Crash the Movie, Reaction Paper Example

The movie Crash follows the lives of a number of different people over the course of a few days, and shows how the actions of each character have an effect on the other characters. One of the main themes in this film is the issue of racism, and how prejudices, stereotypes, and misperceptions can drive the way people behave and the decisions they make. The first impression from each character in the film ends up being turned upside down in one way or another as the film progresses, and I was often surprised and even a little saddened by how easily I found myself agreeing with these first impressions, because most of these first impressions were reactions based on racism or prejudice . Crash offers valuable lessons for those entering the field of criminal justice; it reminds viewers that prejudices and stereotypes are often wrong, and it demonstrates how race and social class can have a significant effect on how defendants are treated by the justice system.

This film examines race in several contexts, including how it affects people in the criminal justice system. Many of the intersecting storylines in Crash involve individuals either engaging in or affected by some form of criminal activity. It also examines how race and social status affect virtually every interaction the characters have, even outside of the criminal justice system. One character, the wife of the Los Angeles District Attorney, is involved in a carjacking along with her husband. In the aftermath of that event, she is seen in her home while the police are interviewing her and her husband. She is still angry and upset about the incident, and she takes that anger out on the Hispanic locksmith who is at her house changing her locks; although her carjackers were African American, she appears to see all minorities through the same set of prejudices.  She believes that the locksmith is going to copy her keys and use them to break into her house, based only on her prejudices about his ethnicity. Viewers discover later that this locksmith is a married father of a young daughter who works hard to support his family. The imbalance of social and racial status leads the wife to assume that the locksmith is a criminal simply because he is a minority, even though he happens to be Hispanic, while her carjackers were African Americans. These scenes remind viewers of the impact that “social difference” (Michalowski, p56, 2009) has in all aspects of life. This is especially important when considering the effect this has in the context of the criminal justice system, when prejudices and social differences lead to minorities and people of lower social classes being treated unfairly as compared to their white counterparts. Fairly or not, minorities are seen as moiré likely to commit crime.

The carjacking scene is designed to make viewers question the complicated nature of stereotypes and prejudices and their effect on criminality. In this scene, two young African American men are walking down the street one of them notices that the wife of the District Attorney is afraid of them. The first young man complains to his friend about this overt racism, but as it turns out, they are in fact armed and looking for someone to carjack. The young man had just finished a conversation about the expectations that drive racism before confirming the woman’s fears by pulling out a gun and carjacking her and her husband. The core of the argument being made by the first carjacker is that the social expectations placed on African American males are part of what drives many of them to criminal activity. In essence, he was profiled by the wife of the district attorney, and he blamed his behavior on that profiling. There is significant evidence that African Americans are disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice system (“Chris Hayes’s graph of the year: our racist criminal justice system in one chart,” 2013). What scenes like the carjacking scene in Crash ask viewers to consider is what social forces drive this phenomenon.

Another significant theme in the film involves the way police officers view issues related to race. One officer who expresses racist attitudes and behavior warns his junior partner to wait until he has been on the force for a few years before judging him for his prejudices. Later in the film, with these issues and questions on his mind, the junior partner shoots and kills a young African American that he wrongly thought was armed. Then, in the final irony, the older cop, who was presumably the more “racist” of the two,  ends up saving the life of an African American woman he had harassed only a short time earlier. These scenes reinforce the film’s theme that racism and prejudice are complex issues, a theme that is particularly relevant for those intending to work in the criminal justice system. According to the American Civil Liberties Union,  our criminal justice system “disproportionately targets people of color,” and notes that African Americans and other minorities are more likely than whites to be given the death penalty (Racial Justice, n.d.). The scenes with the policeman help viewers see how they can exhibit prejudicial behavior at some times and still see people as more than just their skin color at other times. The stories and characters in Crash bring life to the statistical information, making it possible to see how such information is more than just data or graphs and charts, but has real-world implications for real people.

The film Crash challenges viewers to question their own prejudices. It dramatizes the issues of social differences and class distinctions in a powerful way. The film is not intended to provide easy answers to the questions it raises; if anything, it is intended to remind viewers that there are no easy answers to such questions. The underlying message in Crash is that people are more than their skin color, social background, or economic status, and it challenges viewers to look beyond the surface to see the complicated and often contradictory people behind the stereotypes. For those intending to pursue careers in criminal justice, Crash serves as a reminder that stereotypes and prejudices are often wrong, and that social differences often lead to unfair treatment of those at the bottom of the social ladder.

Works Cited

Crash. Paul Haggis, 2004.

Jones, Lynn, Ed. Investigating Difference: Human and Cultural Relations in Criminal Justice. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2014. Print.

Unknown. “Chris Hayes’s graph of the year: our racist criminal justice system in one chart.” Washington Post, 2013. Web. 30 Mar 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/28/chris-hayess-graph-of-the-year-our-racist-criminal-justice-system-in-one-chart/>.

Unknown. “Racial Justice.” American Civil Liberties Union, 2014. Web. 30 Mar 2014. <https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice>.