American History X: Bonus

For extra credit, I re-watched American History X, this time from a much more critical point of view while keeping the concepts we discussed in class in mind. The entire premise of the movie relates directly to the material discussed within our course because it focuses primarily on racism. Derek (Edward Norton) is placed in prison for committing a crime as a result of his white supremicist mentality. He gives a speech in the beginning of the movie to a group of white people to rile them up against illegal immigrants. He pushes the fact that it is immigrants taking the jobs from the white people who truly deserve the jobs, "There are 2 million illegal immigrants bedding down in this state tonight," he says. "This state spent $3 billion last year on services for people who had no right to be here in the first place. Four hundred million dollars just to lock up a bunch of illegal immigrant criminals who only got into this country because the [expletive] INS decided it's not worth the effort to screen for convicted felons." This idea is based on the imbedded notion of white power. Whites deserve more because they are white, and this group intended to fight for that mentality.

White power can also be seen in the prison when Derek meets his partner who he works with in the laundry area. Derek was in there for murder, but his partner, a young, black male, was sentenced to more and stayed in longer for accidently dropping a television he had stolen. Murder versus robbery? I think it is evident which is the more grotesque of the two, yet the white male served an easier punishment. This is what McIntosh would argue as white power, the benefits people receive for being white, yet remain, usually by choice, oblivious to.

In researching the movie further, I found a great interview of the cast from a LA Times article about how the actors felt about the script. Ultimately, they all felt uncomfortable representing the material, but the irony of that is its more realistic than most of the movies they represent. America seems to be afraid of the truth, but when it comes to talking toys or big green ogres, we feel completely comfortable. The article can be found at the following website if anyone is interested: http://www.edward-norton.org/ahx/LATimes091398.html