American History X Application Paper Lamar Booker Drawing concepts from two theorists, Dubos and Weber, intend to grasp their concepts out of the film American History X and draw examples to explain their concepts and how they can apply to social practices. “Stereotypes and Slippery’ slopes were another way Dubos approaches cultural oppression. “Stereotypes rely on categorizing large groups of people in particular ways even without any personal knowledge or experience with group members. Attributes become rigidly held and contradictory information is dismissed or discredited. (Erikson, 2014: class notes) Society influences stereotypes and the way people perceive others. Dubos talks about the way society uses the term white and how it refers to everything that is good, pure, and decent. In contrast the term black refers to everything that is despicable, ignorant, and that instill fear. (Allan, 201 II’ (Booker, 2014) “Slippery slope deals with members of the oppressed group come to see themselves in terms of the stereotypes. (Erikson, 2014: class notes) Dubos believes that it is easy for society to oppress cultural identity.
He sees the African American as standing helpless, and dismayed before the nameless rejoice that becomes expressed in the all pervading desire to inculcate disdain for everything black. (Allan, 2011: pig. 1 AY’ (Booker, 2014) This concept can apply to any group of color outside of the black perspective Dubos took in his work Structure was a way for Giddied to study social practices. Structure is defined as “rules and resources that we draw on to produce and reproduce society or social systems through our practices. ” (Erickson, 2014: Class notes) Practices are “things people regularly do. (Erickson, 2014: Class notes) This could be waking up for work or going to class everyday. Whenever someone draws on a practice they are drawing on rules and resources. Rules are “norms that we follow or not. ” (Erickson, 2014: Class notes) some rules are explicit and written down like laws. These are also enforced so that people will follow them. Other rules are implicit and not stated like norms, mores, and taboos. These are rules that people have instilled in their mind like looking both ways before crossing a street or knowing its wrong to rob a person.
Resources are “material or non material things that we draw on in order to get things done. ” Erickson, 2014: Class notes) “Material objects that we draw upon to engage in practices” are called locative resources. (Erickson, 2014: Class notes) These can range from objects like weapons, and symbols. Another resource is authoritative resources that are “non material factors that we draw on” (Erickson, 2014: Class notes) The film, American History X, is based off the narration of Daniel Vineyard explaining the story of his brother Derek Vineyard.
Before Derek was locked up for killing two black men that attempted to steal his car he lived a life of hatred. Trek’s Neo Nazi ways enticed his younger brother Danny to grow up just like him. After Derek was released from prison his mission was to keep Danny away from his previous life style he once lived. Trek’s hatred comes from the murder of his father. In an interview with a local news channel Derek is recorded giving his stance on his fathers murder. The stereotype he paints minorities to be are to be “parasites” (Okay, 1998).
Derek voices his opinion about his social view on minorities. He feels as though problems like welfare, AIDS, and immigration are problems that lacks, Hispanics, and Asians communities face but they are not white problems. He uses the example of the millions of European immigrants and how in a generation they flourished but these minorities can’t. The stereotype Derek paints minorities as in the interview were, ” my father Was murder putting out a fire in the Niger neighborhood he should not have even given a shot about.
He got shot by drug dealer who probably still collects a welfare check. ” (Okay, 1998) Derek stance also showed the night them D. O. C rallied up in front of Archive’s Ranch Market and vandalized the store for an Indian ay buying the store and hiring “forty boarder jumpers” (Okay, 1998) subsequently pushing out two of his friends that joined him that night in the madness. Some of the guys out of the group pulled the cashier on to a counter and fondled her. Terrorizing this poor women they grabbed salsa and stuffed it into her mouth.
Also smothering what looks to be applesauce and then followed by milk on to the cashiers face. The comments one of the guys stated, as the poured milk on her was “This pitch smells like fish, chips, and guacamole Lets clean her up… Oh that’s a good color for her. Maybe she can et a white woman job now. ” (Okay, 1 998) Derek and his crew felt oppressed by the minorities in their city. The reason Derek founded the D. O. C was so that white kids didn’t have to walk around scared of their own neighborhood. He felt like having this group this gave a little piece of neighborhood back to the whites.
Seth at one point in the movie was singing a song that degraded blacks and Jewish people and how they would get rid of them and ‘the white man marches on. ” (Okay, 1 998) This shows how much the racist mentality was embedded into their minds. Seth also questions Danny on what does he hate. With this question you can see that Danny is hesitant on responding. Once Seth gets a little more stern that’s when Danny states, “l hate anyone that isn’t a white protestant. ” And “they are a burden among the white race; some of them are alright guess. (Okay, 1998) and this enrages Seth to fire back “none of them are bucking alright. They are all a bunch of free loaders okay. Their the bucking enemy! ” (Okay, 1998) With Seth correcting Danny this makes Danny respond by commenting by saying he hates the fact of being black is cool and the hip hop influence on white suburbia. The structure of the group before Derek went to jail was all about hate and white supremacy. The vandalism of Archive’s Ranch Market was a practice they did to cleanse society of all the illegal immigrants that would take over.
The norms that the D. O. C follows were implicit. They followed similar rules of the Hitler regime. The Allocated resources they drew from were the weapons they had like guns, knives, and blunt objects that were used to kill or harm people. The symbols like the swastika on Trek’s chest was used to instill fear or a do not mess with me sign. The authoritative resources used were the information they gained from reading books like My Mien Kampala was read and analyzed for a school report.
This knowledge also helped to recruit some ” insecure, frustrated, impressionable kid”.
