Detective Graham in the Movie Crash - Essay Example

?"It's the sense of touch...I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just so that we can feel something..." - Crash (Scene The opinion voiced by detective Graham in the movie “Crash” about needing to be touched has several underlying meanings which make his seemingly simple words profoundly complicated. Touch is the sense that connects us to other people. However, in the film, “Crash”, consistent alienation has been presented to reflect the dominance of racism, prejudice, ethnocentrism, stereotyping and a whole lot of things that disconnect people from each other into their own respective cold corners. The film literally bursts with the theme of racial prejudice as a multi-colored cast careens in and out of the screen to make their presence felt. Each character has an issue to deal with regarding his or her ethnic background. For example, the overly- ethnocentric black car robber who constantly complains about how blacks are being unfairly discriminated upon in L.A. reflects a self-fulfilling prophecy. He believes that the white server in the restaurant ignored them because they were blacks and because blacks are not known to give tips, proved her right by not leaving a tip at all, justifying that they had poor service. A while later, he spots a victim in a white woman who avoids their direction. He knows she did so because she thought they were black muggers and was fearful they would rob her. And true to his “calling”, the black man and his companion do rob her and her lawyer-husband of their car. Society might have ingrained in these black people how to behave, and they automatically do so even if they think and feel deep down inside it is offensively unfair. However, they play the role society expects them to. It is pathetic to realize that one can be held helpless against societal expectations. These circumstances divide people and turn them against each other. The same goes for scene where the American gun dealer who gets impatient with foreigners speaking their language in front of him, making him feel left out. Sensing that these Mediterranean customers are Arabs, he snaps at them by saying, “Play your jihad on your own time”. When the customer reacts angrily, saying he is an American citizen who has the same rights as everyone else, the dealer goes on his offensive oration on how these foreigners have no right to destroy America. He is suggesting that the customers are would-be terrorists, relating it to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The man is sent out of the store leaving her daughter behind while the dealer continues his hostile verbalizations. In doing so, he is unaware that he himself is terrorizing a lady. Why are people always so angry that they blame such negativity on others by finding faults? Is it true that we are always “behind metal and glass” walls that we are inaccessible and hence, untouchable to others? We rely on stereotypes to help us deal with people who are different from us because that is what society expects. Indeed, one can’t help but judge one another based on physical appearances and the stereotypes they represent. Gray (2012) discusses why racial stereotyping is destructive to American society in general. First, it means communicates to the majority of Americans that the negative actions of a few minorities is generalized to the collective values of the whole minority community. This is usually felt by Black American lower to middle class people who are often adjudged as muggers or criminals. Another effect of stereotyping is that the stereotyped group begins to internalize such negative labels and actually mimic or act out the prejudiced behavior. This behavior becomes generalized as typical. The black men in the movie whose self-fulfilling prophecies ingrained by society were adjudged to be so as a people, are pushed to fulfill those prophecies such as being muggers or criminals. They feel that they have no chance of vindicating themselves from such an unfair perception that they must as well live it. A white district attorney keen on keeping his position and maintaining his clean image, shows his hypocritical attempts to tone down racially motivated events that happen to his life, like being robbed by black men, and defending a white cop who shot black people. He wants to stand out as upright and without prejudice, but he himself scoffs at a righteous Iraqui man named Saddam, thinking it’s a joke, and it simply is not possible. His example represents a deeply ingrained thinking that one man’s error may be generalized to his culture. His wife is a hostile, angry woman who feels bad about the ills of society. Badly shaken after being held at gunpoint and having their car stolen by black men, she feels totally unsafe in a world she shares with multiethnic people. The fact that her husband does not share her sentiments in protection of his position in society, she reaches out to someone who would simply listen to her. She finds solace in her Mexican housekeeper who takes care of her when she suffered a fall from the stairs. She realizes that her deep longing to connect to another authentic human being is answered by her humble maid, herself, ethnic. Shohat and Stam (1995) contrast stereotypes with “reality” or “truth” and somehow demonstrates that there is no absolute truth. However, marginalized groups such as Mexicans and Middle easterners have been historically powerless to control their own representation. That is why it is essential that the public be educated to be more discerning in understanding not just the representation or image but also the institutions which disseminate mass media texts and the audiences that receive them (Goldman, 1996). The film is filled with ironies that make the viewers think deeply about human relations. Although we are fraught with a host of human emotions that make us jaded individuals, we are still awed and moved by miracles. The frustrated Persian storeowner who attempted to shoot the Mexican locksmith blaming him for his misfortune, shot at the man’s little girl instead. It was amazing to discover that the girl did not even bear a scratch. Her “invisible cloak” protected her. This cloak may symbolize the girl’s innocence of the evils of the world. As long as she has it, she is secure in the belief that she is safe. The miracle that happened opened the eyes of the Persian man that indeed, the little girl saved him instead (from the consequences that would have followed his crime) and gave him hope that life is worth living after all. The saving grace of all the seemingly negative themes of the movie is compassion – compassion of the white racist cop for the black lady he molested when he saved her from burning in her car, compassion of the same white racist cop for his suffering, ailing father, compassion of the black robber for the caged Cambodians whom he freed, compassion of the young, idealistic white cop for the husband of the wife his partner molested by letting him go when he was supposed to be arrested….the list goes on. It just goes to prove that in the most trying moments, the flawed human spirit still chooses what is good. It transcends deeply-imbedded prejudice against a different skin color. No matter how different we all are outside, deep down, we are all the same, desperately wanting to be treated right, connected, touched. Works Cited Crash, Dir. Paul Haggis, Perf. Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Espositom, Brendan Fraser, Terrance Howard, Chris (Ludacris) Bridges, Thandie Newton and Michael Pena, Lion’s Gate Entertainment, 2005. Goldman, Ilene S. “Unthinking Eurocentrism Radicalizing Multiculturalism”, Jump Cut: a Review of Contemporary Media, no. 40, March, 2006. Gray, Steven F. “Recognizing Stereotypical Images of African Americans in Television and Movies”, Web. October 20, 2012. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1996/3/96.03.05.x.html Shotat, Ella and Robert Stam. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media. London & New York: Routledge, 1995. Print. Read More