Psychology final

Paul Haggis, the filmmaker of the movie Crash did an excellent job creating a film demonstrating how, as strangers, we can affect each other even though we may never meet. Paul incorporates the many struggles faced by today's racial stereotypes, into a collage of various interconnected, cultural dilemmas encountered by the film's multi-ethnic cast. One example being how after the character Jean Cabot, a wealthy white woman, was not only held at gunpoint, but had her car stolen by a young black thug named Anthony, Jean's prejudice towards other races became stronger and she began to feel very paranoid and unsafe. Still in shock from her run in with Anthony, Jean decided to have all of the locks on her house changed. After seeing that the Locksmith who was changing her locks was Mexican, she quickly turned to her husband, Rick, and demanded that they be changed again the next day, implying that the Locksmith may try to sneak a copy of the key for himself to break into their house later on. The Locksmith, Daniel Ruiz, overheard Jeans suggestion to change the locks. Although he was offended, he did not let Jean's rude comments change his attitude. He simply disregarded her racist comment, finished changing the locks, and left - leaving all copies of the house keys on the counter. Jean had never met Daniel previously, yet she was all too quick to judge him based simply on his skin-tone. Jean demonstrated a perfect example of the Scapegoat Theory in this situation. She took her anger out on Daniel and used his race as an excuse for her impolite and rude behavior.

Later in the film, while Jean is home alone, she accidentally slips at the top of her staircase and tumbles down the stairs. Finding herself at the bottom of the staircase, injured, she finds her phone to call her husband, Rick, to have him come to her and take her to the hospital, but finds out from his assistant that he is in the middle of a case and can't speak to her at the moment. After getting off the phone with Rick's assistant, Jean tries calling her best friend, Carla, to see if she is available to help her. Sadly, Carla's priorities seem to be a bit off - she deny's helping Jean because she is getting her nails done. Carla's actions exemplify a very poor friend. Running out of options, Jean calls her maid Maria, a woman who Jean has been treating especially poorly since having her car stolen because of her Hispanic descent. Maria not only rushed to her side and drove her to the hospital - Maria catered to Jean while she rested in bed as well. Jean realizes how angry and rude she has been. Jean turns to Maria and asks her "Do you want to hear something funny?", to which Maria responds, "What?", and Jean answers, "You're the best friend I've got." Jean showed great maturity in that moment by letting go of the prejudice towards other races - prejudices that made her so bitter and angry not only towards other races, but towards life in general.

Anthony, the young black thug, is a thief to survive. He steals vehicles often and trades them with people for profit. Anthony is also a racist - and a very explicit racist at that. He is prejudice against other races because he assumes that they are racist against him - especially white people. During a conversation with his friend Peter, Anthony expresses his racism towards white people stating, "Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gang-bangers? Huh? No. Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared around here, it's us: We're the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the trigger happy LAPD. So you tell me, why aren't we scared?". In this situation, Anthony is demonstrating the scapegoat theory. He is prejudice against white people in order to vent his anger that is actually directed towards himself. Implicitly, Anthony is actually expressing aggression towards white people as an excuse for his behavior. In reality, he is unfulfilled with his life of crime and hate, but he doesn't see himself having a better life because of his race.

Another example of how people can affect each other even though they may never meet during the film was how Officer John Ryan's racism affected his rookie partner, Officer Hansen's attitude towards other races. Officer Hansen had seen Officer John Ryan's racist ways in action after pulling over two black people on a late night in the city, Chiristine and Cameron Thayer. John Ryan harassed the couple and molested Christine in front of Officer Hansen. Officer Hansen later asked to be assigned a new partner because of that uncomfortable situation in the city because he did not want to be associated with such a racist. Officer Hansen seemed fairly steady and accepting of all races. Later in the film Officer Hansen picks up a black hitchhiker, Peter, on his way home from work. Hansen began so recognize Peter from a street fight he had witnessed earlier that day and had begun to assume the worst from him. After a heated conversation, Peter went to pull an object from his pocket. Assuming that the object was a gun, Officer Hansen shot him before he had even had the object in sight. It is as if Officer Hansen's joining the force had made him feel the need to be more racist if he was going to survive. His implicit prejudice against other races became explicit.

Throughout the film, there are many scenarios where people affect each others' lives without ever meeting. When Christina Thayer tells her husband, Cameron Thayer that he is a coward after he does not stand up to Officer John Ryan, a racist who molested her, a sense of aggression arises in Cameron that was once very implicit. Cameron's anger arises especially when two black thugs, Anthony and Peter attempt to steal his vehicle while he was stopped at a stop-sign. Cameron, being a successful black man who is fed up with racist stereotypes, gets out of the car and starts fighting with Anthony and Peter. Soon after the fight begins, Officer Hansen drives by in his police car with his new partner. Recognizing Cameron from his previous run-in with him and his wife Christina, Officer Hansen shows compassion for Cameron and lets him go with a warning. Cameron, still angry, gets back in his vehicle to find Anthony slouched down in the passenger seat. Rather than kicking Anthony out of his car, Cameron drops him off a few blocks away where he won't be seen by the police. Cameron tells Anthony that not only is he is an embarrassment to him, but he is an embarrassment to himself as well. Cameron Thayer's anger was repressed prior to his outburst of anger. Before the outburst, deep down, Cameron felt angry towards and embarrassed of his own race because of the way people treat him simply because he's black. Because Cameron is sick and tired of people pre-judging him because of his race, he took his anger out on the black thugs who he believed are the cause such harsh stereotypes.

After Anthony's encounter with Cameron Thayer, a wealthy adult black man, a spur of wonder and hope sprung upon Anthony. Before Anthony's experience with Cameron, Anthony felt that there was no way a black man could have a good, wealthy, satisfying life. Anthony begun to realize how empty the life he has been living really is. Later that evening, Anthony sees a work van with the keys in the drivers seat door. Thinking how lucky he was to have a van basically handed to him rather than having to put a gun to someones head to steal a vehicle, he took the van without a second thought. Once Anthony reached the garage where he takes the stolen cars in exchange for cash, he opens up the back of the van only to find a handful of immigrants who had been stalled away in there. The man buying the van from Anthony offers him a decently large amount of cash for the immigrants in the van to keep for labor. On any other day before that day, Anthony would have taken the cash and got out of there in a heartbeat. But because of the way Cameron Thayer's attitude towards Anthony earlier that day affected Anthony, making him want to be a better man, Anthony didn't accept any cash from the man. In fact, he didn't even sell the van to him. He took the van, along with the immigrants, and released them into the city after giving them all of the cash he had on him to survive with.

Paul Haggis's purpose of the film Crash was to address that aside from the 2% genetic differences between us, we all have troubles and internal issues. That's what makes us human. That until we as a society can take the time to recognize the roots of discrimination - to take a good look at our own thought patterns, we'll never move forward. The stories we see in films like Crash cause us to look outside our own lives and fears and realize that we are more alike than we think.