Steriotypes

Crash and Steriotypes

The movie Crash depicts several characters and brings them together through car accidents, shootings, and carjackings. Most of the characters depicted in the film are racially prejudiced in some way, and become involved in conflicts which force them to examine their own prejudices. Through these characters interactions, the film attempts to show that racism is common in modern America.

One scene that moved me was when the locksmith was talking to his daughter about how she was safe in their new house and how the cloth around her neck would always keep her safe. One external noise that I realized was when the black lady that got into an accident there was a Middle Eastern music playing in the back ground. There are many factors that affect the communication in this film; one characters who are constantly using profanity to express their anger.

One major conflict that bothers me the most was when officer Ryan pulled over two young African American people and assaulted the young lady and put her in an uncomfortable position. The method that could have been used to solve this was Ryan's partner could of stepped forward and done his job as a police officer which is to help and not to watch.

As Ryan was talking to Shaniqwa, HMO case supervisor, he was forcing the situation of his dad on her for help. When she refused a couple of times, he made a very nasty comment. The comment was something like this; I wonder how many white males did not get your job, it's a shame. To me this comment is very racist. Even though his dad was very sick I was happy that he was thrown out of her office for being racist. Another example of stereotyping I noticed was when Anthony's friend wanted to ride the bus because their car was not starting, Anthony didn't want to ride the bus because he thought the only reason why the window of the bus was so big is to humiliate the African American people that need to ride the bus. Another example is when the DA's wife played by Sandra Bullock, tells hir husband how he should get the locks changed again after getting them changed already. because the locksmith was Spanish and had a couple of tattoos. But in reality, the locksmith is married and has a daughter that he loves very much. He works hard to make a simple but honest living, and be able to take care of his family.

Stereotypes are not something that is uncommon to the world, they are not something that is just seen in the United States or other big countries, but they are seen all over the world. We live in a world where people have hatred towards others, thus, the stereotyping is something we also pick up from our parents and from others. In America for one thing we see all types of stereotyping due to the diversity of people in it. One stereotyping we see are the ones made popular by the media. The media always puts forward things such as singers and actors and makes them popular for more then just their talent, their image and bodies. With that we see many Americans feeling that this is how the typical body should be. For example, when the media put forward the teen idle and pop star singer Britney Spears. They put her out and market her not only for her singing talent, but for her body. Many times one would see on the cover of magazines, topics such as "The Britney Spears diet and workout". Britney Spears being the talented singer that she is, happened to have a very good body type from all of the exercising as well as dancing she does on stage. The media however, made her body a huge idle for teens. In a way they made male teens want girls with that body type. This made girls feel like they have to emulate the Britney Spears body, or they do not look good. This is a stereotype of how the average teen female should look, the "Britney" body. It takes away from the diversity in society by how people view women in that they need to have that body type, as well as taking away from women when they feel they have to emulate it (Padolina, 18-20).

Another example of the media spreading stereotypes is seen within the gay community. We many times see shows on TV which illustrate "the gay man" as the lead actors, and portrays them in a very stereotypical way of how people believe gay men should act. For example, a show like Will and Grace portrays the lead gay actor (Will) as being a flaming homosexual who acts like a female and has very little masculine qualities. To most gay men, this is something which is not true. Most are