The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

"Crash" is a movie that tells interlocking stories of whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops and criminals, the rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless, all defined in one way or another by racism. All are victims of it, and all are guilty of it. Sometimes, yes, they rise above it, although it is never that simple. Their negative impulses may be instinctive, their positive impulses may be dangerous, and who knows what the other person is thinking?

For me, the strongest performance is by Matt Dillon, as the racist cop in anguish over his father. He makes an unnecessary traffic stop when he thinks he sees the black TV director and his light-skinned wife doing something they really shouldn't be doing at the same time they're driving. True enough, but he wouldn't have stopped a black couple or a white couple. He humiliates the woman with an invasive body search, while her husband is forced to stand by powerless, because the cops have the guns -- Dillon, and also an unseasoned rookie (Ryan Phillippe), who hates what he's seeing but has to back up his partner.

The obvious reoccurring theme in the movie is social inequality, specifically racism, and many racial stereotypes are brought up throughout the movie. For example, in one of the scenes the young Hispanic locksmith is changing the locks in the district attorney’s house. While he is doing this, the district attorney’s wife is in a frenzy in the other room about wanting to get the locks changed again the next day. The clear implication here is that she does not trust the locksmith because he is Hispanic, and she has the notion that he is going to sell a copy of the key to some criminals who will rob the house. This blatant social inequality that is shown is extremely powerful to the audience, especially because the audience learns that the locksmith is simply a hard-working man who is earning an honest living and supporting a wife and a young daughter. The district attorney’s wife had no reason to think otherwise, but because of the locksmith’s race she made an unfair assumption. This is only one of the many social inequalities that are present in this film. It is also very interesting to note that despite the extremely low percentage of Hispanic actors in films and prime time television today (around 6%), Crash is one of the few films that included a Hispanic actor in a major role.

Not many films have the possibility of making their audiences better people. I don't expect "Crash" to work any miracles, but I believe anyone seeing it is likely to be moved to have a little more sympathy for people not like themselves. The movie contains hurt, coldness and cruelty, but is it without hope? Not at all. Stand back and consider. All of these people, superficially so different, share the city and learn that they share similar fears and hopes. Until several hundred years ago, most people everywhere on earth never saw anybody who didn't look like them. They were not racist because, as far as they knew, there was only one race. You may have to look hard to see it, but "Crash" is a film about progress.

This is a movie that I would like to recommend for you to watch in order to have more understanding about racism and inequality.

Reference:

Billyhocking (2011) Social Inequality in“Crash”. Retrieved from http://billyhocking.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/social-inequality-in-crash/