When you hear the word racism, what mainly pops up is the time of apartheid. Even when you see a mention of racism and discrimination in history books, it mainly revolves around African slavery by the Europeans.
When you watch Crash this little bubble of comfort that racism is only restricted against blacks, breaks open and let’s you witness the reality.
It sounds pretty ignorant of me to refer to black racism as a comfort cocoon but don’t get me wrong. When a problem seemingly appears to be confined to one particular group, it subconsciously feels easier to deal with, and frankly feels safer if you’re not a part of that group
Crash tells you what the original idea of racism has caused in the world, permanently.
Crash can be categorized as a composite film set in Los Angeles, California and deals with lives that constantly one way or another end up being racist and victims of racism, all at once.
The film begins with two black guys talking about how differently they are looked at because of their color, and the next second they take out a gun and rob a vehicle of a white couple who gave them looks.
What happens in this scene is not defamation of black people but the dark realization of how one can realise the problem and be a part of it at the same time, just like the viewer who let’s assume, knows it’s wrong to be racist but immediately judges the entire black community post this scene.
This is what director Paul Haggis successfully achieves by making the audience question their own principles.
Coming back to my initial narrative, Crash represents racism throughout communities, Mexicans, asians, persians (because they were assumed to be Arabs) and blacks, and still leaves out the white race. What does it tell you about white supremacy? What you already know!
Moving on, the film is composite for an obvious reason to link stories subtly and apart from that to tell you how racism towards one community stems out from another. In history, there is only one chapter of racism but in the present it stretches out to almost every community, and that has happened because of the core narrative of racism: discriminate.
Crash is an eye opener for both racists and hoarders of equality. It doesn’t justify any problem, but only asks us to be better judges of a situation.
The film has empathy, devastation, sadness and leaves you with an empty heart.
Watch it if you’re ready to let the film hit you in your most uncomfortable spaces.
The F Word 