BOOM!

Well, well, well…

I’ve seen the infamous movie called CRASH. This movie surprised me on many different levels because I refused to watch any trailers or allow anyone to tell me about the movie beforehand. I had no idea what to expect. But even if I had expectations, I don’t think I would have been ready for what I saw.

Here’s a brief synopsis of my favorite scenes.

First and foremost I flipped out when I saw Ludacris in this movie. I thought he did a great job as the racially paranoid thug. He gave example after example of the racist attitudes of people toward blacks, yet he and his co-hort, Larenz Tate, perpetuated each stereotype. My mouth dropped open when Larenz and Ludacris pulled out their guns and jacked a white couple for an SUV! I believe their mindframe was, if they think we’re going to act a certain way then we may as well do it.

Seeing the reaction of the white woman who was jacked for her SUV was phenomenol. After the attack, this woman was paranoid that someone with ‘baggy jeans and prison tattoos’ would break into her house. She said something to the effect of, “When a white person walks down the street and they see two black guys and they turn the other way then they’re called racist, but I see two black guys and I don’t turn around and the next thing I know I have a GUN IN MY FACE! When I KNEW what I should have done! I KNEW IT!”

She later admitted that she found that she felt angry all the time and she didn’t know why. I know why. I’ve felt the same way. Once you have a traumatic experience like that with someone of another race you began to feel powerless and angry and hurt all at the same time. It’s difficult to see the distinguishing features that make each person different, all you can see is skin color and instinct causes you to react defensively when you see a person of a similar color.

The defensiveness comes out as anger, bitterness and rage. It’s because you are insecure and you have your defenses up to ensure that you NEVER have to go through that again. You’re irrationally paranoid but you justify it because you feel it will bring you safety. But it won’t because then you’ll continue to be a prisoner to your pain.

The scene that nearly brought me to tears was the scene between the Latin father and his daughter. It was something about him that comforted me as he told his daughter a story about a magical inpenetrable cloak that could stop bullets in order to coax her from under the bed and out of her fears of being shot.

He does a fantastically elaborate job of untying the magical cloak from his neck and then tying it around his daughter and tucking her into bed.

All I could think about while watching him and his daughter interact was, damn, he really, really cares. And he knows how to talk to her on her level, without making it an authority issue. He could have screamed at her and forced her to come from under the bed but he didn’t, he talked to her like she was a person and she listened. I find myself doing that more and more with my sons. And it shocked me to realize that they really listen when you speak to them.

And they understand me.

After watching a few more scenes of different examples of people and their racist attitudes I was getting kinda bored with the whole thing. I’m thinking, “This movie is depressing. Everybody hates everybody! This sure won’t help me with my issues.”

Then came the scene where the Black couple was pulled over by two white cops. Hmmmm. My mouth was fixed in a permanent smirk while watching this, one eyebrow raised, head cocked to the side.

The officers pull the couple over because he says, “Something is going on.” He sees a woman’s head raise up and he deduces that she was giving the driver oral pleasure. There was a sparkle in his eye that looked like LUST to me as he charged up to the window and asked for their information. The Black man, who is a television director and his wife don’t look dangerous and the male driver is sober, yet the cop asks the driver to get out of the car. Then he asks him to turn around and lock his fingers behind his head. Totally uncalled for!

The man questions the officers and his wife, (pictured above) jumps out of the vehicle and comes around to confront the officers. She’s quite tipsy and she is upset that they are treating them that way. One of the officers tells them both to get against the car and turn around. He is frisking the man’s wife and touching her all over. His hands fondle her breasts and slide down to her thighs, her calfs, and even further. As he is molesting the Black man’s wife he is looking him in the eye and saying, “I could arrest you right now and charge you with….I could have your wife arrested too…” The police officer is reminding the Black man of all he could lose and showing him that he has all the power. The hurtful part about this scene is watching the white man’s hands go up and under the woman’s cocktail dress and her husband is right there and doesn’t do a thing to stop him.

The Black man opts to apologize to the officer and leave without a fuss. This scene EXPLODES into a tearful domestic dispute as the black man and his wife deal with the emotions created by the devastating experience. The woman accuses the man of not caring about her because she felt he should have stopped the police officers. The man counters that he did the right thing and she cusses him out like a demon!

At one point she says she didn’t fight back because she was thinking about his reputation. I’m sure that is why he didn’t fight back either. Respected and probably very highly paid, this man did not want to lose his LIFESTYLE. And his wife didn’t either. It wasn’t about personal pride, it was about the fear of poverty. He would have gotten arrested, it would have affected his career, possibly cost him his job and they would have had to start all over again. Who wants to do that?

This scene seemed to express that there are people who will put their self respect aside to make money. This idea was brought to the forefront again when the same Black man is at work on his TV set when a ‘producer type guy’ walks over and suggests that the director is making the characters less Black by changing the lines and correcting their speech. At first the director tries to blow him off but the ‘producer type guy’ makes it clear that he is serious. The director knows it is racial sterotyping at its best but again, he chooses to make that money and preserve his lifestyle, instead of standing up for what he believes in. But who would have made a different choice?

In one of the final scenes after Ludacris somehow escapes jail AGAIN, he steals a van and attempts to sell it at a chop shop. When the men open up the back of the van they see that it is full of people being sold as slaves. The chop shop guy offers to buy everyone in the van at $500 a piece and Ludacris considers his offer.

The movie cuts away to another scene and when it gets back to Ludacris he is seen opening up the back of the van in the middle of a busyarea and telling all of the “slaves” that they can go.

He freed the slaves.

That was cute.

After watching this movie my ideals about the origin of modern day racism hold true. I still believe that racism is rooted in insecurity, fear and pain. When someone is not feeling good about themselves, the first thing they try to do is put someone else down in an effort to elevate themselves.

I believe racist attitudes are passed down from parent to child and the occasional racist experience is often passed on like a folk tale and the pain of the moment is embedded into the listener’s heart, causing them to react as if they too had experienced the racist act.

Like I wrote in an essay titled: I Was a Racist, “Forgiveness is the only way to break the resilient bond of racism.” Forgive the person who hurt you and there will be no more pain to hold on to. No more revenge to be taken. No more blurry faces and luminous skin tones.

Just peace.

Just peace.

I want that peace too.