CRITICALLY ANALYSE A SPECIFIC MEDIA TEXT

(E.G. FILM, TV SHOW, SERIES EPISODE) WITH

Media and Communications Studies

Deadline: 23/05/2018

Word count: 1932

Candidate. No: 183536

like skin colour, religions, races and political or moral ideas. Is there really any civilised

society which has maintained its shape without any element of racism or segregation?

These men dissimilarities are leading to liberation and expression of all these actual

ideological excesses. So, the following essay critically analyses a specific media film called

“American History X” with regards to representations of race. In a first part, vital tools of this

media analysis are the theories of significant sociologists. Then a critical analysis of the film

follows, examining how the mass brain-wash plays a key role in ideology and which finally is

the place of the strongest.

We are usually told that we dwell in a world exempt from any trace of conservatism,

discrimination or differentiation. We are told that we dwell in a world of a wide variety of

different identities and disintegration. The old stereotypes of sexuality, race and class are

weakening. However, yet there is not arisen a situation in which the white people are not in

the ascendant, since apparently the highest percentage of politics, education and media are in

the hands of white people. The invisibility of whiteness and its power is hard to believe.

White men have greater access to these privileges and intentionally or unintentionally

participate in it. (Richard, 1997)

As a result, admittedly, racism becomes an element of the culture in which unconsciously we are

all effected. Surprisingly the most recent writings of white people about whiteness are clearly

exceeding the writings about feminism, labour history or gay and lesbian studies. In western

representations of advertisements, films, press or books, the white is extremely and

disproportionately dominant and it is considered as the ordinary and the standard.

The white race should be removed from the position of power or privileges and to undermine

their ‘dominance’ with which they are expressed on the world. However, no difference will

Page 1 of 9
be made “as long as race is something only applied to non-white people, as long as white

people are not racially seen and named, they/we function as a human norm. Other people are

raced, we are just people” [CITATION Dye97 \p 1 \l 2057 ]. Assuming that “other people are

raced, we are just people” is not deferred from accepting that individuals with either black or

yellow colour are something else or outsiders.

Bell Hooks concludes that these kind of “stereotypes abound when there is distance” (Hooks,

pg. 170) something fair to happen when someone admits that the blacks, especially in the

past, were almost invisible to most of the people, “except as a pair of hands offering a drink

in a silver tray” (Hooks pg.168). As it will be represented afterwards, many of the stereotyped

behaviours and attitudes are displayed due to the many around stimulus and paradigms. Also,

even in the liberal textbooks it is said that there are certain associations of the white colour

with the light and the safety, whereas the black colour is associated with the dark and the

danger. This is how racism is explained, created and provoked in the communities we all

inhabit in. However, according to Lorraine Hansberry admittedly the same stereotypes are

created in the ‘black’ communities towards the ‘white’ ones. White people are often

characterised as anything but ‘cold’ and ‘passionless’ or ‘dirty’ and ‘cruel’ and often the

name of whiteness in the black imagination is a representation of terror. (Hooks pg. 170)

Therefore, although the racism from the whites towards the blacks is better represented and

broadly known, many events are as well witnessed where the opposite happens. And as many

black people get angry when attention is drawn to their blackness, equally the white people

get irritated when they are noticed by non-white people as whites.

Page 2 of 9
To continue with, I will discuss the lesson taught by the movie American History X”, a movie

which was first released in 1998 with background the Venice Beach in Los Angeles,

California. [ CITATION IMD18 \l 2057 ] A movie which contains the difficulties and

dissimilarities in culture origin and the fear one may feel for the ‘unknown’. By critically

analysing ‘American History X’ I observe that the different types of culture are the reason

behind conflicts and many undesirable events. In other words, the difference in human

knowledge or beliefs, the dissimilarities in the set of attitudes, values and practises can

instantly lead to negative effects in communication. Remember that cultural differences

sometimes influence the meaning of a nonverbal message. That observation appears to be

particularly true for gestures and eye behaviours. For instance, using the thumbs-up gesture

or maintain eye contact while talking with someone can have different meanings in different

cultures. In many Western cultures, the sincerity, trustworthiness and authority are signified

by the direct eye contact, whereas the lack of eye contact express negative evaluation from

others. In contrast, many Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern cultures highlight the

lack of eye contact as a clue of deference or respect for authority. [ CITATION Hir13 \l 2057 ]

Violence, dark, fights, bad language and horrible scenes are a significant part of the movie

and a huge part of Derek’s life as well. Derek is the main character, whose life was defined

by a form of propaganda, and bad influence from his social environment. Actually, before his

father died by a black drug dealer when he was fighting a fire in the black neighbourhood, his

dad always was talking about the black communication. As a result, Derek concludes to

become Neo-Nazi and the leader of a white supremacist gang called D.O.C1. Afterwards, a

series of neo-Nazi events followed, which proved the discrimination against the racism and

the ethnocentrism of the culture. Ethnocentrism happens when is created the belief of

