- Davis talks about how a ‘third border’ has emerged in many areas that are ethnically diverse. What is the third border and how is this concept illustrated in the movie?
The third border is an interior division which separates the various cultures of inner cities. The first scene which demonstrates that such a thing really exists is the scene on the basketball court. The black kids and the white kids want possession of the basketball court. They play a pretty rough game to establish territory. We have already witnessed Derek killing the black kids in the first scene, and we have heard about the problems Danny is having in school, and we know what happened to his brother. The television clip shows us why Derek hated other races: he blamed the poor people, mostly blacks, Chicanos and Asians for his father’s death. We also have seen the confrontation in the bathroom between the blacks and whites. We also heard how Cameron Alexander used Derek Vinyard to spread hate and consolidate his power. What we do not know at this point is that Derek’s attitude has changed, because of his experience in prison. His brother, Danny, also does not know. He has since become a member of Cameron’s white supremacist gang. In spite of all these clues, the third border is not really evident until the scene on the basketball court. We finally hear all the racist drivel that Danny has been brainwashed with while Derek was in prison.
The movie shows how the white supremacist group was formed in Los Angeles, with Derek recruiting and he talks about the illegal immigrant criminals, Chicano, Asian, black etc. Derek is shown giving powerful propaganda speeches to fire up the kids. The destruction of neighborhood businesses is shown with all the violence against all kinds of different races. Then we see Derek run off his mother’s Jewish boyfriend, calling him all kinds of names, especially referring to his love of niggers and other objects of hate. By the time the movie starts, the entire city has been galvanized into fractured bits of gangs divided along ethnic lines.
Mike Davis (2008) talks about this in the fall 1999 issue of Colorlines.com: “The NIMBY (“Not In My Backyard!”) politics of residential exclusionism are rapidly fusing with the new nativism to create a third border distant from, but complementary to, the first and second borders. While the other borders are meant to exclude Mexican immigrants from entry into the U.S., the third border serves as a new form of racial segregation deep within the country. Suburbs are no longer simply the settling place for white flight from the cities, they are emergent racial battlefields.”
- In chapter 9, Davis refers to how society is “fabricating the brown peril.” How does the movie illustrate this concept?
In this movie, we can see exactly how the brown peril is fabricated. Cameron uses Derek to gather together all the unhappy white kids. He gives them an object to blame and to hate. Without this kind of organization these hate groups might never form at all because people would not be focused on other groups as the cause of their misery. Then, with organized destruction, the mob is created that believes everything they are told about why they are unhappy. Emotion builds and more violence creates a surge of adrenaline. These desperate people listen to the propaganda and begin to rehearse and believe it. It is seen at the “party” after Derek comes home. The music and the talk and drinking create an angry atmosphere, and the people there feel like they have done something when they go home. Essentially, the instigators gather and excite a mob and then point them at the target. When the violence escalates, it is easy to blame the groups outside our own.
An article by Peter Bagge (2006), comments on the immigration debate and discusses the phenomena of racial opposition and how blacks and white band together to combat the influx of brown (Latinos and Philippines. It mentions the huge presence of the media and its contribution to the debate and maybe to the problem. Power-hungry people, like Cameron in the movie, do not care how they get power. They simply want it more than anything else. Then the media reports it and it becomes more real. When people lose jobs, have trouble paying rent, or suffer economically, they blame it on a handy target. The media makes it worse because it is the news and it sells papers and gathers an audience for sponsors.
- Finally, what other concepts and themes from the semester were illustrated by the movie? Be sure to develop a discussion of at least 3 concepts or themes, providing linked examples.
The concepts which are most prevalent in this movie are that hate is learned, and racial hatred is often illogical. Once examined, we find that we have more in common than we have differences. In prison, Derek is forced to examine his assumptions. He sees that his work partner in the laundry was given an excessive sentence because he was black. He sees that the white supremacist group he thought was true believers, simply use racial hatred to hold the group together. They deal with the Chicanos and sell the cope to their people, just to make a buck. Derek sees the hypocrisy and quits the group.
Education is stressed as a way out of the problem, but the movie does not show us how slow that process will be. While education can raise one’s status and income, and alleviate poverty, it is slow to change attitudes. Attitudes are generally emotional, so we have to learn first-hand that we are wrong. It must be discovered. No amount of education from outside can change how we feel. Feelings simply are not rational.
The most important concept in the film is becoming a change agent. The teacher, Dr. Sweeney, is that, and so is Derek’s workmate. Derek becomes one. Racial and social prejudice will only be cured one family at a time. We cannot change the world, but we can change our part in it. Parents must start with their children.
References
- Bagge, Peter. “BEWARE THE BROWN PERIL.” Reason 38.4 (2006): 52-55. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation].
- Davis, Mike, 1999, Policing the Third Border, Colorlines.