Crash
The film Crash brings many themes of Race, Class and Gender to light, such as oppression, stereotypes and identity development. In one of the first scenes, Ludacris’s character felt unhappy with the fact that Sandra Bullock’s character was immediately frightened when she passed by the him and his friend. He felt he was treated unfairly because of the color of his skin and there was no reason for Sandra to feel so uncomfortable with him. He did not do anything to prove they he dangerous, yet…This ties into the idea of stereotypes because Sandra formed preconceived notions about the two black men and she had no basis to think badly of them, other than the fact that they were black. This scene provided a negative moment of reflection, because instead of the two black men proving to Sandra that they were harmless and she had nothing to be afraid of, they held her at gunpoint and stole her car which only furthered her apprehensive feelings toward blacks. Later, the ideas of both stereotypes and oppression were displayed when Sandra Bullock’s character fought with her husband about getting a new locksmith, solely because the one they had was Mexican. She called him a “gang-banger” and felt uncomfortable with him in the house. This can prompt a positive/productive social discussion about weather or not her claim was justifiable. Her locks were already been tampered with before and all she really wanted was to feel safe and to have someone to blame, so was her claim really so unreasonable? Another time oppression was conveyed was with with the Persian man who owned the shop. Everyone treated him unfairly and belittled him just because of his accent and the way he looked. The man who worked at the gun shop gave the Persian man a hard time when he tried to purchase a gun. He fired racist comments regarding terrorism and 911 to the Persian man which only deepened his already prevalent feelings of oppression. This scene can prompt a positive productive social discussion for more reasons than one. First off, the man was Persian and there is a big difference from being a Persian and an Arab. Furthermore, just as everyone else the gunman sold to, he was an American citizen and deserved the same rights as all other American citizens, so what justified the gun shop workers actions?Lastly, identity development was expressed in this movie with Don Cheadle’s character and his struggle with his brother. Although brought up in the same society, Don was able to outgrow the negatives of his life and become part of the police force while unfortunately, his brother was stealing cars and doing many unethical things which eventually led him to his inevitable death. This was a negative moment of reflection because it was very unfortunate to see Don stand idly by as his brother went through a lot, and his mother also dealt with a big drug addiction. Had he helped his family and acted a bit more selfless, his brother would never be put in the position where he was shot and killed. Crash was a movie that embodied many characteristics from Race, Class and Gender and it was really interesting to see how societies preconceived assumptions panned out and how they pushed people into different directions.
