O.C. (Disciples of Cameron) Danny has become. Danny also fails to see how his brother's life and the circumstances of his imprisonment affect him. One person who does see it though, is his principal, Dr. Sweeny. Dr. Sweeny used to be Derek's professor back when he was still in school and before his racism really took hold. Dr. Sweeny is also black. He tells Danny that, "Everything you do right now has something to do with Derek." He sees what Danny and Derek, along with many others in their lives, do not.
Danny is repeating a cycle that Derek himself went through not that many years ago. Derek looked up to his father, and the love that he had for him blinded him to the character flaws that would later become his downfall. After their father's death, Danny looked up to Derek, who in trying to remember and honor his father began to repeat and portray characteristics that his father had. In turn, Danny is now being affected by the "sins of the father" so to say, since he is now idolizing Derek. While Derek is in prison he comes to realize how his actions have changed the course of his family's life. When he first went in, he didn't understand how or why what he was doing could have any effect on the lives of those around him. However, throughout his sentence he comes to realize that the life he was living and all the idealistic neo-Nazi crap that he was being taught and buying into, was flawed. And not just flawed, but wrong. When Derek is jumped in jail by his own kind, other white supremacist gang members, Dr. Sweeny is the one who comes to help him through it, while another inmate (who is African American) makes it possible for Derek to make it out alive when he turns his back on the very same gang. It really makes him rethink his whole life. Dr. Sweeny tells Derek, "Ask yourself, has anything you have done in your life, up to this moment, made it any better?" He realizes then that when he gets out that he needs to take responsibility for his actions and right the wrongs that because of him have soiled his family and their lives.
