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Florencia Inige
English 110 A001
Professor Bruner
11/21/14
Research Paper Final Draft
Not a Heart of Darkness
About 49% of conservative Americans consider blacks the most racist ethnic group,
while 12% regard whites the most racist. And about 27% of liberal Americans saw whites as the
most racist, and 21%, blacks. (Chumley, Web) Although this statistic could be true according to
popular opinion, what it fails to do is incorporate other ethnicities that are present in America.
The movie Crash released in 2004 portrays the lives of a group of people from different
ethnicities. Aside from these people being from different ethnicities, they are also on different
walks of life. While it may seem that the offenders in this movie are predominantly white, this is
not always the case. After seeing racism around the country and the world, we may ask
ourselves, Is there only one major ethnic group that displays racism more than others? Not
only does this movie show racism in a community, but it also depicts its different results. It
shows that racism is not limited to this movie or a single community, but the country and the
world as a whole.
Racism can not only have a strong negative impact on people, but it can also be present
as a result of some type of emotional, physical, or mental stressor. In Crash, there are many
instances in which the characters have a preconceived notion about someone of a different

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ethnicity, because of an event in their past that influenced them to think that way. For example,
Officer John Ryan shows racism in places such as the hospital where his dad is to be treated and
even on the job when he pulls the Thayer couple over. At one point in the movie, it is revealed
that some of his racism towards the black hospital worker comes as a result of his father losing
his job to black people, or at least thats who he blames. When he pulls the Thayers (a black
couple) over, he is not only racist towards them, but also molests Mrs. Thayer. This event has a
huge impact on her later on in the movie as well, when she gets into a horrible car accident
(Crash). In Ali Rattansis book titled Racism: A Very Short Introduction, he states that racism
also comes with identity. He says that The fact that any identity also requires identifying what it
is not, means that any identity is potentially open to being threatened and destabilized by
identities that are being denied. (Rattansi, eBook). This tells us that as we try to find who we
are, we do anything to protect our identity. If anything gets in the way of that we get very
defensive and do what we can to get it out of the way. For example, if one grows up in a
predominantly white neighborhood, and knows the same thing his whole life, then years later
that same neighborhood has grown to be diverse and completely different, they might feel
threatened.
Racism can affect people in many ways, depending on their exposure to it. A growing
literature shows discrimination raises the risk of many emotional and physical problems.
Discrimination has been shown to increase the risk of stress, depression, the common cold,
mortality, etc. (Silverstein, Web). In Crash, there are many characters affected by racism. After
her encounter with Officer Ryan, Mrs. Thayer is greatly affected in an emotional way. She is
constantly afraid of what can happen to her and feels ashamed of what he did to her. When she
gets in a really bad car accident that causes her to be trapped upside down in her car while

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gasoline is leaking, the officer on the scene ironically ends up being Ryan. The extent of her
emotional problems due to her encounter with him before, stayed with her as he crawled into her
car and tried to save her. He realized at once who she was and she panicked when she saw it was
him. This shows how not only his racism affected her, but also his sexually molesting her
(Crash). In real life, we are affected by racism in many ways. Some people choose to display
racism in verbal or violent ways. Children are sometimes the ones whom racism takes its most
powerful toll on; they dont understand that its racism.
Today, in American culture, overt white racism is unacceptable, both in law and in
public conduct. Black racism is another matter. It passes as a kind of in-group self-esteem
booster (Thomas, Web). Although sometimes it may seem like there is one main ethnic group
that dominantly displays racism, it is actually seen on a broad spectrum. While one ethnic group
may think that another is more racist, any group can display racism. Everyone has their own
opinions about racism, and some groups are portrayed as more racist than others in movies,
books, TV shows, etc. In Crash, there are many different nationalities represented; there are
Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, Persians, and Caucasians and none of these characters are
innocent of racism. Racism is displayed in many ways, big or small. In our communities, people
think that either people from their ethnicity, or people from other ethnicities are the most racist.
In asking a few people, it was interesting to hear so many African Americans say that they think
their race displays racism more than others. A lot of times we see on the news that more
Caucasians are viewed as more racist. In the community, it can be seen that while people make
jokes about members of their own race, they take it offensively when others try to join in on the
jokes.

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Racism can be displayed in many ways around the country. Often times, we participate in
making racist jokes or remarks, without any malicious intention. Whether there is a large group
of people like Neo-Nazis, causing terror in communities, or teens taunting each other based on
race, everyone displays racism in some type of way. We try to say that we would never be racist
or discriminate anyone, yet we go around looking at people based on the color of their skin. The
Civil Rights movement was about 50 years ago, yet racism is still present. Since then, there has
been a great increase in the number of immigrants entering the country from many different
places around the world. No matter how much this country has progressed throughout the years,
unfortunately racism is still present. Dr. Martin Luther King would smile from above to see that
segregation has been defeated for many years, however he would not be happy to know that we
still dont accept our neighbors for who they are. Instead, we look at their physical
characteristics.
In the end, while they knew they were aware of their racism, and they saw the error of
their ways (Crash). The events that occurred helped change their perspectives and how they
treated people later on. In America, racism is displayed more when tragedies occur and chaos
erupts. It affects people everywhere and is not limited to only one specific race as the main
offenders. While racism has died down throughout the years, especially since the Civil Rights
movement, it does not completely disappear. Racism has its different effects on people, and
cannot be pinpointed to one cause. As a social construction, racism has been around for many
years. Some say it does not exist, but is only an idea and a way to categorize people into different
groups based on similarities of culture, skin color, tradition, etc. No matter what we may think,
no one is any less guilty of racism than the person next to him. Even if one is not outwardly
racist, or has no malicious intent in saying something, it still counts as racism.

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Works Cited
"Causes of Racism." Causes of Racism. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.
Chumley, Cheryl K. "More Americans Say Blacks More Racist than Whites: Rasmussen Report"
Washington Times. The Washington Times, 4 July 2013. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.
Crash, Dir. Paul Haggis, Lionsgate. 2004. DVD. 11/14/14
Rattansi, Ali. Racism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, GBR: Oxford University Press, UK,
2007. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 13 November 2014.
Silverstein, Jason. "How Racism Is Bad for Our Bodies." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company,
12 Mar. 2013. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.
Thomas, William R. "How Racist Are We?" The Atlas Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

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