Xander Picot

Connie Douglas
UWRT1102
29 January 2016
Crash: A Review That Spins Out of Control
One of the biggest issues in recent years, racial profiling, is one of the
many themes in the 2004 film Crash. The film deals with these issues on a
serious and even graphic level on some instances. A primary example of
racial profiling in the film is when Ryan Phillippes character, LAPD Officer
Tom Hanson, shoots an African American man in his personal car that he was
graciously giving a ride to because he thought the man was pulling out a
gun. But there are many incidents like this involving police and citizens alike
that have taken place over the last two to three years.
One of the most famous cases in recent media history is the George
Zimmerman case after he shot and killed African American teenager Treyvon
Martin in 2012. Zimmerman, a member of he and Martins neighborhood
watch, claimed he shot unarmed teen in self-defense. Since Florida has a
stand your ground law, Zimmerman was not immediately charged with the
murder. However after national media started reporting on the case, he was
charged and tried. In his original statement, Zimmerman said that Treyvon
was acting suspicious and the two had a confrontation, which ended with

gunshots. The animated TV series, South Park, satirized the event in an

episode where they made it so Zimmerman would be executed instead of let
go for shooting a Caucasian kid.
After the incident, the media and other people started reporting this as
racial profiling and stating that Mr. Zimmerman is a racist towards African
Americans. However at the end of the trial, he was not sentenced and the
charges were dropped, with the reason being self-defense. While profiling
against African Americans is a huge deal today, there is an equally big issue
with racially profiling Muslims/Middle-Easterns. Its a certain way that this
race is profiles, and all of that is explained in the next paragraph
The idea of terrorism being associated with all Muslims has always
been an issue with everybody. Today, people stereotype Muslims for only
being terrorists. Last year at Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom,
a Muslim student studying for a degree in counterterrorism and global
security was accused of being a terrorist after students and officials spotted
him reading a book on terrorism. The man, thirty-three-year-old Mohammed
Umar Farooq, says he had to fight back because it could happen to any
young Muslim lad. In Crash, they use the idea of all Muslims are terrorists in
the scene where Farhad, a store owner in Los Angeles, and his daughter go
to buy a gun after their store is robbed. The owner of the gun shop makes a
bunch of crude remarks towards the two, at one point saying Yo, Osama,

plan the Jihad on your own time, as well as other remarks, especially
directed towards the involvement with the September 11th terrorist attacks.
Another issue with racism the film deals with is saying that all Hispanic
people are Mexican immigrants. Recently, in his presidential campaign for
this years election, Donald Trump has stated that he wants to build a wall
between Mexico and the United States to keep immigrants out. In an
interview with CNN He said that illegal immigrants arent just bad, but really
bad. The Mexican government fund those comments are prejudicial and
absurd that Trump is painting Mexicans with a very broad brush as rapists
and criminals. This remark, along with other crude remarks to other races,
have surprisingly caused trump to come in second place in a New Hampshire
poll, just behind Jeb Bush. In Crash, Don Cheadles character, Detective
Graham Waters, is having a sexual relationship with his Latin American
coworker. He ends up insulting her by calling her a Mexican, along with other
slurs. She counters by giving him a geography lesson saying not every
Latin American/Hispanic person is Mexican.
Of course, Crash deals with multiple other issues that happen daily in
society such as sexual assault, gun control, revenge, drug addiction, and
immigrant workers. There are other races that can indeed be profiled, but
these are the three biggest ones presented in the film. However it seems in
the film that the biggest issue in every separate story has some form that
deals with racism and/or stereotyping. Those types of issues still exist today

and they will always exist no matter how hard people try to get rid of them. It
is amazing that even twelve years after this films release, these issues are
still present today, and unless we can somehow figure out a way to make it
go away, they will always be present.
Works Cited
Dahl, Julia. "Trayvon Martin Shooting: A Timeline of Events." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 12
July 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
Matharu, Hardeep. "Student Wrongly Accused of Being a Terrorist after He Was Seen Reading a
Textbook on Terrorism for His Degree." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media,
24 Sept. 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
Brand, Anna. "Donald Trump: I Would Force Mexico to Build Border Wall." Msnbc.com. NBC
News Digital, 28 June 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
Crash. Dir. Paul Haggis. Prod. Cathy Schulman. Perf. Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt
Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Ludacris, Thandie Newton, Michael
Pea, Ryan Phillippe and Larenz Tate. Lionsgate, 2005. DVD.