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Essay On Racism In The Movie Crash

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Crash, a Representation of Racism in the US
Crash is a 2004 drama film directed by Paul Haggis. The film showcases racial tensions and prejudices that many Americans face. Crash has won many awards and has generally been praised by critics for representing an unbiased representation of racial prejudice in the US. However, some viewers find that Crash has a shallow and overly extensive representation of racism. To ascertain whether Crash is a realistic representation of racism in the US this essay will analyse the message in the film and the contrasting points that contribute to and counteract Crash being an accurate representation of American society.
The message in Crash is that racism is a part of everyday life for all Americans. Many Americans …show more content…

The film showcases how blacks and other minorities are treated less fairly than whites. In the film black characters are often the first to have issues with the police, this corresponds with real world statistics, where according to Pew Research Center, 50% of whites and 84% of blacks agree that black people are treated less fairly by law enforcement. In addition, statistics also show that 64% of blacks feel they are treated less fairly in the workplace, this is represented in Crash through Cameron, a black director whose job is threatened when he questions his prejudiced producer’s suggestion for his TV show. One argument against Crash being an accurate representation of US society is that it overrepresents minorities and racism in the US. Over half of the main characters are minorities and each of them is subject to some form of racism. However, a 2005 five-year survey from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that only 50.3% of Los Angeles’ population are Caucasians with an 11.4% margin of error. Thusly the representation of minorities in Crash is accurate. Secondly the discrimination most of the characters in Crash are subject to corresponds with the clear majority (81%) of blacks that have experienced discrimination in the US (Pew Research

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