CRASH

The movie CRASH: 

        This cleverly crafted movie intertwines the stories of several individuals into coming in contact with or in some way influence each others life’s. Each person has a story of some kind of oppression. Race was a major theme in this movie and showed the different ways race effects people. There were many moments that exemplified racisms, prejudices, stereotypes discrimination and the like. The characters in this movie were from a wide rang of races. There was a wealth married couple that were White, two African American males, an Hispanic couple with a daughter and an middle Eastern family. There was also another married couple with the husband being African American and a half White and half Black wife. And the last group I believe worth mentioning that is related to race issues are two White police officers. 

There was a scene that involved the White couple and the two African American men that had perceptions of racism, discrimination and stereotypes. In the beginning of the scene it shows the two African American males stepping out a dinner. One male was complaining about the poor service he received in the restaurant by an African American female. He was saying that because he was Black she did not want to provide service because she probably thinks they wont tip. In the middle of their conversation the White couple were walking in the opposite direction from them on the same side of the sidewalk. When the Black male looked up and noticed them he also observed that the White female grabbed her husbands arm as they walked passed the two males. The Black male felt offended and believed that she did that because she did not feel safe due to their presence. He described how they did not look threatening and that they were in a well lit affluent part of the city and yet she still felt unsafe. 

Of course the comments the African American male was saying were opinions he felt this way because of his experiences. Through out the entire movie all the characters are faced with direct racism and some with the perception of racism. I believe that the purpose of this movie was to bring light on how sometimes the ambiguity of racism can be the cause of racism in the first place. Some people in this movie reacted to certain situations differently once they were exposed to a different aspect of what beliefs they had about certain races. By the end of this film everyone felt as if a new light shined on them because of their realization of how having preconceived thoughts of things blinded them from realizing that they themselves are the cause of those perpetuating prejudice beliefs.