Crash

In Crash it was pretty obvious Matt Dillon was bein portrayed as an extreme racist. In the movie there were extreme examples of this. For example, when he talks with the black girl named Shaneqwa he automatically feels she is incompetent and doesnt think she can help. Also, he takes advantage of a black couple and feels up the wife, asserting his "white dominance" on the black couple. Last, his racism comes from his fathers experiences. His father worked with black people and because of some affirmative action policies his father's business tanks, so he creates prejudices towards minorities because he believes it was the black workers fault for why his father's business tanked. Another person who shows a lot of racism is Sandra bullocks character. She sees two black people walk down the street, gets scared, and grabs onto her husband because shes afraid she will be attacked. Also, when her locks are getting changed she tells her husband she wants them changed again in the morning because the lockman is a hispanic gangbanger in her eyes and she obviously doesnt trust him. Sandras characters racism comes from her personality and experiences. She is a mean person all the time, and she seems to be taking her anger out on minorities, so racism is huge in her. Her and Matt dillon are similar in that they have made prejudices where they shouldnt be made, theyve had precious encounters that left them angry or scared, so they need someone to take there emotions out on.

The racism doesn't stop with those two characters. When Luda's friend is being driven home by Matt Dillon's partner he tells him he wants to write a country song. The partner laughs, he obviously is thinking how insane it is for a black person to want to write a country song. The black person is obviously a little hurt and confused as to why the cop doesn't take him serisously. He doesnt feel good and get embarassed for something he enjoys. Another example of a stereotype is when the Persian store owner thinks that the Mexican lockman purposefully didnt fix his door and then told his buddies to rob the store. The Persian freaks out and decides he is going to find and kill the mexican worker. From this, the mexican worker's only reaction was terror, sadness, and loss. He thinks the Persian has killed his daughter, and he crys out because he cant bear the loss from the percieved steroetype of the Persian.

When Terrence Howard told Luda "you embarrass me; you embarrass yourself" he means that Ludas actions are just strengthenin the prejudices created by white people. Luda is doing exactly what society says he does:crime. Its obvious terrence is trying to be the opposite of the black stereotype because he works hard so he isn't percieved as an "average" black person. His wife even yells at him because he acts to "white". Ludas cant react to terrences words because he realizes how right he is. He reailizes that he is playing into the stereotype and a reason for racism is because of his actions.

Certain people look at a single person and see their race because their perceptions and way of viewing the world has been negatively formed from the media, past experiences, and history. The media shows black people in the projects robbing and stealing, mexicans dealing drugs, and asians doing math problems. We see these things and they get imprinted in our brain. A past extreme experience can also create lifelong prejudices. This also ties into history as well. When 9/11 happened Americans were scared of anyone of Middle Eastern decent because we couldn't help but get the extreme situation of 9/11 out of our minds. We expereince something and are so scared of it we lash out at who we are scared of, because we dont want to show our fear.This impact just creates huge seperation in a society. Everyone starts to hate each other, spread rumors, and soon violence will happen. People start to hate each other. Societies are hurt so bad it will take a long time to repair the damage of unjust prejudices. For example, Sandra Bullock looks at two black people and automatically sees the black population as a whole, which to her is a population of violent criminals.

I think it is natural for humans to create perceptions about what we see in life. Its up to the indivdual to take these perceptions into real world situations. I think that somepeople react to their perceptions in racist manners. Pretty much everyone has the potential to be racist, and either through morales, experiences, and upbringing they react to their perceptions.These reactions in extreme cases are racism.

I think race is learned through history and media. I know when I was younger there was no prejudices in my mind, i dont even think i knew what prejudice was. it wasnt in my young brain to think of a black toddler as a killer. history teaches us race through things like slavery. the media shows race by the shows and movies of black people in projects, white people being succesful, and other minorities acting accordin to ther stereotypes. i think the family can be a factor to but it varies for every family. a family of parents whithout racist thoughts will not teach a child about racism. but a white family in the times of slavery willteach their white children the stereotypes of black people.

i dont think its possible to end racism. humans will always create perceptions and stereotypes about other humans. its up to the person to take these thoughts and act on them. i always think there will be ignorant people who will look at stereotypes in there mind and act in a scared manner, taking out there problems on who they stereotype. racism comes from human's ability to percieve the world around us. i think its impossible to teach everyone to follow the same exact perceptions. just as it was portrayed in crash, even though slavery is many many years away, there is still evidence of lots of racism.

priveleges of the wealthy

after playing all these games and watching a 2 week movie i think im pretty well educated o n wealth. weatlh gives people the ability to mess up and have fun doing it. the wealthy control most aspects in life becase they are viewed as the hard working succesful people everyone should listen to if they want to have money. the wealthy have so many opportunities and ways to achieve and get what they want. they control america. everyone looks up to the wealthy not because of who they are, but becasuse of the money theyve made. i think that wealthy get togethers would suck cause no one knows each other they just know they have money and dont care who they are. my 3 main examples of priveleges of wealth are better education, material comfort, and influence. the wealthy have the ability to get the best education possible for themselves and their children, because a lot of the times enough money can influence anybody. the wealthy obviously have great material comfort, being able to afford huge houses, nice cars, vacations, plenty of food, etc. the wealthy especially have influence in america, if the wealthy are unhappy then usually things are done to make them happy. lots of decisisions are made only to improve the welfare of the wealthy, when they need nothing of the sort. the movie definetly showed that the richer people were more educated, better dressed, and had better material comfort. monoply showed that the richer u are the easier it is to play and buy whatever you want. i think something should be done to combat these priveleges but it is hard. first, education should be available to everyone no matter their economic background. next i think that we need to somehow spread the welath of the rich, only a couple percent of the population control a ton of the wealth so we need to sprread it out to the poor. next, we need our government to stop sucking up to the rich. even though they are extrmeely influential because of their money we need to stop trying to comfort those who have the best comforts, we need to focus on those who live on minimum wage salaries to support a family. i think if we make the classes closer to equal in wealth then we are going towards communism, so i think classes are "good" but not when its impossible to move around and its hard to change ur personality to a different class.

how classy

the quote, "What a man is depends on his character; but what he does, and what
we think of what he does, depends on his circumstances. The characteristics that
ruin a man in one class made him eminent in another." is a pretty profound thing. This is saying that the situations and opportunities presented to a person are the reasons why someon acts a certain way, which ultimately leads us to judge the persons actions. In other words, his class dictates what he does and how we view what he has done. I think this quote is very true in our society, if you are in the poor class your opportunities are far different from someone who is rich. you act differently, you do things differently and you think differently. the example mr. smith gave us is a good one. you will look differently at an aggressive real estate agent versus an aggressive sanitation worker. theyre both good jobs, but the sanitation worker is associated more with a lower class than a real estate agent. people look at the sanitation worker differently only because his job is seen as somethin done by the poor who dont have the means to a college education and a "succesful" job. he is not judged by how he works, his personality, etc., but by his class. i think work ethic is a great example of this. take for example a hard working drug lord and a hardworking ceo. from first glance, we immediately assume the drug lord is of a lower class and is up to no good. now, the ceo is a rich, nice gentleman. but i think if you look closer a lot of the times you can see that the drug lord worked extremely hard to get to were he is, even if it is an illegal business. the ceo most likely has been pampered and praised his whole life, and has lived only in the upper upper class. because of where the drug lord came from and his circumstances a life of crime might be the only way to success. whereas a ceo usually is from a rich family without a pressing need for cash. it pretty much boils down to success. different classes have different routes to success, and as you go down in class it gets less and less respectable. i think this is all due to society. the drug lord could be a hard working businessman with no oppotunities. people are judged by what they do, and not how, or what circumstances occurred to make that life the only life possible. we look to closely at the outside of people, the clothes, cash, cars, that we forget to look at "what a man is"