Discrimination is a prevalent issue in society that has decreased over time, but is still occurring. It can be found in more subtle ways than in the past when Whites had their own water fountain to drink out of and Blacks were forced to sit in the back of the bus. The movie, Crash, depicts the prejudice that is present in modern day society. The characters show how people of different races and social classes interact with one another. The stereotypes about the different races are evidently present throughout the film. Most interactions between the characters are negative ones because their prejudice beliefs lead them to take discriminatory actions. A series of events ties the characters together, which allows the audience to witness the complexities
…show more content…
An example that demonstrates this in-group favoritism is shown by one of the White police officers who is outwardly racist and treats African-American people degradingly. In the beginning of the film it shows him pulling over the wealthy African-American director and his wife for no justifiable reason. He ends up sexually harassing the director’s wife and gets away with it. In addition, he completely disrespects and insults an African-American secretary who works at the doctor’s office where his father is being treated. It can be said that he was engaging in blatant racism because his emotional responses to people who did not belong to the White race were strongly negative and could even be considered as hatred. However, in the end, he rescues the director’s African-American wife from a burning car. His actions were unexpected because it seemed like he had so much hatred towards minorities. According to Chryssochoou (2004), the cognitive-motivational perspective explains that people are more likely to be discriminative when they possess feelings of in-group favoritism, not necessarily because they have hatred towards the out-group (p.37). This could explain why this officer mistreated African-American people at first and then decreased his sense of in-group favoritism when he decided to save the
An example that demonstrates this in-group favoritism is shown by one of the White police officers who is outwardly racist and treats African-American people degradingly. In the beginning of the film it shows him pulling over the wealthy African-American director and his wife for no justifiable reason. He ends up sexually harassing the director’s wife and gets away with it. In addition, he completely disrespects and insults an African-American secretary who works at the doctor’s office where his father is being treated. It can be said that he was engaging in blatant racism because his emotional responses to people who did not belong to the White race were strongly negative and could even be considered as hatred. However, in the end, he rescues the director’s African-American wife from a burning car. His actions were unexpected because it seemed like he had so much hatred towards minorities. According to Chryssochoou (2004), the cognitive-motivational perspective explains that people are more likely to be discriminative when they possess feelings of in-group favoritism, not necessarily because they have hatred towards the out-group (p.37). This could explain why this officer mistreated African-American people at first and then decreased his sense of in-group favoritism when he decided to save the