Reflection on Racism

During the last couple weeks, in Academic Leadership, we devoutedly discussed and learned about the heavy topic of racism. We saw PowerPoint presentations, read news articles, and even watched a movie all related to racism. As hard as it may sound to learn about the levels of such an inhumane form of behavior, we actually learned that it is there and how to deal with it. Apart from learning about the horrible events in history (such as the Holocaust or Rwandan Genocide) that involved millions of deaths only because of sad hatred and power we also were enlightened on what it actually means to be racist and how to analyze it.

Pyramid representing the general levels racism is displayed at. 

The movie mentioned earlier is named American History X, by director Tony Kaye starring Edward Norton. The theme of this film is obviously racism, specifically the kind demonstrated by a group of skinheads in California. The story revolves around the life of Danny and Derek Vinyard, where Derek is the older brother who is a large figure in the local skinhead group and Danny is the little brother preparing to follow his brothers footsteps. A whole backstory is settled and throughout the movie Derek assasinates a colored man and is sent to jail, where he learns that his neo-nazi behavior has never returned anything good to him or his family. (Click here for a full sinopsis and here for a trailer)  

Official poster for American History X

Our task in this post was to answer the following question:

"What does it take for someone to move from a position of hate and racism to a position of tolerance and respect like the transformation that occurred in Derek?" 

When Derek enters the penitentiary, he quickly forms a bond with fellow neo-nazi also in jail. The group shares the same ideals of racism and display them throughout the movie. As it moves on, Derek comes to learn that some of the group members are involved in drug dealing with Mexican inmates, who supposedly are supposed to be hated and unaccepted by these skinheads. Derek slowly begins to understand that everything he believed in was nonsense, since people who had the same ideals as him literally broke the "rules" that are involved in being such kind of a person, and that everyone else in the group seemed fine with it. In addition to this event, Derek also forms a decent friendship with a colored inmate whom he begins to respect and appreciate. When he realizes he has made an "impossible friend" Derek realizes that hate was meaningless. To sum, I believe that by experiencing his beliefs being broken by comrades and the fact that he forms a relationship with a supposed enemy, Derek passes form hate to tolerance. That is what it could take to transform any truly racist person into a respectful one. 

Racism is a sad part of human nature, and definately something I want to avoid for the rest of my life time. Even with that, it is important to understand how to deal with it and learn about what its true meaning is, just like Derek did throughout his character transformation. 

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