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n first viewing, Paul Haggis'Oscar-winning 2005 movie

Crash appears to presentan uncompromising, realistic

portrait of racism in contempo-rary Los Angeles. Haggis seeksto explode racial stereotypes,oriticise xenophobia andimpart a message about thenecessity of putting asideracial prejudice. However, if wetake a closer took at how thefilm addresses these issues,problems with its approach tothe topic of racism emerge.

Like many films from recentyears, such as Babel (Alejan-dro González Iñárritu, 2006),Love Actually (Richard Curtis,2003) and Magnolia (Paul

Thomas Anderson, 1999),Crash focuses on a selectionof seemingly random charac-ters whose paths intersect.Film scholar Wendy Everettdescribes this as the 'fractal'film form, adopting the termfrom chaos theory whereapparently random elementscombine to form a largerorder.' In part reflecting theinfluences of the Internet,these films dravi/ upon the ideathat everyone in the world isconnected by six (or fewer)degrees of separation. Theyfrequently evoke this idea toestablish a comforting senseof community as a counter topersonal alienation. In Magno-lia, for example, a rainfall of

frogs and a song sungsimultaneously by the variousstrangers provide expressionfor their conjoint alienation,and as omniscient viewers weare witness to their collectiveand therefore catharticexperience of suffering.

Using a fractal structure.Haggis sets out to exploreracism and prejudice as awidespread social problem.Cras^ follovi/s more than adozen principal charactersand the many ways in whichthey interconnect or, as thefilm's eponymous motif has it,collide.^ Its thematic premise,spoken by Detective GrahamWaters (Don Cheadle), is that

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'... In t_A, nobody touchesyou. We're atways behindthis metal and gtass. t thinkwe miss that touch so muchthat we crash into eachother, just so we can feetsomething,' Crash seeks tore-estabtish that sense oftouch and community,depicting characters who, intheir encounters with racismand personat suffering, areconnected in both physicatand metaphysicat ways.

Crash looks beneath theUtopian banner of harmonythat often accompaniespronouncements of mutticut-turaiism. Los Angetes, knownfor its history of raciatconflict, potice viotence, andracial and ethnic diversity,provides an apt setting for afitm that focuses on atiena-tion, racism and mutticuttur-alism.^ Culturat critic tVtikeDavis has described t_A as a•fortress' city, with each ctassor ethnic division barricadedagainst one another.•*Throughout, Crash toucheson issues of raciat conftict,such as the legacy of slaveryand the civit rights move-

ment, the exploitation ofimmigrants, the victimisationof tviiddte Eastern peopie thatwas inftamed by September11 and the 'War on Terror',racism in the t_APD and thejudiciat system, and whiteprivitege. Yet what is cruciatis the way these issues areframed, particutarly in regardto how Haggis uses thefractat form to addressstereotypes, redeem charac-ters' flaws and provideclosure to the whole film.

Detrimental stereotypes

One of Crash's centratthemes is the detrimentalnature of stereotyping. In onescene a white tetevisionproducer is convinced thatthe audience woutd not findcredibte a black adotescentwho uses proper grammar,so he forces the show's btackdirector, Cameron (TerrenceHoward), to reshoot thescene so that the actorspeaks more 'black', tn thisscene. Haggis points to thefact that mainstream mediaand entertainment ptay acruciat part in shaping our

ideas about prejudice andraciat stereotypes. Cinemaand tetevision have consist-entty presented stereotypesof minority groups, as seen inBreakfast at Tiffany's (BtakeEdwards, 1961), ßas/cInstinct (Paut Verhoeven,1992) and Gone mm fheIV/nc/(Victor Fleming, 1939).̂These minorities, or 'Others',are often sources of humouror threat, as their 'strange'behaviour and speech jarwith the 'norms' of thedominant, typicatty white,heterosexuat society.

The scene in Crash atsounderscores the deceptivenature of visibitity, tokenfigures and the practice of'entightened racism','̂ Showssuch as The Cosby Show (towhich Cameron's wifescathingty refers), Grey'sAnatomy and Law and Crderproctaim toterance andmutticuituratism by showingminority figures on-screen.However, their 'cotour-blind'potitics present att charactersas having equat opportuni-ties, regardtess of economicdis/advantaged background.'

This practice gtosses overthe institutional inequalitiesthat in reality are a founda-tion of raciat discrimination.

