Perception of the Movie Crash

Crash is a movie that teaches us that in some form of another many of us have prejudices that may affect people every single day. We are born into this world as good people but just because we are good people it does not mean that, we have not hurt someone with our many forms of racisms. It is imperative that we stop and look at each individual and judge him or her for himself or herself. "Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated." (King, 1958) When we get to the point that we can do this, then we will become a loving society.

The movie Crash is one that has touched my soul and will continue changing lives if people really sit down to watch it. I must admit that I had seen the movie before and did not give it the least bit of attention as I had given it this time. When I watched it the first time, it was for entertainment versus trying to understand the relationships that we build and breakdown in our everyday lives. I will cover some of the main characters and their racisms or lack thereof.

Sandra Bullock (Jean Cabot) is a Caucasian American who appears to be an extreme racist but at the same time, she appears to be a victim herself. She is very angry at multiple races and stereotypes them because of the relationships that she has had with them when it fact it is mostly her behavior that affects how others respond to her.

In example, she complains about the Gardner (unknown minority), Housekeeper (Hispanic American) and the Locksmith (Mexican American). Not one of these individuals as far as she is concerned can perform the duties that have been set forth for them. It is my theory that if she were to take a different approach when dealing with them in addition to take, the time to insure that she is communicating in their communication styles then she might just get different results. Secondly, it appears as though she is angry with herself and she reflects that back to the people around her. She is somewhat paranoid when it comes to trusting other people and especially other races but if you take note, she does not treat her own husband with a huge amount of respect. She is just as angry with him most of the movie. So is she racist or just angry? I know that her choices of words are not the best but do we generally do that when we are upset? Lastly, a racial issue with Caucasians came out in this movie as well. Jean felt threatened when she seen the two black guys but she felt that if she responded in a way in which it would be obvious that she was afraid that it would indicate that she is a racist (Just because the kids are black). It is unfair that a person can feel threatened against all other races but, when it comes to feeling threatened by African Americans, they cannot voice that for fear of being considered racist.

Jack McGee the gun storeowner had issues when it came to dealing with Arab Americans; he was dealing with them for making a sale and then began to feel uncomfortable because they were speaking in their native language; one that he could not understand. He then proceeded to be rude to them and began making offensive references regarding flying planes into buildings (September 11).

Michael Peña (Daniel) is a Mexican American who is apparently trying to be a good role model to his daughter and do all of the right things; he has not lived in the best neighborhood but has recently moved his wife and daughter to a better area. He appears to be a person who deals with racism quite often and has almost become immune to it.

Daniel was called to Jean's home to replace her locks on her doors because her purse and car was stolen. While Daniel was changing the locks, Jean argued with her husband stating that she wanted her locks to be changed again in the morning and to mention to the company that she did not want a gang member next time. She referred to the man as bald, pants sagging with prison tattoos. She also stated that he would sell her keys to his gang member friends the second that he left out of the door. Daniel's response to this was to simply lay her keys down on the counter and leave. Daniels next experience was with a storeowner who was Persian, the storeowner refused to pay Daniel for the services that he needed in order to properly secure his door. Daniel repeatedly told the storeowner that he needed more than just his lock fixed. He needed to pay the money to have the door fixed as well. Although Daniel fixed the locks, the storeowner accused him of trying to rip him off because the door was not fixed. Daniel left the shop abruptly in order to not get into a confrontation with the storeowner. The lack of failure to communicate is a huge factor between these two individuals; if each would have taken the time to calm down and access the situation together a viable solution would have been created.

Terrance Howard (Cameron) appeared to initially be an African American male who tries to fit in with the white crowd and do things that are expected of him versus what he feels is right in order to be accepted.

Cameron became a victim of racial profiling when police pulled him and his wife over because it appeared as though his wife was performing oral sex on him; it also appeared as though she was a white woman. When Cameron was pulled over he said all of the right things to the officers, he did not appear to be aggressive and asked his wife continuously not to be aggressive. The officers proceeded to humiliate him and his wife by molesting his wife in front of him. The officer stuck his hand up her dress and proceeded to finger her while threatening legal action against Cameron and his wife. He took Cameron's man hood away because in the end Cameron is the one who chose to apologize about the entire incident in order to avoid any type of penalties. His wife had a hard time dealing with this action because she felt as if her husband allowed this to happen to her in order to avoid having his name in the paper; she stated that it would associate him with being black. As she stated he was not "black enough". This situation would have been much different if officer had given him the respect that he deserved and not molested his wife. In addition, Cameron could have stood up to the police but who knows what would have happened then.

The overall movie teaches us that we all have racisms inside of us and if we do not attempt to control those racisms, they can quickly spiral out of control. The message that I got from the situation with Cameron is that a person's interaction with police or another individual has a huge impact on how they will interact with that race or group of people in the future. Cameron's initial reaction to the police was one of what a respectful citizen would have; even though he gave the officers respect, those officers humiliated him and took away his man hood. Now in the second round a completely different set of police are confronted with him and he is angry and aggressive and has a weapon. He is acting "wild" and they do not know why. He is trying to prove himself black while officers see him as a dangerous black man. Had it not been for the second officer who knew exactly why he was acting this way, Cameron may have been killed. I also believe that his reaction to the two men who were trying to rob him was what it was because he possibly felt that these young black men were the root of his problems. Had it not been for men like "them" who paint a horrible picture of the African American race, he would not have to put up with the things that he has too.

In conclusion, every individual on this earth deserves to be treated as that. We cannot be accountable for others actions be we can be accountable for change. If we do not make a concentrated effort to change we will all wake up and realize that we are living within a society that only loves and respects based on race and religion versus the people and the heart inside of them.