No one can honestly argue that the world currently exists without racial tensions. While some people still struggle to overcome ongoing racism and stereotypes, many have stepped over racial boundaries and resolved the struggles between them. However, Benjamin DeMott argues in his article "Put on a Happy Face: Masking the Differences Between Blacks and Whites" that Hollywood consistently hides true racial relationships by putting blacks and whites together with "happy faces," thus encouraging society to ignore the reality of racial tensions. This may be true of most Hollywood productions, but in the movie American History X, Hollywood attempts to step away from this cliched portrayal to present the more realistic and harsh relationships that exist between races.
Throughout his article, DeMott criticizes the media for "suggesting that the beast of American racism is tamed and harmless" (295). He argues that Hollywood "churns out images of racial harmony," creating a fantasy world which denies the actuality of racial tensions (297). When society conceals racial problems, the situation continues to escalate and remains unsolved. DeMott claims that "the good news in the movies obscures the bad news in the street" (297). A large portion of society bases their knowledge on what they view in the media; therefore, if Hollywood depicts a world in which racism is no longer an issue, the struggles of minorities will be forgotten by many. In his article, DeMott refers to the government overlooking minorities, claiming that even "the [Supreme] Court postulates the existence of a society no longer troubled by racism" (297). He argues that only when the suffering of all races are accounted for should they be portrayed by Hollywood as equal.
Many incidents in American History X demonstrate the division between races while other scenes follow the typical Hollywood scenario b...