American History X is a really powerful movie that fits right in with the topics for this class. I feel this movie related to Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's definition of racism in "Color-Blind Racism." He states that "racism is, more than anything else, a matter of group power; it is about a dominant group (whites) striving to maintain its systemic advantages and minorities fighting to subvert the racial status quo." So he feels that racism is just white people trying to keep their white privilege by being discriminatory against other races. I feel that this is exactly what the Derrick and his friends believe in all of the flashbacks and it is exactly what they are doing. This is strongly shown in the scene where Derrick gives a speech and then they trash the convenience store which is run by an asian.
This film conveyed many strong emotions and worked really well in relation to this class. I found Derrick's time in prison to be the most interesting part of the story. To see how he went about changing his beliefs and that he learned what is really important was a very strong point of the film. I think that this is an excellent movie and it is also really important.
Ryan Adams
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