Cassimere; American History X

American History X depicts Neo-Nazism as appealing to young middle class white kids. This is shown throughout the movie, especially in the scene of the basketball game between the black kids and the white kids. In this scene the viewer can see how the group of white supremacists might seem appealing to younger white males.

Derrick, a sort of role model to the group, comes off as brave and heroic after he has won the game and the basketball courts for the white supremacist group. They lift him up on their shoulders while the group of black kids walks off the court. To impressionable youths, Derrick looks like someone to look up to, while the group of black kids comes off as inferior because they lost the game, even though they cheated. Finley stated that the black characters in this movie “are depicted in a stereotypical fashion,” and that they come off as aggressive and child-like. Because they are portrayed this way in the movie, I believe that the intent of the filmmaker was to allow the viewer to see them as Danny or someone his age would see them. They would see them exactly in the way that Derrick and Cam Alexander have told them they are. They would only see characteristics that they have heard time and again from one of Derrick’s rants.

Most of the shots in this scene are from fairly public shots during the game. The scene was in black and white with high key lighting and high contrast between the lighter and darker colors on the screen. The swastika tattooed to Derrick’s chest stood out against his skin. The form was very open and the characters moved around from side to side of the frame. When Derrick and the person on the black team who elbowed him were arguing there were close up shots of both men, most likely to emphasize to the viewer the intensity of the scene.