American History X

For this blog I was suppose to go and watch the film The Actresses. I actually drove downtown but I got there late so I couldn’t get in. Instead yesterday I went to watch American History X.
This film was a hard movie to watch and at the same time it was very sad because this kind of racism situations still exist these days. Plus it was totally related to class concepts. The main concept that we see through the whole film is racism. We see racism against all races. The two main characters of the film are Derek and his youngest brother Danny two white boys. Derek became racist because his father was killed by some black people while just doing his work, but his father was racist too. So he though minorities were only occupying extra space that didn’t belong to them. He also mentions that immigrants are just taking the jobs that supposedly belong to the white people. Whites were the norm and they owned this country.

It’s interesting to see how in the basketball game the ones who win the game are the whites and the blacks get to leave the court. In another scene in the movie Derek’s mom and her boyfriend try to tell Derek that white people also commit crimes and kill people, but Derek insists that the numbers are very different and that minorities and immigrants are guilty of everything. Dany followed his brother example and he became racist too. After some time Derek went to jail for three years for killing some black people. By being in jail he got to experience racism against white people also. He suffered a lot. He also got to hang out with a black guy who totally changed his way of viewing things. It’s impressive to see how the black guy got six years sentence in jail just because he stole a TV and he accidentally dropped it on the cop’s foot, while Derek got three years in prison for killing two black guys. In jail was where he learned that being a racist just brought him problems and he also realized that his life was a misery and he didn’t have any happiness. He was even sexually abused by his own race (white guys). He also realized that his brother was following the same path and that sooner or later he was going to also suffer the consequences. He had experienced a lot of things, bad things that he didn’t want his brother to go through. After he got out of jail he started to change everything. He wanted to fix his life and his family’s life was well. He was more focused on his brother. After Danny knew all that Derek went through in prison he realized that the path that he was following, the path that his brother used to follow wasn’t bringing him any happiness as well, so he agreed to change. They started to live a new life. A life were they stopped being racist and a life where they saw everyone equal, but it was too late. Danny was killed at school by some black guys that he always used to hate and they hated Danny as well. Even though Derek changed in prison and tried to change his family most of the people that knew them, knew them as racists so there were still more consequences. That’s why Danny was killed.

Even though we don’t see it much around, this movie definitely tells real life stories that people are living out there. Racist people and gang members killing each other. The movie also tells all the offensive words that there could be to describe another race and that many people still use out there. Active and passive racism are present. Active racism done by all the gang members against each other, and passive racism like the cops that didn't do anything when they saw that someone was being beaten in jail. As I mentioned before this kind of situations still happen in life and for this to change we need the cooperation of every single person in this country, and not only in this country but in this world which of course, is a very hard thing to do. But let’s don’t this stop us from doing what we can. We as an individual, even though is hard, we can still make a difference. I would like to end with a quote from the movie that I really liked: “Hate is baggage. Life is too short to be pissed all the time. It’s just not worth it”- Dany

Arizona Immigration Law SB1070... That's Racism!!

As being Latina so many times I've witnessed the racism that sad to say still exists in this country. Discrimination and racism against people just because where they come from, their skin color, or in other words many times for the simple reason of not being white. The same way that I've witnessed racism, I've also witnessed the white privilege that people have. Even though for many people this happens unconsciously, personally I think that this are advantages that white people have over the rest of people. From my own experience many times I get this surprised looks at me when I tell people that I am from Mexico. Most of the time people will say to me: "Really? How come? You're white." Of course what I answer is that not all Mexicans are brown as most people think. It's really sad to see how people can judge others just because of their skin color.
An issue that's been going around these days is the Arizona Immigration Law SB1070 that was passed on April 23rd. I'm not going to talk about immigration and illegal people here, since I believe this is not really the focus in our class but I do have to say that I think the pass of this law is an act of racism. To get familiar with it what this law requires is that all immigrants need to have their documents with them to verify their status, but this law also gives police officials an authority to stop a person if is there enough suspicion that the suspect is not a legal resident. Why is this racism? Well the question that is brought up is: How are police officers going to suspect that a person is not a legal resident? How are they going to know this for sure? Well the answer goes back to the fact that the only way for a police officer to stop someone will be because of the skin color they have, or according to their physical features and characteristics the place they come from.

I found these images by going to yahoo and just typing Arizona Immigration Law and this picture here at the bottom really got my attention. Here we can see a man who painted himself as a white man and then he has "Am I reasonably suspicious?" written all over his body. In other words trying to say that if you're a white person of course you will not be a suspicious suspect and this law will not affect you.


Through all this movement and since this law was passed it seems to be that the most affected people are Hispanics. Of course the law doesn't say that this will be applied only to Hispanics, but Hispanics clearly know that this law is directed to them. I'm sure that the police will not stop a white person but for sure they will stop Hispanics and who knows probably Asians and Black people too. Even president Obama declared this new law as a misguided law. Maybe you will think that I'm saying this because I'm Mexican, but Mexican or not I do believe that this law comes from racist people that want to "go back to the good old days" as we learned in class.