Eric Stoller's Blog

“You think you know who you are. You have no idea.” — Tagline from Crash

This is the second time that I have watched Crash. The first time I watched it was in September of 2005. At that time, I was coming down from a life-changing, metaphorical rollercoaster ride. My divorce was finalized in June and I had come up with an answer to a question that had been bothering me for months — what’s good about being White? My answer was a simple one. I get to be an anti-racist. Prior to September, I had been reading books by Janet Helms, bell hooks, and Beverly Tatum. It was a wild summer filled with White privilege discussions and feelings of being on a fringe that I had never even “seen” before. When I watched Crash I was breathless. The story kept me captivated from the start. I was engaged from Don Cheadle’s opening narration to the end of the film when Chris “Ludacris” Bridges releases a group of refugees from a cramped van.

I screened Crash at our apartment with a group of student affairs colleagues. Trying to watch Crash with my student affairs goggles on was not an easy task. After all, the first time I watched it, I cried out during the attempted murder of the locksmith. Crash is more than a film. It is an eye-opening depiction of racism and prejudice in the United States. It feels like concentrated reality. One of my guests told me that the film should have used less symbolism. I thought about this statement for a while and I disagree. I think Crash does what is needed. It puts racism and prejudice in your face and it keeps it there until the credits roll. In my opinion, this is a good thing. White folks are almost completely unaware of racism.

My guess is that many White people who see this film think that the situations have been exaggerated for the audience. I think every single situation in Crash happens on a daily basis. Racial profiling by White cops happens. Check out Cincinnati, Ohio if you don’t believe me. The situation where the Persian store owner is trying to purchase a gun from the White gun shop owner is eerily similar to my experiences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. When I was at UIC post 9/11, non-Muslim students would say all sorts of derogatory statements about Muslim students. Stereotypes were thrown about with the force of bullets.

Crash takes place in Los Angeles and perhaps the situations in the film happen only in “big” cities. Wrong! The scene where Sandra Bullock accuses the locksmith of being a “gangbanger” reminded me of my hometown in Iowa. When hundreds of Latino families moved into town for work at the meat packing plant they were often labeled as illegal aliens, gangsters, and drug dealers, etc. Racism happens in every city, town, and county in the U.S. Racism is part of all of our institutions.

In Crash, racism is present in at least two Los Angeles institutions: the LAPD, the LA District Attorney’s office a.k.a. the LA legal system. An African American police officer said it best when he asked Ryan Phillipe’s character how he was supposed to deal with a racist White cop within an institution as racist as the LAPD. A subtler example of institutionalized racism in Crash is present in the interactions between Terrence Howard’s character, Cameron and Tony Danza’s character, Fred. Cameron is directing a sitcom and has just finished filming a scene. Fred jumps in and forces Cameron to re-shoot the take because one of the African American characters was not being “Black” enough. To me, this illustrates the media’s consistent need to stereotype all people, especially people of color.

Crash is an amazing film. Rent it, watch it, buy it, and then watch it again.

Related posts:

1. Macs crash too
2. Anti-Racist Parent
3. Affirmative Action
4. Real racism
5. OSU Student Conduct reflections