Crash

Without a doubt, racism and discrimination are still active issues in the world. Most people have come to realize that discriminating against others because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, or anything else is just flat out wrong. Others on the other hand, proudly display their ignorance and continue to discriminate by causing harm towards others both physically and emotionally. Some of these occurrences are so blatant that it hurts while some are in our faces and we don’t even see it. In Michael Omi’s essay In Living Color : Race and American Culture, he argues that racism is an overt and inferential feature in our lives that is on-going. As an example of what Omi discussed in his essay, here is an analysis of an implicitly racist and stereotypical scene from the 2004 movie Crash, which is 36 hour account of how the lives of a multiracial cast of people trying to overcome certain fears become intertwined with each other.
In one particular scene towards the end of the movie Crash, Ryan Phillippe’s character displays his true colors in a situation with Larenz Tate’s character. Earlier in the movie Phillippe’s character, a young white police officer with the LAPD, presented characteristics of an officer that was only concerned with what is right and what is wrong when it comes to the law, showing that racism and treating someone badly because of their skin color was not his thing. Everyone got to see for themselves that Phillippe’s character was a covert racist.
In this scene, Phillippe sees Tate’s character, a young black guy, hitch-hiking for a ride in the Valley. Without apprehension he gives him a ride. Tate expresses his gratitude, and making conversation, Phillippe questions Tate about “what’s happening in the Valley tonight”. Tate tells him ice-skating but what Phillippe doesn’t know is that Tate was just involved in an armed car-jacking that involved a politician the day before and he was involved in an attempted car-jacking earlier in the day. Phillippe criticizes Tate’s answer because he finds it hard to believe that Tate, a black man, would participate in an activity such as ice skating even after he is fed an alibi by Tate. He makes an accusation of Tate “having fun” instead of ice skating, referring to the fact that he could be out causing trouble. An instance of covert yet overt stereotyping. Being that he is a trained LAPD officer, Phillippe gives Tate the once-over and sees that his shoes are muddy and his jacket is torn. Phillippe quickly becomes suspicious of his new friend. Tate sees a religious figure on the dashboard of Phillippe’s car and begins to laugh. He is laughing because earlier in the movie, when he and the character played by rapper Ludacris car-jack the politician and his wife and Tate puts his religious figurine on the dashboard and Ludacris acts as if its taboo. Not knowing about this previous situation, Phillippe becomes uneasy of Tate’s laughter. Offended, he questions Tate about his laughter and his response is “people” referring to Ludacris’s actions the day before and thinking about the overall actions of people in general. Phillippe doesn’t find anything funny and since he is steadily becoming uneasy, he tells Tate to get out. Tate doesn’t see what he has done wrong so he takes offense to Phillippe kicking him out. He constantly tries to get Phillippe to tell him what he’s done wrong but he won’t. He just wants him to “get the f*** out” of his car. Realizing that Phillippe thinks he was making fun of him in some way, he reaches inside of his pocket to show him the figurine from the situation that sparked his laughter. As a precaution, Phillippe orders Tate to remove his hands from his pockets. Still offended, Tate refuses. He continues to take the figurine from his pocket even though Phillippe keeps warning him, and as he does this Phillippe draws his gun---thinking Tate was going to shoot him---and shoots Tate.
Phillippe is taken aback when he realizes what Tate was taking out of his pocket. Tate wasn’t going to shoot Phillippe. He was ready to explain his laughter and the reasoning behind it: a religious figurine and the beliefs and actions of people. Phillippe was so quick to judge Tate based on his muddy shoes and torn jacket. There could have been many reasons behind Tate’s appearance but all the officer saw was a suspicious-looking and acting black male. This scene expresses the hidden racism and stereotypical assumption that lies within a character who seems least likely to feel or behave this way. Phillippe shooting Tate was more than a defensive reflex. It was an action based on confined feelings of discrimination.

"In Living Color: Race and American Culture"

In Michael Omi's essay "In Living Color: Race and American Culture" he discusses the issue of racism and stereotypes in America and how it affects different races and the careers that they have. He talks about how race is both a paradoxically "obvious" and "invisible" slippery social concept. He also talks about how in our society one of the first things we take notice of when we encounter people is their race and how we utilize race to provide us with clues about who a person is and how we should relate to her/him. The main idea is to provide information on how people are quick to judge based on skin color and how differently they are treated.

