Racism

All through time, the world has been racist and intolerant of people different from themselves. Countless millions have suffered due to the bigotry of people that couldn't understand change or differences among one another. There was a time when any soul that wasn't blue eyed and blonde haired in Germany, anyone with darker skin where immediately classed as inferior and not human. Even now, when you are not aware, racism is still a considerable problem. But sometimes it isn't one person being racist against another, but rather one person being racist against them self. The movie crash shows good examples of how racism against oneself, caused by fear and misunderstanding, is just as malevolent and evil as racism against another person. Fear is what makes people act racist. Farhad is one of many examples in the movie of a person who recognizes his own race and paralyzes himself through his own fear. Farhad believes that since he is Persian he is immediately being persecuted against and cheated. He flips out at the gun shop when the owner was insulting him which just furthers his fear of Americans. After the events on 9/11, which are referenced a lot in the movie, Farhad thinks that anyone who is Middle Eastern isn't welcome in America. Even after the gun shop owner was rude; his shop was destroyed by racist people who hated him. It is this same fear of being cheated because of his race that makes him very untrusting to people he doesn't know. He calls a lock smith to come fix his door because it won't lock. He immediately thinks that Daniel is trying to cheat him and steal money from him just because of his past endeavors. Farhad even says, "You cheat me right? You have friend that fix door?" when Daniel tells him he needs a door after replacing the lock. Since Farhad believed that he was being cheated he did not fix the door which ultimately led to his shop being destroyed and uninsured due to negligence. Farhad is one of many characters that acts to "protect himself" due to fear of misunderstanding and prejudice.

Anthony shows many characteristics similar to Farhad only he is more hypocritical. Anthony constantly complains of the people who follow stereotypes but follows them the most himself. He knows he is black and believes with his whole heart that literally almost everything in the world is a plot from white people to bring "the black man" down. He too tries to protect himself from the world that he believes is against him. But believing that white people are after black people is a stereotype in itself thus he is a hypocrite. There are many examples of his fear of white people. He won't get on the bus because, "white people put big ass windows on them to embarrass the people of color forced to ride it!" He won't tip waitresses because they "think black people don't tip!" He doesn't even listen to pop or rap music, made popular by the black populace, because "it's an instrument of the white man to keep black people down." What is confusing about Anthony's character is that even though he hates the stereotype of black people being thugs and gangsters, he steals cars from white people and thinks he is doing a service to his black community. This is also odd because he has morals against robbing from a black man but not white. Stealing from a black man is wrong because they have so much to deal with already because white people are always after them is his mind set. Even this doesn't actually stop him when he breaks his own morals and attempts to steal Cameron's car and fails. But when he does Cameron says something to Anthony that ultimately changed him for the better.

When Anthony tried to take Cameron's car he fought him back and even took his gun. While Anthony had the gun he was in control of the situation and had the "power" so to speak. Cameron took it from him and wasn't going to let Anthony steal his car. Cameron finally snapped from all the racism he was starting to see himself endure and wouldn't even back