American History X sends a strong message in a very blunt manner. It starts off with Derek a young kid in a white supremacist group and shows his movement from racial hate to racial tolerance. He goes to prison after killing two black males, one with a curb stomp, and he is out after just three years. He is released a changed man but he comes home to see that his little brother is heading down the same wrong path that he did.
Most extreme racists are completely brainwashed to that point of view and it is extremely hard to get out of that mindset. The main character in this film changed over a three year period in a prison full of African Americans, he saw life through their eyes for the first time. It seems almost unrealistic that that type of change could even happen over such a short period of time, but this movie gave me hope that it is possible. Ignorance and racism can be beaten it will just take a long time of spreading knowledge, education is the key to a successful and peaceful world.
Derek used his new knowledge to convince his brother to leave the life of a skinhead, he gets through to him but it was just too late. His brother was gunned down in the school bathroom by a black kid for revenge. I felt Derek's pain when he heard the news of his brother's death, he was devastated. But he was happy that he at least changed the direction of his brother's life before he died. His brother died with hate being the last thing on his mind, even when he was being murdered by an African American, he too changed just like his older brother. Anyone can change with a little bit of guidance from someone that they trust.
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory will swell when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature." - Abraham Lincoln
Most extreme racists are completely brainwashed to that point of view and it is extremely hard to get out of that mindset. The main character in this film changed over a three year period in a prison full of African Americans, he saw life through their eyes for the first time. It seems almost unrealistic that that type of change could even happen over such a short period of time, but this movie gave me hope that it is possible. Ignorance and racism can be beaten it will just take a long time of spreading knowledge, education is the key to a successful and peaceful world.
Derek used his new knowledge to convince his brother to leave the life of a skinhead, he gets through to him but it was just too late. His brother was gunned down in the school bathroom by a black kid for revenge. I felt Derek's pain when he heard the news of his brother's death, he was devastated. But he was happy that he at least changed the direction of his brother's life before he died. His brother died with hate being the last thing on his mind, even when he was being murdered by an African American, he too changed just like his older brother. Anyone can change with a little bit of guidance from someone that they trust.
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory will swell when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature." - Abraham Lincoln
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