Crash

Wow.

I had heard it was a good movie on the issues of racism and prejudice. I had no idea it actually WAS a good movie on those issues.

It was fantastic. So broad in its scope...so deep in its details. Just a really great film, with complex irony and level upon level of introspection.

I probably sound lame...but it was refreshing to see such a great representation of the problems that really DO affect us on a day to day basis. There is racism, as Crash presents it, everywhere and at work constantly. This is because we all work with people different from ourselves...and specifically when it comes to the issue of race, we have prejuidices in mind that we must decide to overcome (if we are to be good people) or are influenced by (if we allow our natural inclinations to rule us). There is a reason mankind divided when God introduced differences into the equation. We don't like to understand those that are not like us.

But the thing I think I saw best represented in Crash was the nature of racism. Racism comes about as a result of all those other issues (prejudices, stereo-types, history, etc). But at the moment, when the man or woman is acting on those racist emotions...he or she is not so different from any other bad man or woman committing an offense against another person. The only difference is the racist has, as his reason for acting against the specific individual he is acting against, race as a motivating factor. Still there are degrees of racists. They do not automatically become that special type of racist that would put entire races into concentration camps. The average racist is merely a man behaving badly towards a person or people of a particular race that he has (for one reason or another) decided is inherantly less good as a result of being "that race" (clearly a fool's opinion...but that's what a person acting on racism is...a fool--or at least, foolish).

The really interesting thing is...this reveals just how universal racism can be. These predispositions are everywhere. Its nearly impossible to avoid...because we ARE different, and when people differ from each other, they notice those differences and attribute problems to the presence of differences (whether there is a relation or not).

I don't know. I realize that this is a jumble of thoughts. I really appreciated the movie and I think that if the discussion on the issues of race were approached with a better understanding (an understanding akin to the understanding that I think the makers of Crash have) we would get further in bridging the gap between our differences.