McGowan American History X

One of the scenes that really stood out to me in American History X is the scene on the basketball court. I thought this scene did a great job illustrating the definition of white supremacy. It involves Derek challenging a few black guys to a game of basketball. This game is a battle to gain the basketball court territory. Derek is extremely confident with this game and comes through in the end. Throughout the scene, I noticed that it very much portrayed the black guys in a negative way. This scene definitely supports the article on white supremacy. The article often stated that black people are often portrayed in a negative way on screen. In this case, the white guys seemed to really be on their game while the black guys were running around like a bunch of ignorant monkeys. One of the black guys elbowed Derek in the face which is a sure portrayal of bad conduct. I think the fact that it was not the other way around is an important detail. In fact, the same black guys in the scene are the ones that try to steal Derek's car and get killed as a result.

I think that the type of people who are attracted to the white supremacy movement are ignorant. A huge problem in this subculture seems to be the fact that they are extremist for the sake of being extremist. Many of them have probably been offended by one or two minorities in their life time. However, the fact that someone could hate an entire race because of a couple of people is absolutely far fetched and ridiculous. It also seems to be the type of people who like being pissed off because they think it is badass.

One of the things that I noticed specifically about this scene is that at certain moments the camera would flash other stills from throughout the scene in fast motion. It seems to be coming from Derek's mind, in my opinion. These flashbacks from the scene seem to illustrate Derek's adrenaline rush. It makes me feel as if Derek is having a good time battling for the courts. I also noticed that there were quite a few close ups on the black leader's face. Every time, he had a horribly mean look on his face. Another important shot was at the end of the scene as the other whites are lifting Derek in victory. The camera is far below him and seems to look up at him in awe. He seems to smirk at the world in his blind victory and hatred.