This is the dividing line. In AMERICAN HISTORY X, Ed Norton plays a neo-Nazi who eventually changes his point of view. In that film, it shows that even a well-educated kid can fall down the rabbit hole of hate through various factors. Economic despair, systemic viewpoints from authority figures, a desire to belong, a desire to believe in something, a desire to be in control. I can’t necessarily throw these people under the bus completely: like Norton’s character, people who preach hate likely just grew up believing they need a scapegoat for their situation. Whether you’re white, black, yellow, red or green: education, words of self-worth, time outside your own culture and examples in humanity do a lot to reset one’s thinking and beliefs.

But Epps is a different kind of cat. With men like him, racist philosophy is just a means to an end. The life he was born to and the circumstances of his era afforded him and allowed him to be a “cruel master”. If it were Nazi Germany, he’d be Amon Goeth; if this was 1930’s Japan, he’d have a harem of comfort women; if he was around today, he’d be a serial killer with a basement of trophies. He’d always find someone (some other race, some other culture, the opposite sex) to pinpoint as weak and deserving of his wrath.

Epps: “No sin! There is no sin! A man does how he pleases with his property.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4DVCbgw6UM