Film “Crash” Essay

The inclusion of the 2006 film Crash in a multicultural psychology class is an provoke way to show that prejudices at heart certain cultures can develop because they argon based on the man of the situation and that prejudices develop equally within all racial groups. No one group is more(prenominal) or less prone to racial prejudice than any other. Crash is also a study is extremes as virtually every character in the delineation presents a project of other races that is based on biases, anger and misconceptions.Unfortunately, devil of the scenes in the film seem to reinforce classifys and that was a bit disappointing. The initial scene with Anthony and nib discussing the stereotypes of being grim men in an all white propinquity and other people shying away from them was impacting and disappointing when it turned out that they two of them were in feature there for nefarious reasons. And, when we discoer that Kim Lees husband was trafficking in Chinese slaves was also a sad stereotype that made the impression more impacting, only if also was a confusion that the writer re disciplineed to that stereotype.The movie is so full of examples of prejudice that it is hard to decide where the scuttlebutt on the racial discrimination begins and where it ends. For example, in an early scene, Farhad and Dorri are attempting to debauch a handgun from a local gun shop and the line of descent owner immediately assumes that they are Arabs, based on skin colourize and accent. In a later onward scene, Dorri is talking with her mother who maintains, in result to raghead and other slurs spray painted on their store walls, they assume we are Muslims when we are Christian.(Haggis, 2006). The gun store owner reacts with anger expect that Farhad is a terrorist and attacks him with any number of racial slurs based on his broken English. Farhad assumes that the Caucasian gun store owner was attempting to cheat him and continues with that prejudice later when Dan iel arrives to fix the broken lock on the door of his store. One of the saddest commentaries the movie moderates on the affects of racism is the scene amidst Daniel and Farhad, resulting in Farhads thrill that Daniel is trying to cheat him.Daniel is one of two characters in the movie who in the main is shown as treating people the alike(p) regardless of how they treat him. When Jean Cabot has a screaming fit about the fact that she has been robbed at gunpoint by African Americans and that her locksmith is Hispanic, Daniel says nothing, just slams the key on the counter and leaves. He does ignite the attack on Farhads store, but that is motivated by the fact that Farhad volition not pay him, not by any racial animosity, or at least no animosity that is demonstrated in the movie.Farhads daughter Dorri is the only other character whose racial look is not offensive. Dorri expressed disappointment at others actions towards her pose and her fathers actions towards others, but she herself does not exhibit racism. Another interesting study in racism in the movie is in the conversations between Anthony and Peter. At one point, Anthony lectures Peter on the difference between take from people outside of the African American community and within the community.He also argues that gangsta rap is a government conspiracy to make the scurrilous community fight within itself. Peter shows his racism in his impudence that all country music is a racist plot against African Americans. Later, Peters inability to let go of his own fraud about the country music costs him his life. In the scene when he is killed, Peter is laughing about the music and virtually picking a fight with the police officer played by Ryan Phillipe who picks him up on a cold night while he is hitchhiking.The officer, Tom Hansen, who has objected to racism over and over throughout the movie to this point, shows his prejudice when Peter says that he wanted to play ice hockey and thusly get annoy with the way that Peter mocks his music. When Peter finally finds the common ground that could bewilder them together, a statue of St. Christopher on the dashboard, he hold outs to come skilful out and say so. Instead he pulls his own statute out of his pocket. Had he only if spoken instead of taking action, his death could have been avoided. Again, the death is a sad commentary on the way that prejudices develop.When Hansen first encounters racism on the police force, he is offended and wants to be removed from the partner, John Ryan, who was openly racist. Later, Ryan tells him, Wait until you lived a little longer (Haggis, 2006). Ryans character is a blatant racist, pulling over the Thayers, a 40-something black couple for no reason other than to screw with them and molest Christine Thayer under the pretense of a search for weapons. Hansen is offended by the way Ryan treats the Thayers and then a night later shoots and kills a black teen, dumps the body and torches his own e levator gondola car to cover the crim.Even the good character is racist in this movie. Ryan explains to the health maintenance organization representative Shaniqua why he has developed his racist attitude but does so only later insinuationg that she received her job only because she was a black woman and after insulting her. For her part, Shaniqua could have overcome Ryans racism by doing the right thing herself, but because she encountered so often racism over the course of her lifetime, she perpetuated the racism by not doing the right thing and approving additional maintenance for Ryans father.Ryan later sort of redeems himself by going into Christine Thayers burning car to rescue her after an accident, proving that even a bigot can do the right thing sometimes. In many ways the most disturbing form of racism shown in the movie is that of Jean and Rick Cabot. Jean Cabot explodes in anger after being robbed, attacking her housekeeper for not putting away the dishes from the di shwasher and take for granted that her locksmith will sell her house key to gang bangers who will then rob her. By the end of the movie, her attitude is changed when the only one who will come to her rescue is her housekeeper.After getting treatment, she tells her husband that her friend of 10 years wouldnt come take her to the hospital because she was getting a massage. Her husband and his staff were unavailable and only the housekeeper, whom she had yelled at former in the day and was, contemplating firing for no apparent reason, would take care of her. At least her reactions to other races were genuine. More disturbing were the actions of Rick Cabot. He treated all the races as equal stepping stones to his political career. His only apparent movement about a hero firefighter was Does he look black? until he learned that the mans name was Saddam. Then he spent the time yelling at his publicist to find a better way to spin things for him. He allowed his people to offer to fail t o prosecute a black detectives younger brother, peter, for car theft in an effort to add an investigator of color to his knowledgeable circle. He ignored evidence that a white nobble killed a black cop because the black cop was corrupt, not because the white cop was a racist, which he might have been. The examples of racism in the movie are too frequent to list in a paper. at that places the Puerto Rican/Guatemalan police woman who mocks a Chinese device driver for not seeing her blake lights and not being able to see over the steering wheel. Her African American boyfriend tells his mother hes sleeping with a white woman, explaining to her that it will upset his mother more than saying hes sleeping with a Mexican. The Chinese woman, Kim Lee, says with role that Mexicans dont know how to drive. In a bit part, Tony Danza argues with an African-American television director that his co-star sounds less Black and that his character is alleged(a) to be the smart one.All in all, Crash is an interesting commentary on racism across the culture, showing that many races share the same wrong perceptions of the other races. The movie is one stereotype after another, both(prenominal) coming out of the mouths of the characters, and in the characterization of the people within the movie. However, it is in fact a good way to learn that all cultures make the same mistakes and that they all need to stop making such prepossess assumptions. WORKS CITED Haggis, Paul. (Writer/Director), 2006, Crash USA Bulls Eye Entertainment.