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Prejudice In The Film 'American History X'

2476 Words10 Pages

Chan Ka Wai, Kathy
American History X assignment

1. During the film, identify at least three different types of prejudice and explain how these prejudices help to develop the two key characters throughout their journeys in the film.

In the film “American History X”, there are numerous prejudices to help to develop the two key characters throughout their journeys. First of all, racial prejudice is the most momentous one, which was also one of the main theme of the story. They two key characters, Derek and Danny, both had racial discrimination. Danny, the younger brother, was influenced by the thoughts of neo-Nazi by his Dad and brother. When Derek was young, he was taught about the black …show more content…

To interpret the reasons, it is better to divide the name into two parts, “American History” and “X”. The film was released at 1998. Firstly, there was a serious racial discrimination in America during 1990s. In the year of 1863, American president Abraham Lincoln issued an Emancipation Proclamation and proclaimed the freedom of slaves. However, there were a lot of limits of this proclamation. For example, it applied only to states that had seceded from the Union and the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory. Therefore, the slavery didn’t end and the racism still existed in America. During the 1990s, the racism was very distinct and serious. Blacks were treated in an unfair way. They couldn’t enter many public places, like parks, swimming pools and theatres. Most of the shops declared “no entry permission of blacks”. It happened in the American schools too. The schools separated the blacks and whites and the school segregation grew rapidly. In the history of America, racism always existed, even after the set free of slavery. And I think that’s the reason the film is entitled “American History”, as the film was about the racism too. Additionally, I think the director wanted to end the racism as he entitled as “History”. He would like to have racial discrimination in the history of America as it is the fact that he couldn’t change, though he didn’t want to have it in the

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