America is known to many as a free country. It was founded on the belief that all citizens would have the opportunity to thrive. This notion has not always been true. In the early years of our country, racism was a large setback. Slavery ruined the idea of a free country, the idea that was supposed to be the most important of all. Over the years slavery was abolished and racism has been largely eliminated. There is, however, some racism still present in that only holds our country back. These racist people cannot be called citizens because of their actions. The definition of a citizen is "A person owing loyalty to and entitled by birth or naturalization to the protection of a state or nation" (American Heritage Dictionary). Part of being loyal and protecting the state is to obey the rules and ideals that the state has set. One of those ideals is to work with our peers toward something that would better society, no matter what race or religion they may be. We can see examples of this in the movie American History X.
             The movie begins with a gang of black guys trying to rob a car from one of the main characters, Derek. Derek, a racist, kills two of the three gang members, one of them very brutally by making him bite the curb and stomping on his head. He is sent to jail for three years for murder, and it would have been life if his brother had testified in the trial. As they explain later in the movie, Derek's racism started off because of his father. He told Derek not to listen to his black teacher saying, "read the book, ace the guy's test. Just don't swallow everything he feeds you whole just because you see it on the evening news." The father goes on to talk about "affirmative black-tion" and how the stuff his teacher tells him is "nigger bullshit". Derek's racism only got worse when his dad, a fireman, was killed in a black neighborhood on the job in a black neighborhood...