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Co-Cultures

American History X – Essay

In life every action, good or bad, has a consequence. Our beliefs shape our identity
and our identity defines the path we take in life. American History X tells the story
of two brothers, Danny and Derek, followers of the neo-Nazis movement. The older
Brother Derek serves three years in prison for killing two black guys that were
attempting to steal his car. The time he served changed Derek’s belief, and he gets
out determined to prevent his little brother Danny, who idealizes him, to follow the
same path. Danny struggles with his own prejudices and hopes his family may rise
from the pit of hate they are all in.

When we are born we are a blank piece of paper, it’s our parents job to fill the first
lines of our lives. The person we become in life is mostly determined by the world
that surrounds us. In this particular story Danny and Derek were lead to this
downward spiral of hate, gangs, and crime by their father. He was firefighter with
strong racist beliefs and he influence Derek significantly. You are able to see a
Derek before his father’s influence, with no hate and no racism.

At an age when self-confidence can be hard to find, there’s enormous security in

following someone who will take the lead, show the way, someone who you can
rely on to tell you what to do and not to do, how to be and not to be. [CITATION
Car10 \l 12298 ]. Derek was influenced deeply by his father, who tought him that
black people were taking over white people, and how the black affirmative action
was not fair at all. Later on some African American drug dealers killed the father.
This event served as a detonator and Derek’s hates toward the black race
increased significantly.

Derek´s mother on the other hand seemed to have a soft personality and was
unable to control and help her own son. This family displays a strong masculine
environment were the man is the one in charge. The father was the head of the
family and after his dead Derek took his place. But he was in no place
psychologically to be in charge, the pain he had inside damage him too much to be
in control of anything, including his own life. Derek was filled with hate and
contempt, two very powerful and dangerous emotions.

After the father’s murder Derek found another role model, Cameron Alexander, a
white supremacist. Together they created a gang called D.O.C., whose main
purpose was to create a group to protect the white community that lived in their
neighborhood. They lived in the suburbs of Venice, California, in a once calm and
nice area, was now filled with gangs and crime. Coincidence or not it all started
when the Black and Latino community moved to the area. White kids were no able
to walk home without getting assaulted and the creation of a group to protect them
was not a completely bad idea. But the means used was a completely different
issue.
Lead by ethnocentrism, the belief that his/her culture is superior to the others, The
D.O.C. used fear to gain respect in the area. They vandalized a local supermarket;
they robbed the store and attacked their employees. This place once own by a
white man was bought by a Korean, who fired the old employees and hired mostly
Blacks and Latinos. This hate Derek felt, was not only contained to the streets of
California, his family suffered the monstrosities of his behavior. We see how a
normal family dinner turns into ragging discussion, when an outsider (Mother’s
boyfriend) expresses the family a point of view different form Derek’s. A polite
dinner turns into Screams, insults, and even choking. This is no longer about
racism, about the black community taking over the whites “righteous” place in
America, this is about anger and contempt. And accompanied by a girlfriend who
supports Derek’s erratic and hatred behavior, he becomes an unstoppable force.

But this is the story of two brothers, so what happens to Danny? As any other
teenage boy he looks up to his older brother and tries to become like him. His
father was also an important influence, but with him gone he tries to be more like
Derek than his father. After his brother gets into prison, he becomes some sort of
hero to the D.O.C.’s, and Danny joins the gang in no time.

The time prison changed everything. Derek was assigned to work with a Afro-
American man, who helped him see things differently. And after the rape in the
showers, it was the principal of the school, an African American, visits and
comforts Derek. These two events showed Derek how black people may by good
and compassionate. Generalization is not the best policy in life, a concept Derek
learned the time he served in jail. He got out a completely changed man, motivated
to help his family to get out of the hole of darkeness.

In life, only minorities are allowed to use the sympathy card. When the criminal is
white and the victim is black we assumed is racially motivated, if a black guy gets
fired, is racially motivated. But what happens when the situation is the other way
around? Society tells you, that as a majority you are not allowed to be white and
proud, it’s racist; but if you are Black and proud, Chinese and proud, or Latino and
proud, you are considered brave and courageous. Some of the concerns Derek and
his father had, were quite real, but means they took to solve the issues involved a
lot of violation to the integrity of another human being. Liberty is a broad concept
but when does my liberty end, does it ever ends? One’s liberty ends, when the
liberty of others begins.