1
Disciples of Christ

Page 3 of 9
superiority towards the others. In international business the belief of what is taught and

worked at home should as well be applied abroad, something which ignores the societal

differences and proves feelings of selfishness and illiteracy. (John, Lee H., and Daniel pg. 72)

One of the events took place at a play yard, where Derek had a basketball game against some

black guys, betting the ownership of the yard. This actual part of the movie seems to remind

common events in the real life, happened due to either the economic class or colour skin,

either the education or gender. Derek, also proved his violent and aggressive character, when

he and D.O.C group fully fuelled by drugs and alcohol, attacked a mini-market in the town.

The show was frightening and provoked very negative and scary emotions to the viewers.

Apart from it, Derek wasn’t creating problems only to his social environment but also to his

family members. Specifically, he was not only expressed with bad language and swear words,

but with violence and tolerance as well. Respect and appreciation were not part of his world.

His sister was hit and blustered, and his mother was insulted by him. These ideology excesses

were the result of their dissimilar ethics and ideas.

Nevertheless, the most significant and at the same time terrible event of the film, which was

the reason that Derek went to prison, is displayed in the first scene. In this first scene, two

black guys attempted to steal his van in the late night, and as a result Derek shoots and kills

one of the thieves and curb stomps the other. He is convicted in three years in prison for

voluntary manslaughter. Derek’s life in the prison, was spent with a great struggle and as a

result this made him revise his ideologies and beliefs about black men. In the meanwhile,

Derek is warned that his younger brother Dany is following the same path as his brother and

joined D.O.C too. Derek leaves prison a changed man. Afterwards, he is trying to persuade

Page 4 of 9
his younger brother to leave the gang by narrating his unforgettable and traumatic experience

during these three years in prison.

Derek’s time in jail was as well spent by working in the laundry with a black man who was

accused of assaulting a police officer and convicted for six years in the jail. This is a totally

representative example of racial injustice and the major points of the film. Derek was

sentenced to three years in prison for shooting and killing two men, but the black guy who

just assaulted a police officer was sentenced for the twice as much.

In the end, although the whole movie is sending anti-racist messages, a black guy kills Danny

for blowing smoke in his face. Film’s intention is not to make an audience believe that after

all Derek was originally right for being racist and that he shouldn’t have changed.

Contrariwise, this last scene proves that there is evil on both sides and not only the neo-Nazis

need change. Danny changed, but too late to be saved from being murdered for racist reasons.

This is a classic Shakespearean tragedy.

In conclusion, whites maybe are not seen as equal to any other race, and they are seen as

being dominate. Because of this white must learn to see and identify themselves as they

would to any other race. These stereotypes are created in the societies due to the lack of

education, unfamiliarly, selfishness or fear. [ CITATION All17 \l 2057 ] American History X

was an illustrative example of what illiteracy and stereotypes can provoke, while at the same

time proved that the evil is not only existing in the one side but in the both sides of the

different races.

Even if we think that racism is only experienced between black and white people, in reality,

racism is not only enclosed between these two races, but more generally between any race

that creates feelings of discrimination or antagonism against some other race, due to different

Page 5 of 9
colour, culture or idea. (Anon., n.d.) These races could be Asians, Middle Easterners or

British people as well. As Abraham Lincoln stated "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.". [CITATION Ron06 \p 76 \l 2057 ]

Taking everything into consideration, the most dangerous thing for a man is the lack of

knowledge, something which leads to the lack of accepting the different cultures, ideas or

beliefs. As a result, social problems like racism are created and terrify the today world.

Page 6 of 9
Bibliography

Abrams, A., 2017. Psychology today. [Online]

Anon., n.d. English Oxford living dictionaries. [Online]

Anon., n.d. IMDb. [Online]

Hironori Akechi, A. S. H. U. Y. K. T. H. J. K. H., 2013. NCBI. [Online]

Hooks, b. (1997) 'Representing whiteness in the black imagination', in Ruth Frankenberg ed.
Displacing whiteness: essays in social and cultural criticism. Durham, N.C.: Duke University
Press, pp.165-179. [Accessed May 2018]

John, Lee H., and Daniel, 2007, International Business, 11th edition, Pearson, New Jersey -
Article: "Charles Martin in Uganda", pp. 72

Richard, D., 1997. The matter of whiteness. In: White. London: Routledge, pp. 1-40.
[Accessed May 2018]

White, R. C., 2002. Lincoln's greates speech: The second inaugural. 2006 ed. New York:
Simon and Schuster paper backs.

Page 7 of 9