Racism In The Office

In contrast to the Diversity Day episode of The Office, the film Crash depicts harsh examples of intercultural incompetence. In the beginning of the film, certain characters hold specific biases of other races and their own. Throughout the course of the film, some characters come to realizations about their personal and cultural identity and learn to interact competently with members of other cultures.
After dinner with her husband, Jean seeing two black men walking nearby and clings to her husband. This example of aversive racism lies in contrast to the image that her husband tries to portray at work. As Rick is running for a specific job and needs the support of African American voters, his public relations team strategically publicizes images of Rick to appear more appealing to the African American community. While it is okay to be seen with African Americans for the sake of publicity, authentic interaction with members of this culture is less desirable when not in front of a camera. This was shown in the way that she moved closer to her husband.
During their interaction, John expresses to Shaniqua how he regrets that the “six other qualified white men” (Haggis, 2004, pg. 57) didn’t get hired over her. Additionally, he tells her that in order to get where she is today, she probably received some handouts, and should return the favor to his father who always helped “the blacks”. John’s statements in this scene depict symbolic racism because he believes that the misfortunes that his father suffered were a result of helping black people. However, this is false. Whether John’s father hired black employees or white employee would have made no difference in his ability to retain his business. Because of his distorted views, John believes that the success and advancements of African American’s threaten the opportunities of Caucasian Americans (Lustig & Koester,