It has been fifth teen years since the release of the controversial movie, American History X. It was released on October 30th, 1998. Fifth teen long years later the movie still stands as a riveting and brutal drama about white supremacy and racism in America. The film was directed by Tony Kaye and written by David McKenna. It stars Edward Norton as the racist skinhead Derek. Edward Furlong plays Danny who is Derek's very impressionable younger brother. The co-stars include Fairuza Balk, Stacy Keach, Elliot Gould, Avery Brooks, Ethan Suplee, and Beverly D'Angelo. The setting of the movie is based in Venice Beach California. Derek and Danny come from a middle class family. Derek is in his early 30's while Danny is in high school. Their father Dennis was a firefighter. Their mother is very sick and is appears as if she has cancer. Derek inherited racism from his father. His father was very racist. In fact, they had many racist talks while sitting at the dining room table, eating dinner. Their father spreads his racist views to his sons. Their fathers hate and rage is shown when he talks to his sons about how a nigger got a promotion over a white man who had studied hard for the test. He hated that a black man beat a white man out of a job. Not long after Dennis, gets called out to fight a fire at a drug den. Dennis is murdered by a black crack dealer. Derek spills his racist bigotry during a newscast interview after his father's death. The murder sets Derek off. Derek and his racist friend Cameron start up a white supreme gang called the D.O.C. After the death of his father, Derek blames the death on a long list of far-right targets. We eventually learn that the death of his father, wasn't what shaped Derek to become a racist but the many racist hate talks he had with his dad at the dinner table. The film is very powerful and it shows the different realms of racism in America.
According to Henslin (2010), deviance involves "the recognized violation of cultural norms" (p.
