July 21, 2005
Returning to the Scene of the Crash
The newly award-winning Jeff Chang has a great read up on Alternet, discussion with Sylvia Chan about "Crash," the much hyped cinematic exploration of race in America.
Can White Hollywood Get Race Right?
Jeff: ...For Haggis, the “crash" is the metaphor that holds everything together. He seems to believe race is only discussed when we collide with each other, and friction starts. It’s a very interesting concept that resonates post-riots, post 9/11. But there's very little character development in the movie, and even less insight into race...
Sylvia: ...The whole idea that you don’t have to think about race until you “crash” into it is not what most people have the luxury of doing. And that is what white privilege is. White privilege is not having to think about race. Which is why I think many people have the reaction they do of coming out of the movie and bawling, thinking they’ve learned something...
JC: ...During the 60s, Tom Wolfe portrayed black and Samoan activists in San Francisco and New York City as race hustlers and poverty pimps in "[Radical Chic and] Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers." Anthony is just an update of a kind of 60s white liberal take on radicals of color.
He is redeemed at the end of the movie, after taking a lesson from the Terence Howard's bourgeoisie, white-identifying black director Cameron, who sheds his Oreo aspirations by confronting the police harder than Anthony ever would. Anthony then goes on to free the Thai slave workers.
Haggis seems to be saying that the kind of nationalism and separatism Anthony is spouting is not the way forward. What's new in "Crash," if anything, is a recognition that assimilation into whiteness may not be the way to go either. But either way, non-whites need to get over their anger about racism, because they need whites.
SC: At the same time, I thought the white characters were the most realistic characters in the movie, and I probably wouldn't have had as many problems with this movie if it had been structured more like 1993's "Falling Down," where it was about whiteness under siege. If it was about white people being afraid, suspicious, angry, resentful, and confused by non-white people, then it would be very accurate. White people are afraid of non-white people, even if they can’t vocalize or verbalize it...
Posted by jsmooth995 at July 21, 2005 4:04 PM
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I don't understand what they're trying to say. I need to re-read this or something.
I loved the movie and it sparked good discussions amongst my friends.
Posted by: Hashim at July 21, 2005 5:38 PM
I thought they were totally off-base. And I don't want to get "extra" racial, but I think a lot of what you take from this film, is reflective of what you bring into it.
What Crash lacked, was a real complex understanding of race that Latino/as and Asians (East Asians as well as South Asians - i.e Indians) bring to the table.
The central American question in the coming century, is what does it mean to be not white and not black?
The 2 Asians barely got any screen time, much less lines. The Latinos, the plumber and Cheadle's detective partner, didn't show too much complexity either.
And I know I'm not the only one who thought that when pretty boy Ryan Phillipe picked up Larenz Tate, they were hinting @ something other than race relations.
holla!
Posted by: k. orr at July 21, 2005 8:07 PM
this article is very much on point. this was a white friendly version of a race movie. it was entertaining yet unrealistic becuase race is confronted on many levels by black and other non-whites in america.
Posted by: nat turner at July 22, 2005 3:41 AM
I didnt have the impetus to see this movie for the very same reason. Like, whenever a bunch of my fellow whiteys start RAVING about how WONDERFUL a movie is because it makes you REALLY THINK about RACISM, that's usually a bad sign. I agree with Jeff & co: If it's that good, they wouldn;t be feeling that good.
In fact, the only thing that DOES make me want to see this movie is Hashim's recommendation. Other than that, see you on DVD...
Posted by: Daniel at July 22, 2005 9:26 AM
people are so entrenched in their views on things that i suspect that no matter what Haggis did with this film, those in that "discussion" would have still found something about it that was wrong.
Simply put, it was one person's point of view. We all have our own. Doesn't make the film horrible because of it.
Posted by: Veronica at July 22, 2005 10:05 AM
I don't think they said the film was horrible, tho.. they both said positive things about it as well as negative.
Posted by: Jay Smooth at July 22, 2005 11:20 AM
i think the problem with the movie is that it is so far fetched that it stops seeming plausible, which makes any points the movie is attempting to make some what mute. "crash" has great acting but a lousy script. i didn't feel like the writer really had a sophisticated understanding of race, so he went for the okey-doke in order to try and make these poigant moments. i think any one who has reflected deeply on race issues in america will leave the theatre (or their couch) wishing the movie did more.
i'm not sure who ms. chan is (pardon my ignorance), but her statement that whites are scared of non-whites even if they can't vocalize it or verbalize it is just a plain silly thing for a person to say. especially a person who is trying to make intelligent statements on race. generalizations are becoming less and less useful when discussing race, and i'm not exactly sure if they were ever useful in the first place.
perhaps she has a point that the movie would've been stronger if had been framed directly from that white-fright perspective. i could agree with that because its something that a white writer would able to express more accurately. but the whole "all whiteys are afraid of darkies" logic is as foolish as the words i just put in quotes.
evolve people.
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