American History Essay Example for Free

American History EssayThe sad truth is that nigh evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil was a wise phase once uttered by Hannah Arendt. I love this cite because is perfectly describes the two boys from American History X, Danny and Derek. These two boys set out seen and done it all when it comes to hate groups, as both were members of a neo-nazi hate group. Neo- Nazi hate groups use authoritarian, scapegoat, normative, and exploitation theories to exclusivelyify their hate, discrimination, and torture of anyone who isnt a part of the supreme race, or white. Boy Danny and Derek end up in this liveliness from an early age. P arnts are one of the biggest, if not the biggest influence on a childs life. When Danny and Derek were both relatively young they looked up to their father, eyeshot of him as the ideal man. However their father was a racist, influencing almost every thought the boys had. At family dinner when talking about about a filth y school teacher their father said, Its nigger bullshit, and warned Derek not to buy into the equality teachings.Because Danny and Derek both looked up to their dad so much, this would be and example of the exploitation theory. maturation theory is when one societal group, in this case whites, use hostility to keep their position and military group intact. This really come into play after Danny and Dereks father was murdered and Derek believes it was a race related kill. right(a) after their father died, Derek joined a neo-nazi hate group known as the DOC(Disciples of Christ). Being positive believers in the white supremacy movement, the DOC acted out with violence and extreme hatred toward any other race, especially blacks. Derek, being a high ranking member, murdered 2 black men for the cause. He served three years for the murders, which impacted his whole family tremendously.At the beginning of Dereks sentence he did not involve any visitors, claiming it would be to hard t o see his family. He made friends with other neo-nazi members in prison, but soon started realizing that they were not serious about the cause like he was. He also started becoming friends with his black work partner who said, I aint the nigger in here, you are Derek started realizing that white supremacy what basically just a scapegoat. Meaning that the followers of the movement were just trying to find someone to blame for their problems, which in this case happened to bethe blacks. After befriending his black work mate he realized that blacks are humane too.Once he could recognize blacks as human he finally felt guilt for killing to people, not niggers, people. Derek was determined to help his brother and family by getting them out of the gangs and hate. One of the biggest influences on Derek plot of land in jail was his principal from high school. He was a black man with experience in dealing with troubled youth. He gave Derek the push he needed by saying, Has anything youve done made your life better?. Later Derek told Danny, Its just because I was pissed off. I think this was Dereks way of responding to his principal, he really didnt believe in the cause it was more of just an outlet for his anger that his father would have approved of. While Derek is locked up.