Palmer American History X

The most prominent scene that illustrates the attractiveness of Facism/Nazism is when Derek leads an impassioned speech to a group of young white kids. Here, Derek expresses why they should be frustrated and angry with the other people in the area, primarily the Black, Korean, and Mexican people. In regards to the article, Derek portrays the white people as being victims in their neighborhood. They are at a disadvantage because of their race. We see him instill this passion for hating the other people into these confused teenagers.

Regarding mise en scene, one can begin to analyze framing and spacing of the scene. The frame turns extremely tight as soon as Derek begins talking. We are not allowed to see the entire group in one frame. The majority of the screen time is devoted to Derek once he begins talking. We get brief looks at the remaining characters in order to gauge their reaction to Derek's speech. Throughout most of the scene, Derek remains in the center and when other characters enter the scene, he is above them in stature which makes him the dominant. This is necessary to project his radical racist views as dominating the others. The spacing only reinforces Derek's dominance. He is never extremely close to any of the other characters. Furthermore, he remains the center of attention, because he is in the center of the group throughout his speech. This forces the characters and viewers to bring their attention to him. When we consider all of this, we can safely assume that the scene was constructed this way in order to perpetuated the dominance of this white supremacy idea that Derek was the embodiment of.