APOSTOL, ALVA MAIDY A.

CATHWOR DGE6

AMERICAN HISTORY X

1. Derek Vinyard needs was to find his real identity, his purpose in life as a brother, son and being a part of a society that he lives in. His typical material needs is to seek for revenge to black men due to misconception of having unfair and inequality/ unfavorable treatment of the government to the whites between black people. He needs to seek for truth and realize that his own prejudice and having a racial hatred wont help him and get any benefits in his life.

2. Derek is sentenced to three years in prison, charged with voluntary manslaughter. He teams up with the Aryan's in prison for protection but becomes disillusioned when they do drug business with minority groups. While in prison, Derek meets his black inmate name Lamont whom he is paired for folding laundry. Lamont is friendly and possesses a sharp sense of humor. At the first, Derek is always silent and avoids any conversation with Lamont. Even though always being ignored, Lamont is kind enough to give Derek some friendly advice about how to conduct himself in prison. Lamont has tried to warn Derek that he should be careful with the other prisoners especially the black prisoners. Although he originally scorns Lamont, he gradually warms to him and after the rape, he sees that Lamont is his only friend and abandons the gang. Just before Derek is released on parole, largely due to his former Honors English teacher Dr. Sweeney vouching for him, he realizes that only through Lamont's intervention did the black prison gangs leave him unharmed. Here we see the major transition of Derek's belief system, the central side of this film.

3. Edward Norton as Derek Vinyard, the main protagonist of the film. Derek Vinyard, a charismatic and well-educated man who is drawn into the World of racial hatred. He described as muscle man, bald headed, with a large Nazi tattooed over his chest and full of confidence. Those characteristics are mark of the Skinhead member, the white power on Venice Beach which leads by Cameron Alexander. He is an extremely bright and charismatic student - however he is drawn into the neo-Nazi underground after his father, a firefighter, is shot and killed by a black drug dealer whilst fighting a fire at a drug den.

The story tells how Derek has drawn into racial hatred after his father was murdered by black drug dealers while doing tire tighter job. Since his father killed, the motivation on Derek appears and pushes him into a racist. Derek blames the other races for murdering his father and judges that every problem which means crime on the Venice Beach happened because of racial hatred. Derek had already been influenced by his fathers critical views on black culture and affirmative action - and so shocked was he by his father death he launched a tirade of racist language on a TV channel covering the event

4. Derek is a former neo-Nazi skinhead who in the past was very brutal. Derek on this movie is a racist who blames the black for his father death and even dare to murder the black criminal. He sees all the blacks are same and keeps the hatred to them. Derek and Danny are part of the Skinhead gang which is led by Cameron Alexander. As the Skinhead, Derek obeys all of Cameron orders and does anything for him including some criminal action to minorities without realizes that he used by Cameron as a puppet. The first shows Derek leading his gang on a rampage through a Korean-owned grocery store, terrorizing a black female clerk in a manner

somehow more unsettling than the physical assaults on Mexican-American employees. The second shows us the reason for Derek's incarceration -- the murder of two black carjackers, in a moment more shocking than you might think movies can be any more. After serve three years in the prison, Derek begins to open his eyes and realizes he has blinded by his hatred. As a result of egregious experiences while in prison he changes from a racist into someone who anti-racist and tries to save his brother Daniel Danny from Cameron and the Skinhead gang influence.

5. It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. - Audre Lorde "We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race." - Kofi Annan

6. Derek Vinyard, the main character, is the individual who experiences tough times in order to find his true identity. After Derek arrested and sentenced for 3 year in prison for his murder action, he unexpectedly realizes his racial hatred was wrong after got sodomized and tortured by the whites prisoners. Derek who keeps his hatred to the blacks was confused with his perspective. He begins doubt with his own prejudicial towards the blacks after the incident in prison otherwise he got sympathy from some blacks like Dr. Sweeney or Lamont his black inmate friend. Derek realized that he there arent any benefits that he got from his prejudicial and racism hatred. He chooses accept the truth that racism was wrong.