Crash:troubles in the world

Crash is focused on showing the racial problems in the world today. I was able to see how certain races judge each other and put each other down. The movie touched on many things like prejudice, stereotypes, and conditioning. In the movie it showed how one's actions can come back around to affect you. The racial tension in Crash is very heavy. The people who you would think are good they turn out to be bad or do something that contradiction your perception on that character. Also, the people who seem bad do something good.

The stereotypes in the movie are easy to find. In one scene, a white woman sees two black guys walking pass her and her husband. She gets scared and grabs a hold of her husband. Without even knowing who the black guys are she judges them. Another scene of stereotyping in the movie is when the same woman gets mad with a Hispanic male changing her locks and just because he had tattoos she thought he was a gang member and he would sell her house keys to a gang member.

Fear plays a significant role in the movie. At the beginning of the movie a black couple gets pulled over. The cop abuses his power and molested the black woman. The black man was scared the whole time, he feared for his life. The woman was mad at her husband for letting the cop do that to her, but I personally think that the black man action were the best for that situation.  

The movie showed some of the problems that people have with each other today. People aren't always as good as they seem. You truly see who people really are in pressure moments like when the white cop picks up the black guy. They are in the car and they go at it for a little and the black guy tries to show the white guy what he was laughing about. The white cop prejudged the black man and ended up killing the Black man for no reason. We thought he was a good guy at the beginning, but he ended up being like all the other characters in the movie.   

Anger was apparent with the white woman at the end of the movie when she realized that she was angry for no reason. She would push her friends away and when she needed them most they vanished.The only one there for her was her house maid who she realized was her only friend. Anger was also shown by the white man when talking to the insurance woman. The man got mad at the lady just because she had a black name. This can also relate to colleges and jobs today. Sometimes they cut the number of applications just by the keep of name the person has. This is something that needs to be fixed. While watching this movie showed me that we as people have a lot of work to do before we get to where we want to as people.  

Crash: Explained

In the movie Crash we are force fed all of these stereotypical situations in which each main character has some connection with another. By force fed I mean that there are so many instances where prejudice or racial tension is being put into effect. Some races that clashed were, whites and blacks, whites and East Asian, and Hispanic and East Asian. During these tensions one person made an action while the other person didn't like the action and attacked their identity. This is like what we talked about in class, where we are mad at their action but we take it out on their identity. Now, another thing present in the movie was the cycle of prejudice. A way conditioning was shown was when the black detective's brother places his traveling piece on top of the dashboard. This is conditioning because he is making Ludicrous believe that the statue actually brings safe travels. Thoughts and expectations is shown when the white lady sees two black guys walking toward her. She thinks that the guys are going to harm her so she grabs her husband which is another step in the cycle called avoidance. There was a whole lot of verbal dehumanization during the movie, but one that stood out to me was when the rich black guy told ludacris that he is a disgrace to him and his race. This stood out to me because it makes you think and want to think about how the world sees ourselves.  Finally, there is physical violence. A good example is when the younger white cop shot a black man in his car because he thought the guy was going to pull out a gun. This shows almost every part of the cycle in that one scene. He thought and expected for him to pull out a gun, the white guy tried to avoid the black guy by kicking him out da car. They both were verbally dehumanizing each other. But then the white guy ended up doing physical violence. Officer Tommy Hanson demonstrates that the race or intentions of individual officers are only a symptom of a larger societal problem with regards to race. Before he shows that he sees it first hand with his partner, at the time, when he abuses his authority and molested aa black women and doesn't get in trouble for it. The only reason the cop didn't get in trouble was because the chief was corrupt and let stuff slide because the black chief didn't want to lose his job. Unfortunately, Officer Tommy fell to the same problem when he killed the black man because of a social problem with regarding to race. In conclusion, Crash was a good movie to open my eyes to a prejudice works that we live in, and to show it with extra obvious stereotypes makes it seem even more worse than it is.

Crash

In the movie crash, racial tension is an on-going vibe throughout the whole movie. Throughout the movie we encounter many situations which include racial slurs, belittling actions or just rude thoughts. The first event that blew my mind and made me drop the distractions and focus on the movie was the scene when the two guys come out of the restaurant and come across a white couple. Almost at immediate sight of the pair of black men she (the woman in the couple) reaches for her partners arm for safety. This act alone places the men in a stereotype-- black men are trouble. Then the way the characters ALL have some sort of connection amongst themselves makes the movie and the racial situations so much more interesting and attractive to the brain. The movie makes a complete circle and it revolves around the cycle of prejudice. Throughout the movie in every encounter and hardship, a person's identity is made the target. The movie itself speaks strongly on how our generation behaves today when heads butt-- identity is targeted. Also, the movie portrays many stereotypes of cultures and in a way tries to hide them but only makes them more obvious to the viewer. The movie itself is extremely powerful and if exposed to many people can open up minds and change the "advantage based society" we live in for the equality of all, or at least based on credentials with a fair and just opportunity.

Crash: prejudice

Raekwon Strickland

September 30,2015

Diversity and Social Justice

Mr. Cassidy

    In the movie we watched called Crash it was so much stuff going on in the characters lives. Too many things to see everything the first time you watch it. But when we went back and saw certain parts I was mind boggled by how everything connected and worked out to bring the story back around full circle. But the things I did see were the stereotypes presented by the characters. Such as the two young black men in the beginning coming out of the restaurant. Ludacris one of the men was complaining about how unfair the world is and how blacks should have equal rights. When he saw the white woman start to hold her husband when she saw them he acted as if he felt offended and told his buddy they should be scared because they were the minority in this situation. And then yet they carried out the stereotype and did exactly what the woman thought they would do and that's rob them. I felt this was important because people do this all the time. We complain about how unfair stereotypes about us are and how they prejudge us and you know we do, we fulfill those stereotypes. There were also racial stereotypes when the same woman that held her husband when the blacks robbed them was racist when the hispanic came to change their locks she wanted to get them changed immediately because she said that he would sell the keys to his “gangbanger homies”. This was another instance of stereotypical thinking.