Despite its intentions. Crash'sown attempts to exptoderacial stereotypes proveprobtematic. Frequentty, afterarticutating insightfut objec-tions to racism, charactersrevert to stereotypes, thusreinstating them and under-mining the objections. Ayoung btack man, Anthony(Ludacris), raits against thepersistence of stereotypingand white privitege, yet faits torecognise his own part in theperpetuation of this system.He comptains to Peter (LarenzTäte) that in a white-poputatedrestaurant even their btackwaitress stereotyped them asbtack peopte who don't tip.Yet his insight into thedehumanising nature cfstereotyping turns out to be asetf-futfitting prophecy whenPeter points out that, just asthe waitress expected,Anthony did not tip. Anthonythen points out that, beingbtack, they should be theones to be scared on the

white-dominated, LAPD-Ipatrolled boulevard, ratherthan the white woman, Jean(Sandra Bullock), whoinstinctively draws closer toher husband on passingthem. As Susan Searls Girouxand Henry A, Giroux note, thefilm then performs a 'cheapreversal' of Anthony'scriticism of white privilegeand the 'trigger happy' LAPDby turning him and theup-till-then mild-manneredPeter into gun-toting thieves.̂In doing so. Crash reinstatesthe stereotype of dangerousyoung black men, andlegitimises the LAPD'sauthority and Jean's fear.

Similariy, a black healthinsurance officer, Shaniqua(Loretta Devine), shifts fromjustified indignation at awhite man's insults to ademeanour of haughty andultimately absurd Sapphire-esque bitchiness when sherefuses his father help, andshe later yells at anotherman, 'Don't talk to me unlessyou speak American!'^

Cne commentator notes that

Asian characters in Crash,while receiving marginallymore screen time than intypical mainstream films,'° arenevertheless included for themost part as comic relief ratherthan fleshed-out characters.̂ 'And despite the film'sinsistence that Farhad (ShaunToub) is not Arab (thereforerendering him a 'safe' Middle

the white district attorney.Rick (Brendan Fraser), who isseeking re-election, displayshis shallow politics whenhe decides that 'pinning amedal on a black man' will'neutralise' the fact that hiscar was hijacked by twoblack men. Rick's lawyer,Flanagan (William Fichtner),later blackmails Detective

get to you. I mean, on a gutlevel, as a black man. Theyjust can't keep their handsout of the cookie jar.

Flanagan is fully aware of theinstitutional causes of racialinequalities but chooses toignore them in favour ofbigotry. Haggis here strikes atthe fact that the institutional.

Frequently, after articulating insightful objectionsto racism, characters revert to stereotypes, thus

reinstating them and undermining the objections.

Eastern American citizen),he is portrayed as a loosecannon whose irrationalparanoia leads him to anattempted act of terrorism.While such characters aremeant to, and initially appearto, subvert stereotypes, overthe course of the film theyrevert to them.

Crash takes place aroundthe lead-up to an electioncampaign that only superfi-cially supports the blackcommunity. Early in the film

Graham into giving falseevidence to support thiscampaign. Echoing Rick'sblindness, but worseningit because this time it isdeliberate blindness,Flanagan tells Graham:

/ know all the sociologicalreasons why, per capita,eight times more black menare incarcerated than whitemen. Schools are a disgrace,lack of opportunity, bias inthe judicial system, all thatstuff. But still... it's got to

economic causes of inequali-ty are frequently elided in thebelief that race is an inherentor essential quality. Yet justas Rick fails to distinguishbetween an Iraqi and a blackman, and then blamesanother man for his mistake,racial difference is exposedas more a question of socialand political constructionthan an inherent quality.

Problematic redemption

Disappointingly, the way that

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Haggis arranges the charac-ters' persona! faults, trials andredemptions in the fractalform jeopardises this keyunderstanding of the institu-tional perpetuation ofinequality and white privilege.One of Crash's problems isthat by showing almost all thecharacters to be prejudicedand then providing them withmoments of redemption, thefilm implies, 'Don't worry,everyone's a tittle bit racist!''^Many of the people whomwe assumed would be on the

(Jennifer Esposito); Ria mocksKim Lee's (Alexis Rhee)accent. These moments whenthe tables turn and the victimsbecome victimisers neutralisethe locus of blame and, byextension, white guilt bydepicting racism as every-body's fault. The fractal motifof metaphysical connected-ness encapsulated in thisshared bigotry is misleadinglyused to appease rather thaninvestigate anxieties aboutracism.

prejudice he becomes thefilm's cathartic scapegoat forwhite guilt. It is with an airof self-righteousness thatHaggis remarks in the DVDcommentary that

Tom had to represent Us ...[so that] we would say, 'Nono no. you know, we're notlike that' and you know, we'dgo. 'Aah shit, you know, weare sometimes. '

Haggis seems to conceive ofhis audience as white or 'us'

These moments when the tables turn and thevictims become victimisers neutralise the locus

of blame and, by extension, white guilt by depictingracism as everybody's fault.

receiving end of racism,namely the non-whitecharacters, are shown to beracist themselves: Anthony(who lectures Peter on thederogatory use of the word'nigger') calls a Korean man a'Chinaman'; Graham flingsan insulting stereotype ofHispanic people at Ria

If we examine the waysin which characters areredeemed, we exposeCrash's problematic politicsof representation. Haggisworks persistently totransform villains into heroesand vice versa. When theyoung, liberal white cop Tom(Ryan Philippe) falls prey to

as opposed to multicultural,and means for 'us' to confrontwhite guilt via Tom's downfall.

By contrast, the two whitecharacters who initially seemthe most prejudiced, John(Matt Dillon) and Jean, areoffered redemption. John,the bigoted white cop who

molests a black woman,Christine (Thandie Newton),becomes a hero when helater saves her life. It is tellingthat John never asksChristine's forgiveness orverbally apologises to her.Although he acts at the crashsite to atone for his crime, bylowering her skirt and riskinghis life to save her, he doesnot speak with her but to her.He is in command in bothsituations, as assaulter andas rescuer, and in bothscenes his actions nullifyChristine's words of resist-ance. John's villainy andheroism thus rest equally onthe fact that he treatsChristine as a body to bemanipulated or pacified.'^

Similarly, Jean is supposedlyredeemed of her uptight,classist anger when sherealises that her Mexicanhousekeeper, Maria (YomiPerry), is her only true friend,Yet as Vorris L. Nunley notes,Maria is not afforded a voiceof her own when Jeanembraces her.'" With John'sand Jean's redemptionsresting not on mutual but

authoritarian relationshipswith Others. Crash thusreinstates white privilege,and uses the character ofTom as a scapegoat toappease white guilt.

In contrast, none of thenon-white characters findsuch heroic redemption asJohn, nor are their momentsof redemption free of limitingconditions. The Latinolocksmith. Daniel (MichaelPeña), and his attackerFarhad are afforded a luckyescape rather than earningdefinitive hero status throughvalorous actions. Anthony'sact of redemption - releasingthe Thai and Cambodianillegal immigrants - oncemore displays his inability torecognise his contribution toa flawed system. As Cather-ine Prendergast writes:

Anthony's act of kindness tothe anonymous Asians - theonly clearly illegal immigrantsof the film - is to providethem the entrée into the landof opportunity by allowingthem to sit on the sidewalk.^^

Anthony's victory here is alsotempered by the dramaticirony that he is yet to discoverhis friend Peter's death,thus underwriting his actof rebellion with imminenttragedy. Graham finds nohappy ending, having lost hisfamily because of the lengthshe went to to succeedprofessionally, but having alsolost his professional integrityin an attempt to protecthis family. And Cameron,aggressively confrontingthe police in a scene that ismeant to restore the mascu-line power he lacked when hefailed to protect his wife.loses that power again whenTom paternalistically rescueshim.'" In an astonishinglyunfair manner, if thesecharacters find redemptionit is within constraints, ratherthan actively embraced asin the cases of John andJean. Notably, Flanagan andRick miss out on suchtransformations, as they faceno veritable challenge to theircorrupt authority.

Ultimately. Crash dilutes thepotent issues it raises. As

another car crash occurs,signalling an eternal recur-rence of similar events, thecamera cranes up into themiraculously snow-filledcity skyline and a song byStereophonies intones, 'Somaybe tomorrow. I'll findmy way home.' Just as thecharacters' encounters havebeen arranged to offseteach other's anger and offereach other opportunities forredemption, the song offersthe hope that despite theviolence there is a comfort-ing closure waiting ahead.This closure encouragesoptimism, as the trajectoryof events implies everyoneshares equal experiencesand is redeemed via thiscommonality. Crash therebymitigates the realistic critiqueof racism and prejudice itpurports to engage.

As Giroux and Giroux stress,Crash is significant becauseit openly addresses racism,a rare topic in mainstreamcinema and one thatdeserves investigation. Itis also an important filmto study because of the

issues it raises in regards tomulticulturalism, the legacyof interracial relations inthe US and contemporaryxenophobia. However, as afilm that seeks to please andappease its audience. Crashrequires close examinationfor the way it frames and asa result deceptively presentsthese complex issues.

Wv/en Sitvey is a postgraduatestudent at ANU. •

Endnotes^ Wendy Everett. 'Fractal

Films and the Architectureof Complexity'. Studies inEuropean Cinema, vol. 2.no.3.2005. pp.160-162.

^ Since I go on to furtherdescribe these complexrelationships. 1 here forgoan inevitably convolutedsynopsis.

^ For instance. Los Angeleswas the scene of the riotsagainst the Rodney Kingpolice brutality in 1992,the Rampart Scandalin 1994, the shootingof Suzie Pena in 2005,and {outside of Crash'sscope but nevertheless

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illustrative of its themes)the Los Angeles May Daymêlée in 2007, wherethe LAPD used violenceto break up a peacefulpro-immigration protest.Los Angeles County'sdemographics as of 2007show forty-seven per centHispanic, twenty-nineper cent non-Hispanicwhite, thirteen per centAsian, and 9.5 per centAfrican American, The cityfeatures a Little Ethiopia,Tiny Russia, Korea Town,Thai Town and LittleArmenia, and more (see<http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06037.html>, accessed 20 June2009.)

Mike Davis, 'FortressLos Angeles: TheMilitarization of UrbanSpace', in Michael Sorkin(ed.). Variations on aTheme Park: The NewAmerican City and the

End of Public Space, Hilland Wang, New York,1992, pp.154-180.

^ See, for instance,Linda Holtzman, MediaMessages: What Film,Television, and PopularMusic Teach Us AboutRace, Class, Gender, andSexual Orientation, M.E.Sharpe, Inc., New York,2000; Paul Martin Lester& Susan Dente Ross(eds). Images that Injure:Pictorial Stereotypes inthe Media, GreenwoodPublishing Group,Westport, 2003.

'^ Sut Jhatly & Justin Lev̂ fis.'Enlightened' Racism:The Cosby Show,Audiences, and the Mythof the American Dream.Westview Press, Inc.,Boulder, 1992.

^ Von-is L Nunley,'Symposium: Crash:Rhetorically WreckingDiscourses of Race,

Tolerance, and WhitePrivilege', College English,vol. 69, no. 4, March2007, p.338. Also, see:redchuck4. The Color-blind Racism of Law &Order'. Solidarity webzine,26 February 2008, <http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/1365>, accessed19 June 2009.Susan Searls Giroux& Henry A. Giroux, 'Don'tWorry, We are all Racists!Crash and the Politicsof Privatisation', Third Text,vol.21,no.6, 2007, p.750.Marilyn Yarbrough& Crystal Bennett,'Cassandra and theSistahs: The PeculiarTreatment of AfricanAmerican Women in theMyth of Women as Liars',Journal of Gender, Race& Justice, vo\. 3,1999-2000, p.638. Cameron'swife Christine is a moreemphatic portrait of the

Sapphire stereotype.'" For another consideration,

see Gran Torino (ClintEastwood, 2008).

^ ' Catherine Prendergast,'Symposium: Short Takes:Asians: The PresentAbsence in Crash', CollegeEnglish, vol. 69, no. 4,March 2007, p.347.

^̂ Giroux & Giroux, op. cit.,p.745, quoting RichardKim, 'Crash: Worst Movieof the Year', The Notion,6 March 2006, <http://vi/ww.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=66115>,accessed 7 July 2009.

^̂ Nunley, op.cit., p.344.'" ibid-, p.342.^̂ Prendergast, op. cit., p.348.'^ David G. Holmes,

'Symposium: Paul Haggis'sCrash: The Civil RightsMovement According toCrash: Complicating thePedagogy of Integration',College English, vol. 69,no. 4, March 2007, p.317.

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