Jul 10, 2009 06:43 PM
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This review was already published at https://passionforcinema.com/american-history-x-the-mind-of-a-racist/ by me.
Rosa sat so Martin could walk, Martin walked so Barack could run, Barack ran so we all can fly.
The above quote has been making the rounds of the Net, ever since Barack Obama made history by becoming the first Non White person to enter the hallowed precincts of 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue, or what we commonly know as The White House. The reference here is to 2 of the most influential figures in the history of the American Civil Rights movement. Rosa Parks, the woman, who refused to vacate her seat in a racially segregated bus, in the city of Montogomery, Alabama, which in turn sparked off the Civil Rights movement, and of course Martin Luther King Jr, one of the foremost leaders in the movement that aimed at ending the discrimination of blacks. It was the tireless efforts of people like them, that today Barack Obama, could stake his claim to the US Presidency. Where riots broke out in 1900, because Teddy Roosevelt invited a black academician Booker T Washington, to the White House, to the point where a person of non White origin actually occupies the place, the US has indeed come a long way.
Or has it really? While non White people don’t endure the same kind of discrimination they did earlier, and many are a part of the mainstream, there still is a kind of hidden racism, existing in the American society. It does break out at times like in 1992, during the LA riots over the Rodney King issue, or the protests by Black citizens about discrimination in the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. The Ku Klux Klan may not exist officially, but there is no dearth of White Supremacy Neo Nazi organizations in US, that still dream of a return to an older social order. It is this latent racism that is explored in American History X, to date one of the best movies about racism and one of the most shocking.
I say shocking, because the backdrop of the movie is not some obscure red neck dominated town in the Deep South. It is the suburb of Venice Beach, near Los Angeles, in California, a state where the Non White population(Asians, Hispanics) is higher than the White population. A state having the reputation of being the most “liberal” in the US. And again Derek Vinyard( Ed Norton), is not your average Southern redneck, he in fact is well educated and is having a decent job also. Nor is it the 50’s and 60’s where segregation was rampant, it is the more contemporary 90’s, by when minorities had become a part of the American mainstream. Derek is the member of a Neo Nazi skin head group, he is idolized by his kid brother Danny( Edward Furlong), his pretty ditzy girlfriend Stacy( Fairuza Balk), and his totally hopeless, loser of a friend Seth, who just hangs around with Derek. Derek’s mother Doris, though not comfortable with her son’s ideals, is helpless, while his sister Davina, totally detests Derek’s ideas.
Derek’s hatred against the Blacks is also personal, ever since his father, a fire fighter, was shot dead by Black drug dealers, while trying to put a fire out. Derek in turn idolizes Cameron Alexander, the leader of the gang. Cameron becomes a sort of hero, for people like Derek, who are not comfortable with minorities like Blacks, Hispanics, Asians. The turning point comes when Derek is arrested by the cops after brutally killing a Black guy, who tries to steal his car. In the prison, Derek becomes disillusioned with those whom he considered as his heroes, after being abused by them. At the same time he meets a Black prisoner Lamont, who helps him out, and this makes him realize the futility of his ideology. On release from prison, Derek turns over a new leaf, however to his horror, he finds that his younger brother, Danny, is now going down the same self destructive path he had earlier gone down.
