races in society. Affirmative Action does benefit society and it
is necessary to have Affirmative Action because the fact is that racism in
society is still an issue. Affirmative
action is not merely a corrective for past imbalance but also a way of ensuring
that the American Dream is available to
(http://ideas.time.com/2012/10/12/why-we-still-need-affirmative-action/).
Affirmative Action does help people have the same advantages for not only
careers, but for an education. It makes
me think of how people can be intelligent but under fundamental level that they
cannot understand this notion of colorblindness. Affirmative Action does help
people have more of a chance to be an equal level with white Americans. Many
monitories still do not have chance to obtain a job, despite the same or better
qualifications comparing them to a white person; most likely the white person
will get the job. Despite several decades of Affirmative Action, the action,
the black unemployment rate remains rate remains double the white unemployment
rate, over 13% vs. under 7% (http://ideas.time.com/2012/10/12/why-we-still-need-affirmative-action/).
People believe in these stereotypes of others
and think that their thinking is perfectly rational to generalize a group of
people. In psychology, an unethical bias is to generalize statistical evidence
and many people ignore the statistical evidence of how the employment and
unemployment rate for minorities is still not up to par with white Americans.
After Derek was ganged raped by a white supremacist group
awhile in prison he befriended a black inmate, Lemont, who truly helped him
realize reasons of how racism in society affects people and the justice system.
Lemont had told Derek that he received six years for stealing a television from
a store, and accidently drops the television on a police officer’s foot. The
officer had lied and said that Lemont had done that on purpose which is assault.
Derek first realize that the difference
in sentences among the races. He only got three years for his hate crime. Danny
was following in Derek’s footsteps when he started to hang out with his old
Neo-Nazi gang, but after his release from prison it was important for Derek to
not have his brother not follow his steps. Dr.
Bob Sweeney had warned Derek that Danny was getting involved with the
Neo-Nazi gang.
It’s reminds me of a
cycle because once someone is exposed to hate, you see it, you feel it, and you
think hate. A example can be with the elections with President Obama because
racism is a problem presently. In 2012, when
President Barack Obama was being elected, a survey was being conducted about
anti black sentiments which jumped to 56% during his election (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/10/27/poll-black-prejudice-america/1662067/).
Despite the fact, that the year is 2014 people still believe in this concept of
racism towards other races and is showing that racism is still a problem and
continues to be one in society. A
highlight in 2011 of hate crimes the majority of them were race related
In the movie, it has a perspective of someone who is racist
and who realizes his own faults then he tries to better himself but still has
to face results of his actions due to racism and his prejudices from Danny’s
death.
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