    Racial tension was seen when the cop needed insurance for his father. The lady couldn't give his father an insurance claim and he attacked her identity. He asked for her name and she said “ Shaniqua” and he came back and said big surprise. He said this because he knew she was black because she couldn't give him the insurance. This showed racial tension because he used her name assume that she was a black woman. And because he was made upset by a black woman he automatically took it out on another black woman by sexually assaulting her. This showed the tension that he had with black people.

Well fear had a big thing to do with race. A good example is at the end of the movie when the cop killed the black man off of fear of what might happen. But it could have either race and fear or just based on pure fear of losing his own life. Many things could have happened it could have been a white man in his car and the same thing could ended in him killing him either way. So fear played a huge role in what happened no matter what race.

The in the movie was pretty serious resulting in mistakes that could have been made and resolutions to their problems. Such as the white woman who said she always felt angry. She was angry because she didn't have any true friends around her. The only person she believed was her true friend was the woman that took care of her and cleaned her house who just happened to hispanic. This opened her mind to anyone that isn't white to just give them a chance and get to know them as a person.

Prejudice

Coming into this course I never thought I would be so intrigued in learning about the things that go on in the world that I live in. So far with this readings I believe that this generation has developed a hatred for new and unknown things in life. Our generation is afraid of things they do not have a description for. I feel like this is what drives racism in today’s society. The fear of what we do not know. Seeing a man of color down the street, then crossing the street because you’re afraid of your perception of this man. He could easily be a man with a great personality but you were afraid of what you thought of him. Acts like these is what ruins our generation, this is what drives people to think it is okay to cast out the people who are different then them. We need to notice that our generation is messed up, and we need everyone to contribute to the change we need to make for generations after us. Making a difference in one small community will have no effect on what’s going on in our world. Our culture is unaccepting of things that are unordinary. Seeing someone on the street and not being able to automatically point out their gender is something that is unordinary and that person will be pushed out. Which is why I believe all problems in the world root back to the fear of difference.

As people in the United States everyone is assigned to a category. Sad to say, but true. These categories demoralize us as humans. As James Baldwin said “ a black woman in Africa, therefore who has not experienced white racism, does not think of herself as black or experience herself as black, nor do the people around her. African, yes. A woman, yes. But not a black woman.” By these he meant to say that when she came to the United States, she was categorized by her race and is now a black woman. Just like a Norwegian man from Norway. When he comes to the United States what he learns is that he white and the privilege that comes along with being a white man in the United States. Understanding his privileges he will now be glad to attach it to his identity. Both scenarios are the same with the woman from Africa and the man from Norway, however, because of the privileges our culture has given to different races. The lives of these two people will be completely different. Privilege and difference cause major problems in our culture and if we don’t do something about it, nothing will ever change.

Honestly this class has shed light onto topics that are so delicate to our society yet so valuable. This class has discussed those that are dominant and those that suffer the disadvantage that allows us to prosper is such a nation. The class discussions alone bring up so many important topics that show us different perspectives of our judicial branch of society that limits men of color from achieving greatness quote and our competitive society. The class has discussed how men of color face more severe consequences and punishable actions while "Americans" have most the freedom they could want when committing similar or even more severe crimes such as mass murders, hate crimes and acts of brutality. The class has shed light on very delicate topics of race and how unjust is for the low class people of color. Our system is created and developed to maintain the poor, poor and the rich, rich.our system has done a great job at covering the weak links to their masterpiece of segregation but people demand change and newly enraged "Americans" want equality.

Forms of our ideals

In these readings, it shows that people's  ideas of one another are all from a matter of perspectives. It's all because of how we were brought up in the world. At first, we are characterized at a young age. We can't do anything about the way we start looking like at birth. Life isn't like a character creation scene on a role playing video game. We didn't choose to be black or white, curly or straight hair, or even if we are a boy or girl (Harro 46). It was because of pure luck that we were born as we are.
As we develop during our youth, we hear many people call us many different things. when we are young, we could be called cute, handsome, and things of that sort. However, in this society, segregation is common. A child could notice this in many places throughout their childhood. One place I believe many people notice and learn about the idea of segregation is at a school. In Social Studies, kids learn about Christopher Columbus interaction with the Native Americans. Also, the idea of black people being slaves towards white people based on the color of their skin. They also learn about Martin Luther King and how he lived through a time of violence and civil war just because of black people trying to become equal with white people. Sadly, there is still signs of segregation deep under the surface
One example of segregation being apparent is the multiple cases around that deals with the problem of police brutality. There were many cases of this where the police attack a black man (or woman) and get out free because the police officer(s) appeal of the incident being an act of self defence. The news then announce the question of whether or not it is a sign of racism or not. Flaring up unnecessary controversy between all those who are curious about the topic.
Relating to the topic of the media, there is many reasons to believe that news and social media fuel the people´s thoughts. For example, as we discussed in class, the riots in baltimore this year. If you closely listen to what the news casters were saying before the riots even started, some said things like ¨no riots has occurred as of yet¨. This shows how they were clearly provoking and expecting riots to happen around the city of Baltimore. So, if there´s people to include in the cause of the Baltimore Riots, it's the media.
To conclude, segregation and ideas that root from it can come from many sources. It could be from our parents, with them telling us who to watch out for and the kind of people to respect. It could also be from school, where we learn about segregation and violence that came from it. Thirdly, we could get our ideas from the news, who feed us passive forms of discrimination to make us think badly of an situation