More Myths About About Blacks and Racist Cops

A Second Look at "Crash"
By NATE MEZMER
http://counterpunch.org/mezmer03062006.html

excerpt:
Just as it has been done for years in Hollywood, the roll of the black male in this movie is quickly reduced to that of weakness and ignorance. At every turn, the black man is portrayed as either powerless or out of control (Howard) while the white man gets away with murder, and more specifically in Dillon's case, saves the day (that is, saves the life of a black women he initially harasses both racially and sexually).

Furthermore Dillon's cop character is classic American myth!

Although it is established early on that he is deeply flawed, it is ultimately suggested that his sins are to be forgiven due to his heroics. Because Dillon's character is never held accountable for his repugnance and moreover in the end romanticized, "Crash" does more to uphold the subconscious structures of white supremacy than destroy them.

If you have seen "Crash" and disagree with this synopsis I challenge you to watch it again and re-analyze what is so different about this movie in regards to race? It may not be as traditional an approach as the "Legend of Bagger Vance," but it does not do much to actually test the underlying themes of racism in hollywood nor America.

Did Matt Dillon's character escape the car, or did he die?

Personally, I thought it was a good movie that was loaded with idiotic stereotypes, and would have been more appropriate had it been made in 1992.

That movie would have been so much better if he'd eaten it.

Add Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock's characters to that list as well.

the limits and stereotypes society places on them

the excellence of Dillon's performance is that he shows his character learning and changing throughout the events portrayed, and that his character is not black and white. one can be both brave and bigoted.

this "analysis" is ludicrous, or perhaps just profoundly ignorant.

"his character is not black and white. one can be both brave and bigoted."

From a source that prides itsself on its supposed critical thinking, this is just a hit piece against Crash because BBM didn't win.

Dillion's character was definely a bigot but he also was brave, people aren't two dimseonal sterotypes, they're complex, I'll use one of our presidents as an example here, President Truman had prejudices against Blacks and Jews but he also thought it was the right thing to stop lynching in the south and segeregation of hte armed forces and he fought for a homeland for the Jews. I think its interesting when I think about all of this, perhaps Brokeback Mountain didn't win because of prejudice but I think whta a film like Crash teaches us that we all have prejudice and there is no one who is without it, take Fraser's character the DA of LA for example, he liked to sohw to the public that he was a tolerant guy and not bigoted but he had prejducies. Anyone who declares that he or she has no prejudice in my eyes is a damned fool, we all have prejudices like it or not, its what makes us human. Anyhow just my two cents, what Dillion did to Thandie Newton's character was sick when he fondled her but it was also admirable when eh saved her.

...but less so towards black people and white people.

The only Middle Eastern family was headed by a wife so downtrodden-seeming and jittery she looks as if she'd have a heart attack if you let out a fart within five feet of her, and a bossy, unpleasant husband who shoots a child in the back over a misunderstanding that is entirely his own fault. And the only Asian family consisted of a couple who were smuggling their own countrymen in dangerous, abject squalor in the back of a van.

Awesome message there.

Read Love and Rockets X by Gilbert Herandez if you want a genuinely grown-up, intelligent race drama.