“It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people,
people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal
and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we
”
can feel something.
-Det. Graham Waters
ste·reo·type
“A simplified and standardized conception or
image shared by members of a group.”
-Webster’s Modern Office Dictionary
Some Stereotypes in Crash
• Mexicans park on their front lawn
• Mexicans are gang members
• All tattoos mean you went to jail or you are a gang
member
• All Orientals are bad drivers and are too short to see
over the wheel
• Blacks don’t tip
• Black men are lazy
• Anyone who’s middle-eastern is Arabic
• All Arabic people are terrorists
• Just Non-whites ride busses
• Black people are thieves
• Black people don’t like hockey or country music
Setting
• Los Angeles, CA
• December, 2004
Presentation of Crash
•First scene is one of last scenes of movie
•From then on all storylines are flashbacks playing in chronological order,
story continues after it catches up to present
•Multiple storylines flow easily from one scene to the next
Characters
The film Crash showcases the racism and racial stereotypes of today in the cultural
melting pot that is Los Angeles. The film features many characters that become linked as
a series of events unfold.
• Farhad
“When did Persian become Arabic?”
– Persian immigrant
– Owns corner store that
was vandalised
– Discriminated against
because he looks Arabic
in the United States
– Not fluent in English
• Dorri
– Coroner
– Daughter to Farhad
• Anthony
– Has strong opinions on
black behaviour and
racism
– Hates both Rap & Country
music
• Peter Waters
– Brother to Graham Waters
– More open to different
ideas about race
– Likes hockey, country music
• These two steal cars and sell
them for money
• Rick Cabot
– District Attorney of Los
Angeles
– Needs the black vote in the
election
• Jean Cabot
– Wife to Rick Cabot
• In the beginning of the
movie, this couple’s car is
stolen by Peter Waters
and Anthony.
• Christine Thayer
– Wife to Cameron Thayer
– molested and later
rescued by Officer John
Ryan
• Cameron Thayer
– Big time movie
director
-- doesn’t to fit into
black or white
communities
• Detective Graham Waters
– Raised in poor household with
drug abusing mother
– Turned his back on his family to
focus on career
• Ria (Det. Graham Waters’ partner)
– Half Puerto Rican, half El
Salvadorian
• Daniel
– Mexican and discriminated against because he
looks like a “gangbanger”
– Locksmith
– Kind
– Non-racist
• Officer Tom Hansen
– Believes he is above
the racism in LAPD
– Kills Peter Waters
• Officer John Ryan
– Self-proclaimed
“racist prick”
– Molests Christine
Thayer, and later
saves her during car
crash
Important Scenes
• Scene 1:
– Anthony steals Cameron Thayer’s car.
– Cameron realizes that black men like Anthony are the
reason he is discriminated against; the truth behind the
stereotype
– Anthony realizes how he affects other people, and has a
moment where he just stops and thinks about what he has
done.
– shows how much the stereotypes we all make affect their
subjects; how frustrating it is to be criticized by others, but
also by people of your own race, even those you love,
because of what colour you are.
• Scene 2
– From the first point that we meet Hansen he is
shown as the contrast to Ryan; he is the good cop,
who does not think in racial terms and who stands
up against Ryan’s racism.
– The audience sees him as the one hope in a story
of hate, and they assume him to stay that way for
the rest of the film
– Kills Peter Waters
– shows that even if you think you are above racism
or committing a crime, we are all capable
• Scene 3
-After John Ryan is racist towards the Thayers and
sexually assaults Christine, John Ryan is sent on
car crash rescue mission
-Woman in car crash is Christine, doesn’t want to be
saved by John
-Ryan starts to realise the consequences his actions
bring, that he really hurt this woman
Movie Relevance to Course
•Socialization: illustrates how peoples of
different races interact and view one another
•Psychology is shown through the reactions
that each character has in response to the
other
•Anthropology is portrayed in the movie
Crash through the stereotypes that represent
each culture
Major Points of the Film
• emphasizes over importance placed on race,
ethnic background in today’s society, and how
it can cause a negative cycle
• Stereotypes promote hate and segregation in
society
• People should be taught at young ages to
accept other cultures so that the cycle of hate,
discrimination, and racism would be stopped
Secondary Points
•
•
•
•
•
police corruption
Crime
sexual assault
Violence
Drug abuse
Sociology, Psychology,
Anthropology Concepts in Crash
• Adler’s inferiority Complex
• Freud’s theory of the 3 levels of the mind: Id, Ego,
and Superego
• Defense mechanisms: projection, rationalization,
sublimation
• Personality
• Birth Order
• Perception
• Jean Piaget’s Stage of Development
• Deviant, aggressive, violent behaviour
Impact of the movie
• Opens people’s eyes to racial hate and
discrimination
• makes people aware of how racism in a
society can have terrible consequences and
promote hate.
• Audience sees racism contributes to a
dangerous cycle, promotes hate,
discrimination towards others causing
violence, abuse, and inequality in a society.
Why do we stereotype races?
• easier to classify a whole group of people as a
threat then have to consider each individual
separately
• Media portrays stereotypes constantly
promoting racism
– “Cops”
– Mexican drug trafficking
Recommendation:
Watch this movie!!!
Things to Keep in Mind
• Have open mind
• Not everyone in the real world is racist