Autopsy Of A Rat

In Nericcio's essay "Autopsy of a Rat", he discusses the stereotypes and misconceptions of Chicano/ Latino characters in entertainment. Two characters he talks about are Freddy Lopez and the more familiar Speedy Gonzales. His chapters are divided into "incisions" that carefully dissect, analyze, and elaborate on these misconceptions and stereotypes. With Freddy Lopez, a character from a Christmas special, he discusses how this half-elf, half troll character is displayed as a mischievious, Lain-esque character who is criticised by elves who say "I am not prejudiced, but I think he's part-troll". Speedy Gonzales is a more popular character from the Looney Tunes cartoons. Everything seems funny in his cartoon shorts until you really watch what's going on. The clever Mexican mouse outsmarts "el gringo pussycato" (Sylvester) in almost every episode or is dealing with his friends' sisters as the Don Juan of the mice.

"High-School Confidential: Notes On Teen Movies"

In David Denby’s essay “High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies” he takes a look at the predictability of the teen movie genre that plays upon the perceived world of teenagers. This world no doubt consists of the hierarchy of the school, the cheerleaders, jocks, preps and other popular figures who only deal with each other and make fun of those who are not like them, the middle population or the normal people who fit in with almost everyone and the supposed lower class of the community the nerds, punks, weirdoes and the misunderstood ones. These citizens of teen-world inhabit the malls as well as their schools and more often their bedrooms and other outlets that reflect their teen status. According to Denby, their only enemy is other teens and the social system that they impose on one another. There are always winners and losers in the end of the battle or in the menacing sub-genres there are revengeful desires that turn bloody. Denby also points out that the most original teen comedy is Clueless because it casts away the typical self pity road trip most teen movies take.

The Hollywood Sign: The Culture of American Film

In Chapter 4 The Hollywood Sign, the intro “The Culture of American Film” discusses the variety (and lack thereof) of movies in Hollywood, highlighting that the industry is filled with prequels, sequels and a whole lot of remakes while questioning their true meaning. The intro brings up the issue of Hollywood being stuck on reruns and doing repeats time after time. This leads to the discussion of postmodernism, a historical period and an attitude, that refers to the culture that has materialized in the wake of high-tech era, on obsessed with the latest electronic imagery and the products of society’s majority. When interpreting the signs of American film, movies can be viewed as metaphors for larger cultural concerns, for example the intro states that the original Godzilla was essentially a metaphor for the nuclear era. This chapter will definitely give you more to think about the next time you go to the movies.

Reality TV Meets Plastic Surgery: An Ugly Shame

In this essay, Anita Creamer discusses the issue of the rising popularity of plastic surgery reality television. Makeovers on television first began with remodeling and restoring old homes and updating other homes to the owner’s liking. Now reality television has a new fad, remodeling people and giving them complete makeovers because of their insecurities. Creamer questions the ethics and morals of Sha, a baby-faced 19 year old blonde whose life ambition is to look like Pamela Anderson and become a Playboy centerfold, as well as the rest of the people featured on MTV’s “I Want a Famous Face”- a show about young people who undergo surgery to look like their favorite celebrities. Creamer says that “ the eternal American habit of reinvention has come to this--remaking our faces and bodies instead of our lives; the annihilation of the self in the name of self-improvement”. These people feel that their outer self is flawed when the reality is that their inner self is really flawed.

The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony, and the Meaning of Life

In “The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony, and the Meaning of Life”, Carl Matheson discusses key points from the popular animated comedy as well as observations that have been made as far as how certain episodes have some sort of ironic reference to a movie, another television show or book. He also talks about how despite the irony of the situation, there is some sort of message in the show either directly or indirectly. To Matheson, “hyper-ironism is the most suitable form of comedy.” He also makes a point that comedy can be used to attack anybody who thinks they know all the answers to everything and that the Simpsons revels in the attack.