Directed by Paul Haggis
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon
112 min.

When we walk on campus, we can see many foreign students. What do you think about when you see various races? Probably you feel unfamiliar to this kind of question because racial discrimination has never been a big issue in Korea. However, we often meet various races on the street nowadays due to globalization. Consequently, racial discrimination is becoming a sensitive and important problem for us. There is a movie that makes us consider the problem. It’s called Crash.

The movie portrays eight crashes in Los Angeles where various races live. Among the eight crashes, I want to introduce Hansen’s story, who is a young caucasian policeman. He has a partner, Ryan, who is a senior white policeman. One day, they inspected an African-American couple. Ryan inspected the wife, but it appeared like sexual molestation. Hansen demanded to change his partner, because he viewed Ryan as a racist. However, Ryan said to Hansen, “You think you know who you are. You have no idea.” One day, Hansen gave an African-American, Peter, a ride. While riding, Peter put his hands into his pocket to show a small sculpture which is the same as Hansen’s, but Hansen thought Peter was reaching for a gun, and so he shot Peter on impulse. Peter died. Hansen realized that he had a stereotype and prejudice about African-Americans. What comes to mind after you read this story? Can we criticize him? Ryan Phillippe (Hansen), said “He is not different with me. The most interesting thing is I have a stereotype and prejudice, too.” Like his interview, I think it is the same with us. He thought he understood other races, but he was possessed by a preconceived idea.

The movie also indicates that racial discrimination isn’t limited to just certain regions, showing crashes among various races, such as Persians, Asians, and South Americans. In the movie, white and African-Americans also can’t distinguish the difference between Arabian and Iranian, or Korean and Chinese. All Asians are regarded as Chinese, and all Arabians are regarded as Iranians. In these situations and crashes, the movie shows that the cause of racial discrimination is not only prejudice and stereotyping, but also ignorance and indifference towards each other.

Do you discriminate against foreigners unconsciously? We should remember that all people, regardless of their race, deserve dignity because they are human beings.