The movie stars Edward Norton as Derek, a skinhead who has been taken in by the neo-Nazi regime ever since his farther, a fire fighter, was gunned down in a black neighborhood while on duty. After spending three years in prison for allegedly killing 3 black people one night, Derek is released and comes out as a new person. While in jail he had the worst days of his life and there was a time when he was brutally raped by his own gang members and the feeling and pain that he suffered, turned his life around. While in prison his brother Danny (Edward furlong), joins the white power movement in his hometown. And as a result of his participation with the movement, he is at the end shot dead by a black student in a bathroom, and hence showing the revenge. The movie also shows how discrimination was done and the way white were treating the blacks.
Part 2.
The movie shows several theories and perspectives discussed in chapter 9. One of which is the Marxist exploitation theory, which suggests that the economic elite group benefits from discrimination, the theory maintains that the ruling class deliberately promotes prejudice and discrimination in order to divide the worker. This can be seen when Derek's hate for ethnic minorities was not always existent, but was created by his father once when they were having lunch, where he (Derek's father) was explaining how he had two black guys working for him and that he would have preferred white people because they were smarter. So it is no surprise that Derek developed a hate for anything other than white people. Also according to functionalist point of view, discrimination has several dysfunctions. It aggravates social problems such as poverty, crime and family instability. This is clearly seen when Murray (Elliot Gould) and Derek's family are having lunch and he (Murray) talks to Derek about removing racism and accepting equality he react violently, to such an extent that he starts fighting and pushing his own sister, yelling at everyone at home and which ends up Doris( Derek's Mum) to remove him from the house.
