well let me tell you something: you better watch your ass, cause in the joint, you the nigger. Not me.

On American History X:

I have seen this movie a few times before, and every time I watch it this is the quote that stands out the most to me. It just makes so much sense. Outside of jail Derek Vinyard was the prince to Cameron's white power empire. But in jail he was not safe. He was the minority and he was in trouble. Derek later tells his brother Danny that he does not regret what happened to him in jail. Not the time, not the rape, none of it, because his experience was enlightening. The timely visits from his old English teacher, Dr. Sweeney helped him ask the right question, "Has anything you've done made your life better?"

That is the moment of enlightenment for Derek. After that he stops associating with the skinheads in jail and becomes a loner, whose only ally is Lamont. In writing his paper for Sweeney, Danny reaches a similar conclusion, he ends his paper with the idea that, "Hate is baggage" which is truly the moral of Derek's story and the story of American History X. In the movie the transition of both Derek and Danny is shown from the hand of hate to the hand of love. But, just when everything is starting to be alright again, Derek is making good on his promise to Sweeney to make things right, Danny has written his paper for Sweeney and the family is starting to come together again, the hand of hate gets one last punch in. A young member of a black gang shots Danny at school. In the bathroom, paper in hand, Danny, the former future skinhead leader gets gunned down. The movie ends with the sad conclusion and the viewer can only hope that Derek remembers that 'hate is baggage'. The final words of Danny's paper end much like Do the Right Thing, with a quote, "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature". That is a quote from Abraham Lincoln, which shows how much Danny has changed from the boy who wrote his civil rights paper on "Mein Kampf".

In American History X the perspective of the story is very important. All the early movies I watched were told from the white man's perspective. In movies such as The Birth of a Nation, taking the moral high ground, but in most movies not giving it to the blacks. Then around the time of The Color Purple there was a shift were the movies were told from the black's perspective. This movie turns it inside out and tells the story from the perspective of the hateful white supremacists. Not only is all the hate from the D.O.C. about the blacks (along with all non-white-protestants) shown in this film, but the movie brings it all back around at the end when they young, black gang member kills Danny, further perpetuating the cycle of hate. Next on the list is Crash