Stereotypes

I thought the movie crash was very clever. The different types of race and their stereotypes were very obvious, yet the portrayal of them were very unique. When the Mexican man is changing the lock at the white couples house, the white woman wants them changed again in the morning because she doesn't trust him. She thinks he is a "gang banger" because of his baggie pants and his race. Yes she was just held at gun point and her car was stolen by two black men, but that gives her no right to accuse an innocent Mexican man. We later find that he is not in a gang, but has a wife and daughter and works very hard to protect them. Another stereotype that we have is brought to our attention when we see the motives of the "china man." At first when we see the two black males hit the Asian man we feel bad. But later we see that he was harboring people in the back of his truck and was planning to human traffic and sell them. This is a surprise to us because we see Asians as by the book people who are intelligent and respectful. This just shows that we should not judge people by the color of their skin. I have definitely held my belongings a little closer if I felt uncomfortable. I think this is a little bit of instinct and a little bit of racism. However, it is not always racism, my reasoning is usually because of the way they are dressed and it is always if it is a man, black, white, Mexican, or even Asian. If a guy looks shady to me, then I will always put my guard up. When I went downtown this past Saturday, I thought about what we learned in class and tried not to be racist at all. If I saw a man of color walking by I accepted him as a person, instead of having alarming thoughts. But no matter what, I will always trust my instincts.