Crash the Movie, Crashing Into Prejudice
Crash the Movie
Crashing into Prejudice
Angela Rupp
Fort Hays State University
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This essay was written for the course Multiculturalism in a Democratic Society (IDS350) at Fort Hays State University. Instructor: Ms. K. Kerrigan
Crash the Movie
Crashing into Prejudice
Numerous movies have been produced for society that address racial prejudice and stereotyping. The movie Crash is just such a movie. However, this movie takes a more impartial approach than most. The action is shown in a collection of vignettes highlighting the story of several characters over the span of two days in Los Angeles, California. The characters are victims of prejudice in one scene only to be the offender in a different situation later in the film. The stereotypes run the racial gambit from White to Latino to African American to Asian American to Middle Eastern American.
The film begins and ends with a car accident. The first one is between an Asian American woman and two LA detectives, one female Latino and one African American, Det. Waters and Ria. The Asian American lady is visibly upset and blames the Latino woman for the accident. Because of her accent she mispronounces the word braked and it sounds like “blaked”. The Latino woman proceeds to mimic her in a prejudicially sarcastic way. This approach to the beginning of the film supports the view that prejudicial attitudes exist among members of both dominant and minority groups (Parrillo, 2008).
The next scene begins with the word “Yesterday”. A Middle Eastern man and his daughter are in a gun shop. He is arguing with his daughter because he is trying to buy a gun. The clerk yells at him and calls him Osama. The clerk then tells him to “plan his jihad on his own time”. The older man takes offence and starts arguing with the clerk. The daughter gets her father out of the shop and returns to either get the money back or the gun. She
Crashing into Prejudice
Angela Rupp
Fort Hays State University
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This essay was written for the course Multiculturalism in a Democratic Society (IDS350) at Fort Hays State University. Instructor: Ms. K. Kerrigan
Crash the Movie
Crashing into Prejudice
Numerous movies have been produced for society that address racial prejudice and stereotyping. The movie Crash is just such a movie. However, this movie takes a more impartial approach than most. The action is shown in a collection of vignettes highlighting the story of several characters over the span of two days in Los Angeles, California. The characters are victims of prejudice in one scene only to be the offender in a different situation later in the film. The stereotypes run the racial gambit from White to Latino to African American to Asian American to Middle Eastern American.
The film begins and ends with a car accident. The first one is between an Asian American woman and two LA detectives, one female Latino and one African American, Det. Waters and Ria. The Asian American lady is visibly upset and blames the Latino woman for the accident. Because of her accent she mispronounces the word braked and it sounds like “blaked”. The Latino woman proceeds to mimic her in a prejudicially sarcastic way. This approach to the beginning of the film supports the view that prejudicial attitudes exist among members of both dominant and minority groups (Parrillo, 2008).
The next scene begins with the word “Yesterday”. A Middle Eastern man and his daughter are in a gun shop. He is arguing with his daughter because he is trying to buy a gun. The clerk yells at him and calls him Osama. The clerk then tells him to “plan his jihad on his own time”. The older man takes offence and starts arguing with the clerk. The daughter gets her father out of the shop and returns to either get the money back or the gun. She
References: Haggis, P. (Director) (2004). Crash [Theater]. Parrillo, Vincent. (2008, 04). Causes of Prejudice: the Sociology of Prejudice. Retrieved from FHSU BB. Multiculturalism in a Democratic Society. Blackboard on March 2, 2013. Healey, J. (2012). Race, ethnicity, gender ,and class the sociology of group conflict and change. (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, California, USA: SAGE Publications Inc