American History X-tra Credit

American History X was a great movie about a personal struggle with racism and prejudice that engulfs a family. The story is about two Brothers Derek and Danny, Danny looks up to his brother who is a white supremacist. When Derek is sent to jail for a brutal murder of two black men; Danny starts to follow in his brothers footsteps. After his release from prison Danny learns of his brother’s new mentality and sees the error in his ways. In jail Derek finds out that his life is not so black and white but rather grey. He befriends a black man and insults other white supremacists trying to find his identity. Unfortunately Danny’s transformation is cut short because he is gunned down in school by a black student. I feel this movie is a great learning tool that shows not everything is cut and dry.

Pem Davidson Buck’s essay Constructing Race, Creating White Privilege relates well to the movie. Buck comments on the elite white action to solidify their power by creating “White Privilege” that allowed white people to be proud to be white. She also comments on the economic conditions that contribute to white privilege. Two scenes in the movie that stand out and support Buck’s ideas are the basketball game and the raid on the grocery store. Before the flashback of the basketball game Danny comments on his brother’s ability to make you feel proud to be white again. The game is between the whites and the black and Derek makes a bet that whoever looses is not able to return to the courts ever. The white people win and you would think that they just won the NBA championships everyone was so excited. It allowed them to feel superior and good about themselves because they were better than the blacks. The other scene that relates well to Buck’s essay was the attack on the grocery store. Set as another flashback Derek starts by rallying a few other skin heads in front of the store. He comments on how a white person used to own the store and hire white people to work for him, but because of the economic conditions had to close the store. A foreigner re-opens the store and he suggests that he hire low wage illegal immigrants rather than white people. They ransack the store destroying it and torturing the workers inside. The constant need to build up whiteness and diminish non-whites was the basis for both scenes showing the true power of “White Privilege”.