Do you understand what I’ve continually puzzled approximately? In American History X—a 1998 film approximately a neo-Nazi named Derek who gets sent to prison for three years and ends up figuring out that it turned into a awful idea to be a neo-Nazi due to the fact, among different things, he gets attacked and raped via different neo-Nazis—there’s a scene where Derek and some of his neo-Nazi buddies play a game of basketball against a group of black players.
The way it takes place: Derek is sitting in a few bleachers at an outside court watching two groups play. One of the groups has a guy named Seth, and Seth is that very hefty, very aggressive, very basketball-assured neo-Nazi. Seth goes down into the put-upon one play, calls for the ball, receives it, then shouts, “This one’s for you, boy!” as he spins far away from his defender—Lawrence, performed through Antonio David Lyons—and fires up a shot. Lawrence jumps up, swats the shot away, then shouts again, “Who you calling ‘boy,’ motherfucker!?” at Seth. They get into an issue that starts with them yelling insults at every different and ends with the 2 agreeing to guess $100 at the game’s final results. (They’re playing to 10. Seth’s group is losing 6-8.)
Seth, it seems, doesn’t clearly have the $a hundred that he wagers, so he walks over to where Derek is sitting and asks him and the neo-Nazi organization he’s with to offer him the cash. Derek chews him out a bit (each for making bet money that he doesn’t have and also for making a bet in any respect because he is aware that Seth is shit at basketball), thinks at the situation for a second, after which he says, “I’ll take care of this.” He stands up, removes his sweater so that everyone can see the massive swastika he has tattooed on his chest, then walks out onto the courtroom and arranges a new deal.
Rather than the original $one hundred, Derek proposes they play for something more valuable: territorial possession of the basketball courtroom. He says that he’ll come into the game, and the rating will live the equal, and they’ll nevertheless play to 10, except he wishes all of the white men on his group and all the black men will flow over to the other crew. “If you win,” Derek says to Lawrence, “we’ll stroll away. But if we win? No bitching, no combating, proper here in front of anyone you percent up your shit and get your black asses out of here. Eight to six, our ball.” Lawrence accepts the deal, and so the sport begins.
But that’s in which the component I’ve always puzzled about comes into play. Because earlier than Derek intervened, the 2 teams had been already hooked up, proper? So meaning there have already been 10 humans out at the courtroom, right? And meaning if Derek entered the sport, then a person needed to have exited the sport, right? So who changed into it? Who left the court docket? Who heard the phrases of the bet and was like, “Hey, guys. I’m gonna pass ahead and take a seat this one out”? My first-class wager: the Mexican. This man:
(Obviously, I don’t know that he is specifically Mexican, but he’s absolutely Latino. Also, there’s a danger that it becomes that guy inside the tank pinnacle on the left of the screen among the two white guys. He also looks, Latino. Also also, there’s an overhead shot of the blacks vs. Whites sport as it starts offevolved, and it looks like each of the Mexicans is missing from it; this means that they likely both needed to take a seat right down to make room for neo-Nazi players, which could be very symbolic.)
There are a group of stupid things such as that from the blacks vs. Whites game. For instance, Seth is sporting his neo-Nazi suspenders at the same time as he’s gambling, meaning he both (a) constantly plays basketball in suspenders, which is bizarre in its personal right, or (b) he becomes just placing out around the court docket not awaiting to play after which someone requested him to leap in on a recreation. I think it has to be the first option, in general, due to the fact he’s additionally sporting a blouse that has a jersey quantity on the again (it’s probably the 88 is a reference to the “Heil Hitler” component that neo-Nazis love because they’re idiots). I suppose that’s proof sufficient that he showed as much as the courts prepared to play.
Another Seth issue that’s stupid to consider is him being so basketball-confident that he believed he should convey his group to a victory when he agreed to the original $a hundred wager. His group turned into already losing (strike one), and additionally, he’d just gotten his shot blocked into every other zip code (strike two). Also, they have been gambling a complete-courtroom game, which means he was wounded to run up and down the courtroom no less than three instances, which appears unlikely (strike 3). But none of that mattered to him. And that’s very wild to consider whilst you realize that that is how Seth shoots a basketball:
Another stupid factor: Do you suspect any of the white guys who have been available playing earlier than the blacks vs. Whites game changed into arranged saw Derek together with his swastika tattoo and heard his concept and, equal because the Mexicans, had been like, “Oh, no thank you. Y’all got it. Y’all can play without me”? Like, turned into there a guy obtainable who turned into just seeking to experience a recreation of basketball after which he nearly got drafted into race warfare? (Seth’s self-belief is possibly the sports actualization of the way that neo-Nazis consider themselves to be advanced to all non-whites in all capacities, despite overwhelming proof to the contrary.) there had to had been, proper? Another stupid element: Derek inbounding the ball at the beginning of a play from in the 3-factor line: