Leah Williams

Professor Fields

UWRT-1102-012

28 March 2017

American History X

1. Danny seems to be completely influenced by his brother. Given that we see Derek as a

guardian of Danny (we dont later find out that his mom is involved in his life), it

would make sense that Danny would be so susceptible to believing Dereks

propaganda, especially with whatever we can infer Danny had been told about

minorities prior to this scene. It also doesnt help that African-American people were

robbing them which adds to the bad rep and racism.

2. It is logical in that it is implied that racism is casually talked about in the family

(thats typically how mindsets like these are developed). There is also a growing

resentment for minorities because Derek has convinced himself they are a major

correlation to his dads death.

3. Our environment is very influential. Most of us aim to fit in and/or we are molded by

our society in different ways. We learn the dos and donts through them and we

surround ourselves with like-minded people who encourage how we think.

4. It helps his message in that people already believing extremist shit were of course

thinking it was beneficial and helping the cause. It hurt because rational people wont

join this cause. The violence and hate in the long run does nothing because it isnt

fixing any real problems.

5. People blame immigrants for jobs not being available. Some go to extreme lengths of

racism today too. There is still this scapegoat idea and blame going around. It has

been more normalized to be of extremes so long as extreme acts of violence arent

being committed (for the most part people dont think that shits okay).
6. Gonna be totally transparent and say that I dont remember specifics of this

conversation and didnt jot notes down. If I were to infer, I would assume that each
 side was probably saying that whoever they were defending was being villainized (for

example, police being villainized by the media vs. blacks being villainized by the

media). The liberal side would likely be saying that minorities dont get as many

opportunities where the anti-minority side would be saying minority statistics prove

they are violent/law-breakers.

7. No. Strong emotions can often lead to actions we regret later on because our

emotions, clich as it is, cloud our judgement. Our initial reaction isnt always the

best judgement to follow until further rational evaluation is made on what to do.