Initial Reaction #2

Briana Johnson
Pd.11
May 16, 2009
Initial Reaction #2
A.P. English III


The movie I chose for the Great American Films project was Crash. This movie is about the racial and social tensions in Los Angeles. There are many different characters shown throughout the movie, each with their own experiences and views. I believe that the movie portrayed how people on Earth deal with life, other people, and our experiences. Physical characteristics and racial differences are sometimes interpreted as traits that separate us. However, I don’t believe this. I believe that those two traits are what keep us apart. This leads to certain questions that Crash illustrates. What are the origins of prejudice? Do individual experiences fuel stereotypes? Is it easier to maintain existing stereotypes because things will never change? What stops us from overcoming these prejudices? Usually people think that racism occurs as a result of how you were brought up. In the movie Matt Dillon’s character shows a close bond with his father. So it would be natural to assume that he got racist beliefs from his father. However, this is not so. As it turns out his father wasn’t racist towards black people. Matt Dillon’s character formed his own views about black people because of his father’s negative experiences and as a member of the LAPD. Certain stereotypes have withstood the test of time, no matter how many strides have been made for racial equality. Sandra Bullock’s character made a statement about black and white relationships saying, “If a white woman sees two black men walking towards her and turns the other way, she’s a racist. Well I got scared and didn’t’ say anything, and the next thing I knew, I had a gun shoved in my head!” It is possible that stereotypes such as this have maintained through out time because people because so many people have kept them going. It is a well-known stereotype that black men are destined to be thugs, criminals, and drug dealers. The attitude that “Things will never change” may be partly responsible for the negative racial longevity we have been subjected to for all this time. Another problem that was shown in the film was racial profiling, which is when a person has an idea how another person is. Sandra Bullock’s character is a prime example of this. When she saw the Mexican locksmith, she thought that he was a gang-banger because of his shaved head, prison tattoos, and his pants around his a**.” She seemed to immediately know that he was going to sell her house key to one of his “homeys.” However, that wasn’t the case. He wasn’t a gang-banger, but a loving, caring, family-man.