Crash and Burn
Exams are over! And we had exactly 2 days to get over them, before starting 12th grade today! So some of from class went and saw the Oscar nominated film Crash.
The movie addresses the issue of racial discrimination in the US. Every example in the movie represented a different section of society – Hispanics, Persian immigrants, middle class blacks, blacks living on the streets, white politicians, cops, asians… - all of whom either face discrimination, or who themselves discriminate against anyone unlike them.
There was one scene that I found myself particularly relating to…
A white couple were walking down the street, and the lady sees two black guys walking towards her. The moment she notices them, her first instinct is to clutch her husband’s hand a little tighter, glance at them and then quickly at the ground, quicken her steps a little, and close her car door as fast as possible.
I found myself wonder if I would be open minded to give them the benefit of the doubt. Any girl who has walked down brigade road in Bangalore, or been to an interschool or college festival, knows what it’s like to be whistled at, or have a comment passed… But I wonder if her reaction would be the same to a dark-skinned guy with a cigarette, and a fair blue-eyed blonde. Would I be being honest, if I said that appearances don’t play any part in my judgement of a person?
Do small everyday things, like preferring a Hindu tailor to a Muslim one, buying fruit from the guy who doesn’t wear the tiny hat on his head, making one of the criteria for hiring a maid that he/she has to be Brahmin, being afraid of a dark skinned man, and not a fair one, or just the fact that a race is the first thing to register about a person, also count as racism? Is being a mental racist easier but, in fact, just as terrible as being a loud one?
Just a thought. What say you?
The movie addresses the issue of racial discrimination in the US. Every example in the movie represented a different section of society – Hispanics, Persian immigrants, middle class blacks, blacks living on the streets, white politicians, cops, asians… - all of whom either face discrimination, or who themselves discriminate against anyone unlike them.
There was one scene that I found myself particularly relating to…
A white couple were walking down the street, and the lady sees two black guys walking towards her. The moment she notices them, her first instinct is to clutch her husband’s hand a little tighter, glance at them and then quickly at the ground, quicken her steps a little, and close her car door as fast as possible.
I found myself wonder if I would be open minded to give them the benefit of the doubt. Any girl who has walked down brigade road in Bangalore, or been to an interschool or college festival, knows what it’s like to be whistled at, or have a comment passed… But I wonder if her reaction would be the same to a dark-skinned guy with a cigarette, and a fair blue-eyed blonde. Would I be being honest, if I said that appearances don’t play any part in my judgement of a person?
Do small everyday things, like preferring a Hindu tailor to a Muslim one, buying fruit from the guy who doesn’t wear the tiny hat on his head, making one of the criteria for hiring a maid that he/she has to be Brahmin, being afraid of a dark skinned man, and not a fair one, or just the fact that a race is the first thing to register about a person, also count as racism? Is being a mental racist easier but, in fact, just as terrible as being a loud one?
Just a thought. What say you?
posted by 
@ 4:09 am
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