Derek's racist beliefs are cemented, and became the springboard to his activism and leadership of the skinheads when his father is killed by a black man, fighting a fire in a crack house in an inner-city neighborhood. When two young African-Americans try to steal his car, Derek is determined that he, unlike his beloved father, will emerge the winner. The film makes it clear that Derek has been waiting for this to happen. Again, the film does not excuse the theft of his vehicle, but indicates that the world is filled with potential justifications for racism, and Derek is looking for such 'reasons' to engage in hateful action. Derek is both a product of his environment and his simmering male adolescent rage.
Derek sent to prison for three years. His younger brother tries to assume Derek's role by harassing immigrants and other non-whites. He also finds himself, like Derek, of being in the uncomfortable position of being taught by an articulate, charismatic, and caring African-American history teacher in high school. This individual provides the moral center of the film, and explains the reason for its title: only by gaining a sense of history and looking beyond one's immediate ethnic enclave and past can an individual gain a sense of perspective upon the world.
Prison humbles and humanizes Derek. Although Derek tries to hold fast to his white supremacist ways, this proves difficult, given...
After being assigned to laundry duty, he must learn to work with African-Americans. He leaves prison resolved to begin a new life, and filled with a new sense of responsibility to set his brother Danny 'straight.' "I kept asking myself all the time, how did I buy into this shit? It was because I was pissed off, and nothing I ever did ever took that feeling away. I killed two guys, Danny, I killed them. And it didn't make me feel any different. It just got me more lost and I'm tired of being pissed off, Danny. I'm just tired of it."
The film is not told chronologically. To show the contrast between Derek's former life and his new way of looking at the world, the film's flashbacks are in black-and-white, to symbolize the simplicity of Derek's old ideology, while the present is shot in color. Although the film's themes are dark, American History X suggests that there is always the prospect of hope and redemption for all individuals, no matter what their personal history, and no matter how fallen. Derek, as a white supremacist, was unforgiving about his father's death. After prison, he emerges a new man, forgiving of others and able to embrace the forgiveness of the world, and to be a positive influence upon the life of his younger brother.
Work Cited
American History X. Directed by Tony Kaye. 1998.
