We have all heard of the stereotypical comments towards African Americans; "They are all involved in gangs, they are uneducated, loud, aggressive, lazy". The list can continue negatively upon African Americans. These comments are not true because anyone can perform foolish acts. There are many people who are not African American and are involved in crimes, murders, and robbery that will not benefit them. Criminals can come in any color or shape. The media has claimed to be unfair towards African Americans. Through the use of movies, African Americans are seen as criminals, thugs, and the enemy.
In the Oscar winning movie for best picture, Crash, the director creates a downfall towards African Americans in a particular scene, while the white characters are being displayed as "greater people". In this scene, whitw people are scared of African Americans because they assume they ‘re involved in gangs or they‘re harmful.
In the scene above, two African American men, Ludacris and Lorenz Tate, are walking out of a restaurant when Ludacris says, "You see any white people in there waiting an hour and thirty two minutes for a plate of spaghetti? Huh?" White people didn’t have to wait for their food, as opposed to them. They should have received the same service as the rest of the people. Lorenz Tate mentions how their waiter was African American. The fact that she served the white people first implies to the way they have to treat white people to avoid problems with them.
Seconds later into that scene, they are walking towards the white couple, Sandra Bullock and Brendon Fraser. Sandra Bullock moves closer to Brendon Fraser and grabs him by the arm, as if the black people were going to harm them. Ludacris makes it seem like he is upset with the way they are being viewed in that scene, as gang bangers and threatening because he says that’s not who they are. But when Lorenz says “Because we got guns?” Ludacris says “You could be right” they pull out a gun. The two young men point a gun to the couple and carjack them. Ludacris contradicts himself he says they’re not threatening but in the end they commit a crime. Under less then 5 minutes in the movie, many discriminations are aimed towards African Americans.
I also don't think the director of this film was at all racist, this movie is pretty complicated to understand. Even though there are many obvious discriminations in this film you have to understand what it's about first then judge the directors work. Crash is about how these people who are obviously different when it comes to race(white and blacks)are actually pretty similar. Although this article does shed light on the fact that the director might of added a large amount of discrimination of colored people rather than whites the film still proves a major point that in Los Angeles we do have act like this and it needs to change!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that it was racist seen or the director was racist because i mean they show other American Americans and their not just seen in a stereotypical way
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