American Politics & Pop Culture

American History X has been praised as a powerful anti-racism “must see” film. I actually believe that the film perpetuates racism that it might claim to reveal. According to B. Beck, “what could be more attention grabbing than the image of bad people trying to harm us?” (Beck 19). Who are the bad people? The people that started the gangs. Who are they? Blacks. One of the reasons the neo-Nazi gang formed is to protect themselves. Danny said, “There were no white gangs in Venice Beach prior to the organization of black groups. Venice Beach used to be a nice, quiet place to live in” (American History X). Majority of the black people are depicted in a stereotypical fashion. To name a few: the beginning of the film opens up with three black males trying to steal Derek’s vehicle, another scene shows three black kids beating up one white kid in the bathroom at school, and yet another scene, probably the prime perpetuator of racism from this film, involves a black kid shooting Danny, for no apparent reason, as he finishes urinating. Danny false into the urinal and lays there as if he is some kind of white trash. Finley said the following as he referred to blacks, “The most frequently used stereotype is that of a violent thug” (Finley 230). This film depicted just that. I viewed the ending of the film as almost justifying the white aggression towards the blacks. I felt great compassion and sympathy for Derek over his loss. If this film strived for anti-racism it should have presented different perspectives of both sides of the groups equally. The film seemed one sided in that we connect with the white people, Derek and Danny, mainly but not with the black people. There is no one black character that stays long enough through out the movie for the audience to connect with. Their, blacks, side of the story is almost concealed from us with the exception of the black man working on laundry in prison.