One of the topics discussed at length in the college course Human & Intercultural Relations at New Jersey City University is hate crime. A particularly fascinating group of racists, Neo-Nazi Skinheads, exemplify this type of criminal activity. Some of their despicable acts are vividly demonstrated in the motion picture, American History X. This movie sends a serious message – hate and violence is (presumably) a never-ending cycle throughout varying racial cliques.
American History X is narrated by the voice of Danny Vinyard, played by Edward Furlong. Danny is the younger brother of Derek Vinyard, played by Edward Norton, protégé of the leader of the Venice Beach Skinheads. Movie watchers discover that the narrator’s voice is actually that of a (now) deceased Danny Vinyard; he recounts the events leading up to his execution-style murder, inside the walls of his Venice Beach high school, by a Crips gang initiate.
During the opening scene of American History X, Danny is reprimanded by his black, high school principal, Dr. Robert Sweeney, played by Avery Brooks, for submission of his report entitled “My Mein Kampf”; it portrays Adolf Hitler as a hero for civil rights. Danny’s paper is assigned by his Jewish history teacher; students were asked to report “on any book that related to the struggle for civil rights” (American).
The main point of American History X is that hate begets hate, and this premise is emphasized best by the movie’s conclusion – Derek Vinyard reforms himself and his brother, although it is too late for Danny. The unfortunate irony of the movie is revealed – for every one or two people leaving the gang life, a new gangbanger is initiated.
American History X is actually the ordained title of Danny Vinyard’s revised report as assigned by Sweeney. The new title is the opposite of Danny’s original report on Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and its implementation accomplishes the greatest irony of X – i.e. Mein Kampf, emphasizing the advancement of the Aryan nation is a struggle and “means for improving a species' health and power of resistance and, therefore, a cause of its higher development” is opposite Malcolm X’s revelation that “the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood … is practiced by people of all colors and races” (Adolf, Siddiqui) .
One of the enlightening discoveries of the movie is the origin of racism in tightly-knit families. The prejudices of Danny and Derek Vinyard are (apparently) inherited from their father, a firefighter killed while on duty in a section of Venice Beach, California, highly populated by gangbangers; he becomes a victim of gang violence. (American)
In an article taken from Race, Class, and Gender in the United States titled “On L.I., Raid Stirs Dispute Over Influx Of Immigrants” by Bruce Lambert, the after effects of a police raid on a Brookhaven, New York single family home – filled with (up to) 64 Mexican immigrants – and subsequent arrest of the building’s homeowner are discussed at length. (Rothenberg)
According to the president of the Greater Farmingville Community Association (the homeowner’s group that includes Brookhaven, New York), Ray Wysolmierski, the influx of Mexican immigrants “is an invasion and occupation” (Rothenberg, 312). An advocate for Illegal immigrants, Rev. Allan B. Ramirez, argues that the problem of overcrowding in Farmingville, New York homes “has reignited the whole issue of hatred for immigrants”. Wysolmierski’s sentiments are not all that dissimilar from the views of the Venice Beach Skinheads in American History X.
During one of many vile scenes, several unorganized skinheads unite under Derek Vinyard after a passionate anti-immigrant monologue. Vinyard attributes his home region’s immigration problem to a lax INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service, policy on criminal aliens and poor border security. (U.S.) Derek inspires this small, leaderless band of white-power racists to ransack a Korean owned grocery store for its recent firing of white American employees in favor of cheaper, Mexican “border jumpers” (American). Vinyard incites the young men and women of the group to join the “battlefield” instead of “[standing] on the sidelines”, and they vandalize Archie’s Ranch Market and victimize its workers.
One question that movie watchers may ask after experiencing American History X - where was the screening / security over the black kid who (seemingly undetected) carries a loaded weapon into his high school and shoots Danny Vinyard? Perhaps it is mere coincidence that no white-power violence is shown within the school (led by a black principal), yet Crips gangbangers have no trouble infiltrating school grounds. For whatever reason, director, Tony Kaye seemingly wants viewers to pay attention to the movie’s central message – hate is a vicious, never-ending cycle; the only way to stop hate (perhaps most difficult) is to prevent it from starting; the spread of hate is easy, and it is virtually done all on its own.
Works Cited
Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf. Hanover College. Web. 10 December 2009. <http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111hitler.html>.
American History X. Dir. Tony Kaye. Perf. Edward Norton, Edward Furlong. New Line Cinema, 1998. Film.
Rothenberg, Paula S.. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New York: Worth, 2007. Print.
Siddiqui, Yusuf. Colorado State University. Web. 10 December 2009. <http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/MSA/find_more/m_x.html>.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 09/12/2009. Web. 10 December 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment