Crash The Movie

My cultural ancestry comes from a Cuban and Mexican decent. I have chosen to write about my Cuban side because I can relate to them more than I could with my Mexican side. I was raised around my Cuban family and would occasionally see my Mexican side due to them living so far away. I have spent a lot more time associating with Cubans and have adapted to more of their habits.

In the film, Crash by Paul Higgins there is the incorporation of numerous perspectives and theories of societal issues. The film brought up various issues we face in our world today such as racial discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice etc. One theory that is seen is the symbolic interaction theory. There is the usage of different symbols in the film. Each character in the film comes from a different culture; socioeconomic background etc. and they each have their own story.

This movie Directed by Paul Haggis who also directed Academy Award Winning "Million Dollar Baby" and had also won an Academy Award for this movie as well puts a twisted story in this film. This movie is trying to symbolize what goes on in the world today in regards to racism and stereotypes. He tries to make a point on how societies view themselves and others in the world based on there ethnicities. This movie intertwines several different people's lives, all different races, with different types of beliefs. Such ethnicities include Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Middle Eastern. This movie includes conflicts on both sides of the picture from cops and criminals as well

Mary Louise Pratt defined contact zones as “social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today.” A contact zone is a place where two cultures can mesh together. People from different cultures are able to interact with each other through these contact zones. A contact zone allows people to look into cultures other than their own. They can get new ideas by looking into another culture, as well as their own. Contact zones allow you to look at things in a new way. Pratt talks about contact zones being seen more and more today. People may have to look beyond how

Intra-cultural relations are historically filled with conflict; and to deal with this conflict: Gloria Anzaldua’s concepts of opposing cultures and language barriers, John Locke’s Equality theory, and Kwame Anthony Appiah’s global citizenship theory explores the issue and works towards better relations. According to Anzaldua, people are not of one culture, but in several cases, several clashing, distinct cultures. Anzaldua argues that language is part of our identity, and it is a barrier between cultures, sometimes even our own. While Locke argues, we are all created equal, we may not be treated equal. Once society can deal with these problems, it can move forward towards Kwame Anthony Appiah’s global citizenship theory.

America is greatly influenced and enhanced by the many versatile cultures which inhabit it. Cultural diversity has added to our economy in such a way that it brings innovated ideas and contact structures throughout the world. International cuisines have come to America through subcultures, have expanded the food industry, and have allowed English Americans to try new foods and flavors. Immigrants have brought with them religious values that greatly differ and vary from those at which were natural in the main stream American culture. The educational development through foreign nationals has led America, as a nation, to excel and be deemed one of the most intelligent nations in the world! Consequently, the subcultures have kept our

Anthropologists have always had their discrepancies with the word culture and its background significance. There have been numerous definitions that have filtered through the field, yet not one that everyone can accept or agree with. Franz Boas, an anthropologist in the early 20th Century, and his students, had a difficult time figuring out the objective of what culture is. Culture is about learning and shared ideas about behaviour. Although Boas and his students had a slightly different idea in mind. They ultimately reached a conclusion, a definition of culture in their view that is a contradiction in terms. Boas sates that, “ culture was expressed through the medium of language but was not reducible to it;

Throughout “Arts of the Contact Zone”, Pratt uses many real life situations to exemplify how contact zones create conflict and separate people and cultures; but she also examines ways to use the contact zone to our advantage in order to unify society. Sometimes people are led believe their differences are too great to overcome, so they remain isolated from the rest of society. People shouldn’t be trying to isolate themselves, but rather incorporating their culture into the community around them. This incorporation of cultures can often cause conflict, but Pratt explains that conflict can be avoided if people abandon their biases and pursue knowledge about the cultures around them. This idea “will read very differently” to people on opposing sides of the contact zone

Crash is a movie about race and stereotypes and its effects on the various people living in the Los Angeles area. The movie boost racial awareness and it requires close observation from the viewer. We see a variety of races including African American men and women, several Hispanics, a Middle Eastern family, and a few Asians. We see the ups and downs of each character and it helps us see where they are coming from, and potentially why they are racist against different people. It seems that we almost begin to feel sorry for the different characters regardless of what they are doing or how they are acting because of each of their circumstances.

Physical Characteristics and racial differences are distinguishing traits that keep people in our world apart from each other. Crash is a movie that showcases prejudice and racial stereotypes. The movie is set in Los Angeles which is a city with the cultural mix of almost every ethnicity. Crash is a perfect analogy of how the different people intersect with others in society. The movie crash shows differences between the lives of different people. It displays the interactions of several multiethnic groups such as African American, Caucasians, Asians, Latinos, and Arabs. All of the groups are striving to overcome their fears as they weave in and out of each other’s lives. They are all tied by an invisible chain of events, so the movie

For centuries, racism has become the universal epitome of culture, despite the efforts of various civilizations, such as the Western and European to combat these indifferences among people. A race is specific social group that can be differentiated through various ways, from facial features and hair textures, to social norms and habits that constitutes to that group. These differences contribute to our uniqueness and humanity. Because people can be grouped by any number of differences, Man, lead by his ignorance, perpetuated the issue once social-hierarchies began to develop, splitting society to its various groups. As a result, social disparity from one’s upbringing became the common tendency to look down, or look up at people of other

“The Contact Zone”, is defined by Mary Louis Pratt as “the space in which transculturation takes place – where two different cultures meet and inform each other, often in highly asymmetrical ways.” Pratt describes what she calls ‘contact zones’ and elaborates on the pros and cons of these cultural interactions. She sees the contact zone as a place that allows people to exchange cultural ideas and break down the dividing cultural borders. When a contact zone is started, people are able to interact on new levels gaining a new perspective because they are able to collaborate with people from foreign cultures. If you are always with people of the same culture as you, you become used to hearing everything from the same perspective. With a

I would like to consider my cultural heritage as diverse, but this is far from reality. Over the years as I matured through my teenage years, I was exposed to different cultures by life experiences and travel. I struggled to create both a personal and cultural identity while trying to adjust to my sight loss and with the support of my family I traveled overseas to experience other cultures for the first time. My family opened up their home to a foreign exchange program in turn allowing me the opportunity to travel over to Europe at the age of 16 years old. This opportunity started the slow progression of experiences that would open my mind to others who are unlike myself, especially traveling to a strange place and feeling different in

The film Crash, written and directed by Paul Haggis, examines racial exchanges in several different ethnic groups living in Los Angeles. As the film move forward, we are able to view how each characters’ own racist experiences change their attitudes towards other races. Paul Haggis illustrates those change through the mood tone, setting, and even the music. By the end of the movie, the audience is left with a feeling of hope and an ambition to examine its own thought and actions towards others. Even though critics argue that the film Crash is stereotypically racist, the film encourages America to see past the misbelief we have of each other because empathy and self-examination is the starting place for change and the destruction of society is based on one’s choices.

To be culturally self- aware one must be aware of the values beliefs and traditions celebrated by a group of people who consider themselves a culture. This could be schools, the local or wider community and religious groups etc... Once a person is culturally self-aware, it is easier for them to effectively participate or accept culturally categorised situations. Having cultural intelligence is important to live and function in a cohesive inclusive society such as Darwin. This critical reflection will contemplate the importance of a multi-cultural society using readings and experiences to demonstrate how cultural self-awareness assists people in becoming more culturally intelligent.