Media Reaction Paper - Crash Soc 315

Am I racially prejudiced? That was the question I asked myself after I watched the movie Crash. This acclaimed movie which highlights the racial stereotypes that exist in America was a classic example portraying how everyone without much thought has some sort of prejudgment in the way they treat others of different races. This paper will examine my reactions to this classic movie and explain how it represented the diverse culture we have in contemporary America.

Without a doubt Crash attempted to address the diversity of the American landscape. The movie portrayed Whites, Asians, Latinos, Middle Eastern, and African Americans. I have seen Crash many times and have always been amazed at the realness of the subject matter and great example of the melting pot of cultures of the country we live in. As I watched the movie I was able to relate to the characters more closely because what I saw on film is matched very closely at my workplace. I agree with many of the portrayals of the stereotype that were shown as I feel I have been affected by them. The movie producer’s efforts in showing the different cultures and the way they co-exist are very believable.

The movie Crash definitely relied on stereo types when depicting a certain group. You could say the whole movie was based on stereo types. One of the scenes that stood out to me was when the black detective Graham Waters told his Latina girl friend that she was Mexican. She went on to tell him that she was not Mexican but rather of Puerto Rican and Salvadorian decent. His response was to give a comment on who taught all these different cultures to park their cars in their lawns. This type of prejudice was portrayed many times in the movie. Black people were shown calling all Asians China Men without regards of what part of Asia they were from. Persians were mistaken as Arabians.

The film has many other examples of stereo type racism. In one memorable scene Jean Cabot played by Sandra Bullock holds on to her husbands arm as soon as she sees two black men approach her. This type of behavior has been studied with the tendency of some individual to relate non-whiteness with danger (Kottak and Kozaitis, pg. 88). Jean also portrays this type of behavior when she throws a fit when a Latino