Alex Nguyen - Week 5 - A03

Hamamoto’s article, Empire of Death, discusses the societal circumstances bringing about the phenomenon of serial killers and mass murders, which, as he explains, stems from the gross exaggeration of a culture of intraspecies killing gone to the worst extremes. He cites examples from both highly notorious and more obscure serial killers and mass murderers in an attempt to shed a light on the overwhelming pattern present in their demographics — white males, often with military backgrounds, inducted into a culture of senseless violence and racial superiority. In the article, he delves into the topic of white on Asian murders, the number of which increased tremendously after the unconscionable and sickening violence American soldiers wrought during the Vietnam War.

Hamamoto not only examines the circumstances that produce these killers, but also the systems that nourish them. He points out the racial superiority evident in most of these killers, the flames of which are fanned by American militarism, which in its nature tends to be imperialistic towards non-European countries and people — the Philippines, Vietnam, the Middle East. The dehumanization evident in white racial thought inevitably leads to this — mass murder. Regardless of what form it takes, it returns to the same conclusion — inferior non-whites are not fit to live among the whites, hence segregation, hence eugenics, hence genocide. These white ideologies not only cause millions of deaths, they also justify them and protect them in the American legal system, like the example Hamamoto cites of policemen returning Dahmer’s victim, a young Laotian man, to him, allowing him to kill and mutilate him.

This culture is not a matter of the past, and it certainly isn’t a culture on the fringe, either. The hugely successful film “Apocalypse Now”, for instance, romanticizes the Vietnam War as a white man’s struggle, using the exotic Southeast Asians, millions of whom perished under subhuman circumstances, as mere props. This film is regarded by many critics as a classic and a masterpiece. A few years ago, the film “American Sniper” did just the same to the victims of the war in the Middle East. This year, Netflix is releasing a drama based on the killer Ted Bundy himself — deeply romanticizing him as a figure of great intrigue and genius. What kind of message does that send for white boys who hate women with a perverse greed for recognition?

Darrell Y. Hamamoto. “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence.”
Rapid Trailer. (2019, January 25). EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE Official Trailer (2019) Zac Efron, Lily Collins Movie HD. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v38MNmDcgrM