'How American Hisotry X Relates to Political Science Text Think American Government\r'

'Lisa _______________ Professor _______________ Political science 02 Due April 3, 2013 SUMMARY Ameri affirm Hi news report X was written by David McKenna and directed by Tony Kaye. feature Edward Norton as Derek Vinyard, the lead was released in 1998. The main creative thinker of the film is the social and political issues of racism. It is a story of how a family is affected by one password’s view of the history of wake roles in America, his conduct within the neo Nazi culture, and fin anyy, afterwards resigning himself to such(prenominal) a invigorationstyle collect to prison house reformation, his attempt to pull his younger brother from the similar way of violent life.Ultimately, it is a story of the cycles of hatred surrounding racism. The film is shown in non-linear narrative where events be tending(p) out of chronological order. When going endure in quantify, the audience is given black and washrag film whereas the present is portrayed in color. Danny Vi nyard, is given an assignwork forcet to write an rise on the captivity of the main char exerciseer, his older brother, Derek. The essay was to entail what take up to the incarceration and how his family was affected. The literal reflection of his essay is when the audience is shown the film presented in black and white.Also during the verbal reflection, we find out that Derek was incarcerated for the murder of 2 dreary thieves who were trying to remove the truck left to him by his late father who was killed by, non without intent of the writer, a menacing man a few age prior. With that, the storyline is set up so that we hold out why Derek and Danny gull turned to a life of neo Nazism and why Derek was given a 3 year sentence for going overboard in killing the thieves: the brothers have been affected by the misdeed of the Black culture.The essay assigned to Danny, which was due the following day, was an assignment given by Danny’s Black head after his Jewish in structor reported a questionable essay to him authorize My Mein Kampft. In the 24 hours in which the essay is cosmos written, and narrated to the viewers, we learn the entire story of the brothers’ journeys from average kids, finished neo Nazism and venture, only to learn their lesson in like manner late when Danny is fatally struck down by a former Black recipient of his subspecies hatred, essay still in hand.American recital X correlates to the discussions of the class as well as as cle atomic number 18d headsprings of the class textbook, stand for American Government. The film backs up both class discussions thus far in the semester: Khalil Muhammad’s theory on Black criminality in America in gibeition to Bryan Stevenson’s whims on the stigma of mass incarceration affiliated to the Black culture in America.The film besides touches on political issues from the text, such as: immigration, the starting amendment to The United States Constitution , and hatred-Crimes Legislation. Khalil Muhammad: The timeline of the film literally goes back 24 hours; flashes back 3 old age; and historically traces back to both 1863 and 1865 when, respectively, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed (proclaiming slaves in Confederate territory to be free forever) and when the origin Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was organized.Some may even fence in that the story goes back to the beginning of slavery in the United States colonies because those were the initiatory racist acts of early America and upon which America was formed. Khalil Muhammad, a current day Black historian, might argue that the plot of this film traces back to the moment when, in 1865, following the Civil War, European immigrants were given opportunities by the government to stray from their acts of criminality nevertheless lately freed Black people were non.Instead, as Muhammad asserts in a pecker Moyers interrogate, as well as his book, swearing of Blackness, Black people we re sent to ghetto housing to sort their criminality out on their own, whereas White European immigrants were given social welfare and job opportunities because they were, as Muhammad states, view of as â€Å"children of Americans who need our help”, barely Blacks were thought of as â€Å"naturally morally low-level and had propensity to harm people or steal”.American History X mimics this way of American political orientation when Derek preaches, â€Å"Were so hung up on this notion that we have round obligation to help the struggling Black man, you k flat. Cut him some slack until he can overcome these historical in arbiters. Its crap. I mean, Christ, Lincoln freed the slaves, like, what- one hundred thirty years ago? How long does it take to transmit your act together? ” If Derek had read Damnation of Blackness, he would check Muhammad’s theory that it has been 130 years (from the end of Civil War to the making of the film) of a race in America t hat has ontinued to be downtrodden and immure through actions such as Black Codes, diaphragm and Frisk policy, and the â€Å"invention of the criminal justice scheme as a repressive tool to keep black people in their place”. That is a hard battle to win. Derek might in addition understand how he fits into Muhammad’s theory that the European race has ideologies of an institutionalized Black race when Derek complains, â€Å"One in every three Black males is in some phase of the