Stereotypes In The Movie Crash

The film Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, made in 2004 is a depiction of the prevalence of racism in the form of microaggressions and stereotypical comments made mainly by various members of the Anglo-Saxon community toward a variety of minority groups. Throughout the period of early television, there was not a proportional amount of African American actors to white actors. Most of the African American actors were placed in parts “based on disparaging stereotypes” (Ford 267) of the African American community. This in turn, along with other political and social factors, led to the belief that these stereotypes were accurate which in no way aided the decay of racism in America. Even though Crash challenges a number of common stereotypes of African

Cameron, an obviously intelligent TV director, is approached by Fred his coworker asking to reshoot a scene because the African American actor didn’t sound black enough. “It’s not his character, Eddie is supposed to be the smart one not Jamal, Right? Tell me it rings false?” (Crash). By presenting this stereotype in the form of a microaggression directly to someone who represent the antithesis of the stereotype, Crash both present and rebuts this generalization. Through the seventies and into the nineties, African American people tended to be play “’one-note stereotypes’ portrayed as buffoons” (Ford 267). Crash is an attempt to reverse this common portrayal by presenting the stereotype then making it illegitimate by presenting an archetypical example of the

This is an important step in the abolishment of racism because before you can fix a problem, you need to acknowledge that you have one. Crash informs everyone, but most importantly the white population, about the injustices African Americans still face which holds the potential to create a slow change. For example, Cameron and his wife Christine are pulled over without probable cause and officer Ryan sexually molests Christine before letting them go with a warning is intended to elicit emotions of shock and horror. Emotional reactions have the capability to slowly change biases and stereotypes, so while Crash alone comes nowhere close reversing negative stereotypes of the African American community, continued exposure to the harsh reality has the potential to elicit change over