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Marissa Hillquist
Professor Anna Murta
Film & Culture 1070
13 November 2015
Crash course into racial stereotypes
Based in the City of Los Angeles; an urban melting pot containing a multitude of diverse
cultural backgrounds varying in race, class, and status, Crash demonstrates the social tension
between different groups by means of ironic situations and contradictions based upon racial
stereotypes. Specifically, no one is exempt from either becoming a victim of racism, or being
guilty of it. Released three years post 9/11, this film follows the intersecting lives of ten
individuals in a time span of 36 hours and gives insight into the damage racial stereotyping can
generate.
Near the beginning, we see two African-American gentlemen leaving a diner where one
is complaining about the lack of service and long wait they received compared to how all the
whites were being treated due to their color. He then notices a white woman suddenly clutching
to her husband after seeing them and immediately gets offended by this gesture. The next
moment takes a turn when the two men decide to steal the white couple's car at gun point. After
the incident, the white couple returns home to have the locks changed. The white house wife
demands her husband have the locks changed again in the morning and asks if they didn't send a
gang member because he has a shaved head and prison tattoos. She justified her reasoning
for stereotyping the locksmith due to his physical attributes and over the fact that she had a gun
pointed at her face after she expressed fear. Flash forward we see the locksmith is actually a

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caring family man with a young daughter and wife, trying to provide his family a better life.
Later on we have a Persian immigrant, along with his daughter, and they are attempting
to purchase a gun for protection. Due to the language barrier experienced between the Persian
and the proprietor, this Persian gentleman inquires his daughter in Farsi, so he can better
understand what he is purchasing. At this point, the store clerk impatiently refers to him as
Osama and insults his attempt to speak English; automatically comparing him to a terrorist.
Considering where the United States was during the early 2000's, a lot of Americans had
irrational fears toward anyone that even looked Muslim due to their misguided assumptions on
who was responsible for the terrorist attacks on September 11th. A decade after Islamic
extremists used airplanes to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Muslim American
travelers say they are still paying the price for terror attacks carried out in the name of their
religion. At airports, ports and land crossings, many contend, they are repeatedly singled out for
special screening and intrusive questioning about their religious beliefs. Others say they have
been marooned overseas, barred from flights to the United States (Huus). This scene
demonstrates how quickly some presume ones cultural background based on superficial
appearances or difference in language.
In the United States of America there is a social structure that directs the Interaction
between the dominant culture, the immigrant culture, and the minority culture. Within the
dominant culture there is an unmarked social contract which is guided by a set of values and
expectations that are not only illustrated by this group, but these values are expected of the
immigrant and minority groups in order for full acceptance into the ranks of the dominant culture
(Randall). White status in America is the dominant cultural standard, especially if one is in a

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position of power. As a white police officer along with his rookie colleague, uses his authority to
pull over a wealthy African-American couple returning home from an award ceremony and
requests the driver to perform an unnecessary sobriety test, regardless of his complete
cooperation. After the driver's wife starts mouthing off to the police officer, he demands the
couple to put their hands over their head so they can be frisked for possible weapons. Forcefully
subduing his wife after she protests the unnecessary search, the officer performs an invasive
search and ends up molesting her while her husband helplessly watched. Wanting no further
trouble, the driver apologizes to the police officers asking to leave them with just a warning. Due
to the fact that the officers had guns and were in a position of power, the driver feared rocking
the boat and making things more difficult for them. Later on in the film we find the same officer
responding to a car crash where one vehicle was flipped upside down with the driver still
buckled inside. As the officer attempts to help this person who is stuck in their car, we see it is
the woman he molested the night before. Once she realizes it's that same officer, she starts
freaking out yelling, Don't touch me! Keep away from me! Only then does the officer realizes
how he negatively effected this woman through his actions and starts seeing her as an actual
human being instead of someone that is beneath him because of her race.
It is unfortunate and arrogant to categorize an individual solely on appearances when
people are more complex than that. It's never a one size fits all situation. Only after these
moments where some the characters crash into one another do they take into perspective their
words and actions.

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Citation sources

Randall, Anthony. "The Dominant Culture." LITR 4333 American Immigrant Literature Sample
Midterms 2013. N.p., 7 Oct. 2013. Web.

Huus, Kari. "Muslim Travelers Say They're Still Saddled with 9/11 Baggage."Nbcnews.com.
N.p., 13 Sept. 2011. Web.

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