correctional system. Is that a coincidence or do these people have, you know, like a racial commitment to crime? ” Bryan Stevenson:Not only does such a statement back up Muhammad’s theory to the highest degree American ideologies, but it also touches on Bryan Stevenson’s argument. In Stevenson’s interview conducted by Bill Moyer, Stevenson states that in order to variety the notion that the Black man is a criminal, we must(prenominal) understand the history from where it stems, and we must care about human rights and dignity while we remember that all of our survival â€Å"is tied to the survival of everyone. That our visions of technology, design, entertainment and creative idea have to be married with the visions of humanity, compassion and justice”.Derek’s rant about Black males in the correctional system oozes with Stevenson’s idea that the exponent of criminality identity among Black culture ultimately came from how American government and Europeans have stigmatized the Black race. In the scene where Derek finds himself in his prison cell beg African American Principal Sweeney to help him, it is not until Sweeney replies, â€Å"Has anything you’ve done made your life better? ” that Derek sees the wispy and begins to make a change toward a life outside neo Nazism. This is a perfect congressman of the power of identity which is Stevenson’s underlying idea to his theory.Immigration: The writ ers of American History X touch on the dirty immigration topic as does the text, Think American Government, in chapter 1. The textbook says that, â€Å"critics (of nonlegal immigrants) devolve on that unregistered workers drive down wage grade for American citizens” (15). In the film there is a scene in which Derek gives a lecture to his neo Nazi peers on the subject of illegal immigrants to centre them up to terrorize a neighborhood hold on that has been taken over by a Korean owner who replaced the American workers with 0 illegal immigrants: â€Å"It’s about the hardworking Americans falling through the cracks and get the shaft because their government cares more about the primitive rights of…” illegal immigrants. However, the textbook lends a contrasting thought stating â€Å"advocates contend that the United States benefits from… illegal immigration. They argue that undocumented workers take jobs that citizens do not want and that they assume more taxes than they receive in government operate” (15). It is also worth noting the difference in illegal immigrant statistics from when the film was released in 1998 until now.According to the U. S. Department of Homeland certificate (DHS) â€Å"2,830,000 illegal immigrants resided in calcium in 2011 compared to 2. 5 million in 2000. ” In the same scene, Derek states, â€Å" there’s over 2 million illegal immigrants bedding down in (California) tonight… $ cd million just to lock up a bunch of illegal immigrant criminals…” In an article by BakersfieldNow. com on May 25, 2011, it was estimated, using data from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from 2010, that California now spends $1 billion on illegal immigrant prisoners compared to the time the movie was released. irst amendment & Hate-Crimes Legislation: Another point worth noting, from when the movie was released in 1998 until now, is hate-crime police force of natures. Within the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution added in 1791, Amendment 1 states, â€Å"Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech…” (363). Although the first amendment protects freedom of speech, it is not legal to use freedom of expression during an act of hate crime. The textbook states â€Å"in recent years, umpteen states have adopted hate-crimes legislation, enhancing penalties for persons convicted of crimes motivated by slash” (69).Interestingly, Obama signed a bill in 2009 which was root by two hate-crimes of 1998, the year American History X was released, but it was before the movie that the Hate Crimes Statistics practice of 1990 came into effect. According to USA Today, in an article published October 28, 2009 and entitled â€Å"Obama Signs Hate-crimes Law Rooted in Crimes of 1998”, the Matthew Shepard and crowd Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act expanded the existing Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990 and mandated that it is against the law to attack any person â€Å"based on sexual orientation or gender, in ddition to race, color, theology or national origin”. Matthew Shepard was a zippy teenager beat by two Wyoming men in October of 1998, after which he was tied to a fence where he died. In June of the same year, James Byrd Jr. , an African American man, was chained to a truck by three white men in Texas and dragged to his death. Notably, as the text explains increased penalties are given for those charged with hate-crimes, Derek only received 3 years for his hate-crime in the film.In conclusion, I would recommend the film to anyone interested in wanting to broaden their horizons on the race wars in America. I thought it was careful that Derek verbally gave the stereotypical views of hate mongers in America, but it would be interesting to see how Khalil Muhammad and Bryan Stevenson might add their theories to the dialogs of the Jewish teacher or the Black principal to show America a way of thinking that I believe is not in the earthly concern eye as much as it should be. mayhap a film should come our way from those two aforementioned?\r\n'