Violence Does Not Solve Anything

8 Pages 1919 Words

Is that coincidence or do those people have, you know, like a racial commitment to crime?” (Derek, American History X) associates all blacks as criminals while only a third of them are. The protagonists are driven to violence towards those they dislike by stereotypes and assumptions.
Brothers Danny and Derek come from a low-middle class family. Although their family is not poor and living on the streets, their small apartment signifies the fact that they do not have money to spare. Danny and Derek share a room, as do their two sisters, while their mother sleeps on the couch. With this kind of lifestyle, it is very easy to feel sympathetic towards Danny and Dave. Since the audience does not get much of an idea of other skinheads’ backgrounds it’s hard to feel compassionate for the protagonists as a whole.
I do not believe that a sense of empathy for the neo-Nazis is a good thing. They may take minor facts and blow them way out of proportion. A major scene in American History X takes place in a grocery store in which the skinheads attack their so-called enemies. Right before they do this though, Derek addresses the group:
We're here tonight cause we got immigration problems spiraling out of contro...