In the movie “Crash” racial profiling is portrayed in many different aspects.
Racial profiling may be usually thought of when law enforcement is involved. However,
it can be applied in many other situations as this movie portrays. The first scene I would
like to describe begins with law enforcement official is on the phone with his fathers
insurance agent attempting to get his father, who is constantly in pain, the help he is
needed. Unfortunately the person he has to talk to just happen to be an African American
woman who he feels helpless in his battle of words with her. Then the officer goes in for
work and pulls over a black couple in a nice vehicle, which happens to be in a nice
neighborhood. He then begins to exert his power over them and harasses the couple and
molesting the women. In my opinion he harasses the woman because she is African
American, she is beautiful, and he needs to feel powerful. However one could raise the
statement that the officer is just being a disrespectful person and race was not an issue.
This would be a good statement reason being that I have not mentioned the officer’s race.
There are a plethora of questions and reasonable answers that can be applied to the
situation. However, white or Caucasian officers tend to be the more criticized offenders
of racial profiling.
The real question is this art imitating life or life imitating art. The officer background
may help some come to a conclusion but is there ever a clear answer. The officers father
was a business owner who employed African American workers and treated them fairly
both in work and pay. His father was eventually put out of work when the government to
which he held contracts decided to offer contract opportunities to African American
owned businesses. His father loss what most would call everything and never regained
his stability or the money he used to earn. This information is useful but in my opinion
not conclusive.
The next scene is one of the previous officers partner. The partner had a hard
time dealing with the previous incident and therefore got a transfer away from the officer.
The partner’s story is more interesting in terms of racial profiling. The partner was
driving home after a shift from which he took a risk and helped the African American
man from which the previous officer had harassed. On the partner’s way home he
stopped and picked up an African American hitchhiker. The conversation between the
two became uneasy and the officer began to feel nervous. The hitchhiker begins laughter
and makes the partner nervous. The hitchhiker was laughing at a figurine that the partner
had in his car because he also had the exact figurine in his pocket. As they begin to argue
the hitchhiker reaches for his pocket and the partner reaches for his gun and pulls the
trigger. He kills the hitchhiker and dumps the body in a field. This scene is very thought
provoking.
My first thoughts are of the self-righteous partner who condemned the
previous officers actions.
In my conclusion of racial profiling the roots lie deeper than normal situations. It
appears when stressful dilemmas occur. Can anyone ever escape the depths of racial
profiling or simply being a racist?