Racism and its Inevitability as Portrayed in Crash Essay

Paul Haggis’ Crash was one of the biggest movie hits of 2004. Wining three Oscars at the 2005 Academy Awards, this film is undeniably written in film history as one of the greatest of this generation. Often described as a movie about how lives of different people intertwine through a twist of fate, Crash is largely about racial tensions – perhaps not only in its location of Los Angeles, California but in the whole of America. The movie features a whole slew of characters who has different racial backgrounds and who act in accordance to the pressures they in relation to their cultural backgrounds. Although most of the characters are interesting, I found Detective Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) and Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) as the most noteworthy ones. Not only have the actors portraying them delivered powerful performances, they have also shown enough background and – at times – justification as to why they act they way they do. As such, the following paragraphs will analyze both characters. Los Angeles, California, the place by which the Crash characters move in, plays a great part in Graham Waters’ and John Ryan’s judgment, beliefs, and actions. Teeming with people from different races, Los Angeles allows for interaction among people of varying cultures. It sets up room for Graham Waters and John Ryan to ‘practice’ their racial tendencies. Basically a melting pot if differing cultures, Los Angels is the perfect environment by which any character can feel racial superiority or inferiority. Graham Waters’ and John Ryan’s smaller environment – that of the one set up in a police station – is also highly-effective in influencing the characters’ personal biases. In both characters’ cases, it gave them a reason to feel superior, hence providing the perfect justification for one’s preference of leaning (or not leaning) towards people of their own race. Graham Waters is shown as being preoccupied with a case against a white cop who shot a black cop. Even with the white cop killing three black men already, Graham Waters still finds it in himself to deliberate on whether the killings are justified or not. The work place that this particular character was given is the best setting to allow him the ‘luxury’ of suspending judgment and possibly eliminating preferences over his fellow black people. John Ryan, on the other hand, was put in a position where he thinks it is okay for him to physically abuse a half-African woman and actually get away with it. His being a police officer magnified the way he performed his racist acts nonchalantly. A closer look at the lives of both characters under scrutiny reveals how much their personal history has affected the way they make judgments. Although of African-American descent, Graham Waters found it in himself to actually try and be forgiving to people of Caucasian heritage. This is because his family is poor and he experienced first hand having a drug-addict for a mother and he witnessed how his younger brother grew up to be a criminal. Growing up in a tumultuous black environment may have afflicted Graham Waters to not revere people of his own race. It has, in part, allowed him to think of blacks and whites as somehow equal. Yet Graham Waters is not devoid of racist tendencies. He has a partner, the Latin-American Ria (Jennifer Esposito). Despite working in male-dominated world and engaging in a sexual relationship with Graham Waters, Ria is still discriminated by the very man she sleeps with. Graham Waters never pins her country of origin right. And Graham doesn’t seem to mind. A perfect exhibit of how Graham can be at times racist – Professor Robin Lackoff of the University of California claims that not caring how someone’s background is a display of racism (Williams, 2004). The latter part of the film also reveals why John Ryan has been very negative towards people of other races. It is rooted to his father’s business’ demise. Shown as deeply concerned regarding his father’s health, one is wont to assume that John Ryan is indeed fond of his father. His actions then become a bit understandable when it is revealed that his father’s business collapsed after local policies favored businesses owned by the minority. As this had grave effect on his family’s life, John Ryan ‘naturally’ harbors anger (perhaps also hate) towards those who caused him and his family discomfort. Yet both characters are thrown into events that eventually lead them to ‘crash’ – abandon their own personal beliefs and act differently from how they normally would. Graham Waters, who was supposed to champion impartiality between blacks and whites, chose to act against the white cop by concealing an evidence that might have helped the cop in question. This was done through Jake Flanagan (William Fichtner) using Graham’s brother as a bait. By reminding Graham of the possibility of Peter’s arrest if Graham does not withhold the evidence, Flanagan is successful in pushing the black cop in acting against her own personal belief that the white cop should be given a fair trial. One of the most dramatic moments of this Haggis film is when John Ryan once again crashed into Christine, by that time he acted a hero and not anymore a villain. Seeing how Christine’s life was in danger, John Ryan put his life on the line and saved Christine from a blazing car accident. In a moment of crisis, John Ryan abandoned his prejudice and actually risked his own life to become a hero for someone he used to malign. I believe that both Graham Waters and John Ryan were racists – or at least had racist tendencies. John Ryan, most especially, had shown racial discrimination with his constant negative commentaries and actions towards people who are not of Caucasian descent. Graham Waters, on the other hand, may show his racial tendencies in more subtle ways yet it is still undeniably there. He has shown numerous times that he will choose to help someone of the same race over someone who is not black. Personally, I have not experienced any major racial discrimination but I admit to feeling that there is a racial tension hovering around society. I see it everyday and even practice it myself. Racism is seen in ways people choose their friends, in the cliques that are formed in school, and in the comments we make everyday. The media is one of the easy reference points of how racism prevails nowadays. There are times when headlines would shout a person’s race when talking about particular crimes. The news may say, â€Å"A black guy murders a woman† or â€Å"Asian men rob a bank† but never (or very, very rarely) will it brandish, â€Å"White guy kills family† or â€Å"Caucasian steals money†. This may not be personal attacks on me but I take them as large manifestations that racism still does exist. Racism, though, has changed a lot through the years. Thankfully, because of the way the world keeps getting smaller – thanks to the Internet and its ability to bring people from both ends of the world closer – racism has been greatly reduced, or so I would like to believe. I say that this is the case because people are getting to know those from other races better, thus eliminating some preconceived notions about a whole race. Of course, there is also this adverse effect: because people get to interact with more people, racism is spread to more races. In America, for example, racism before was centered only on the blacks versus whites. Today, though, we see racial discrimination applied against the Chinese, the Filipinos, the Hispanics, and a lot more. Paul Haggis’ aim in creating Crash was to demonstrate the fact that racism is still very much prevalent in these modern times. He wanted to paint a society that is still very much hinged on their racial biases. Haggis wanted to relate that perhaps this may not be totally eliminated because everybody comes from different cultures and different backgrounds that dictate what and how they think about themselves and others. Sadly, racism is an inevitable fact of life – but it is a fact that we can all strive to keep at a minimum by taking time to understand each other’s histories. REFERENCES Haggis, Paul. (Director). (2004). Crash [Motion picture]. United States: Bull’s Eye Entertainment. Williams, Brandt. (2004, August 08). â€Å"The ‘n-word’†. In Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved August 19, 2007, from http://news. minnesota. publicradio. org/features/2004/06/28_williamsb_nword/.