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Thanks for this, Steven. I appreciate your honesty, and now I want to see this film. I have a sneaking suspicion that I share your racist views, and I'm so sorry.

Steven, I like the suggestion that employing for any reason a lens which focuses on form before and at the expense of content--color or shape before personality and individual experience--is a kind of bigotry, a harmful reduction of difference (and God's limitless creativity). Thanks for the powerful, challenging reminder.

Chill man. Ever hear of White Guilt? You might want to look in the mirror, 'cause I think you're being too hard on yourself. I saw this movie too, and it's a pretentious cartoon caricature which GREATLY exaggerates reality. Yes, we all know that anyone of any color can be a racist. But just because you might have an inappropriate thought once in a while does not make you a Racist. It means you live in a society that is a mix of occasional racist events and occasional paranoid reactions. It's whether or not you ACT on the thought that matters. Think about it: have you ever seen a hot girl and without thinking become even the tiniest bit aroused, just to realize she's Underage? Does that make you a Pedophile? Don't think so! Have you ever had someone cut you off on the highway and a vision fleetingly passed through your head of wanting to run him over? Does that make you a murderer? Hardly. Same goes with the so-called Racism you identify. If you're a Christian, you probably believe Christ died for your sins, which means you don't have to wait for the day when you will no longer be a Racist. Whenever an inappropriate thought passes through you mind, just give it up to Him, and remind yourself you LOVE everybody.

Thanks for the comments - good to see that this introspection has prompted a response.

I'd like to take a few minutes to reply specifically to John:

I am indeed a follower of Christ, and that's precisely why this film helps me to realize that I, like nearly everyone else, am a Racist. In the "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew 5, Jesus makes crazy statements like, ""21 You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder,] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother[b]will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." Also, he goes on to say, "27"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."

So the standard that Jesus calls us to when he says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in Heaven is perfect," is much, much higher than the standard that society sets before us. Our thoughts, and not just our actions, do indeed make us guilty before God. It is true, as you rightfully point out, that our guilt has been removed by the actions of Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf, but the standard remains perfection.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not a paranoid legalist. But I think that life in the Kingdom of the Heavens, which is Jesus' focus in that Sermon, is to be lived here and now as well as in a future Paradise. Our thoughts as well as our actions do matter - as far as God is concerned.

And so, I still conclude that according to Jesus, I am a Racist, a Murderer, an Adulterer. And I wholly rest on Jesus' redemption and grace to continue living on a path that leads to perfection and grants me unconditional love for my mistakes along the way. The understanding that I am a Racist doesn't bring guilt and shame, but a fuller appreciation for God and a greater reliance on Jesus' forgiveness.

With all respect, your review seems to be more about the temptation to think racist thoughts than about actually being a racist. From reading your review, I gather you have a Christian background, so I think you'll know where I'm coming from when I say this: All kinds of twisted thoughts can enter your head (another name for this is Temptation), but if you reject those thoughts with affirmative "Jesus loves that person and I do too", and don't act on the thought or cultivate it in your mind, then you haven't done anything wrong. Of course, the Bible calls each of us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, so please don't think this post is an attempt to belittle what you wrote.

I too saw "Crash", and I thought it was pretentious and ultimately not very useful in analyzing the issues of race and racism in America. Haggis clings to the idea that there can be no interaction between folks of different races but that racism is involved somehow. To my mind, this type of attitude trivializes real racism, which unfortunately is still with us, and will most likely be with us as long as this tired old world lasts. That doesn't mean we should accept its presence and not fight it when we encounter it, but I believe we should be clear on the difference between real racism and the guilt-mongering that sometimes gets peddled in the marketplace of ideas.

Apropos this subject, I was reading the February 1992 issue of "First Things" online, and I came across something that may shed a bit more light on this subject. For those who aren't familiar, "First Things" bills itself as "the Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life". "First Things" quoted a Briton called Kenneth Minogue about his three month trip to the U.S. and some of his impressions of American young people. As I was in my first year of college back in 2/92, this really hit home to me. Doubly so, as I share your characteristic of being a white male. So in relation to racism and your review, here goes, for whatever it's worth:

"'One remarkable [thing] is the way that the nicest and least offensive of American students will publicly confess to racism. This wimpish passion to confess must be understood in terms of the dominant doctrine that America is institutionally racist, and that the very worst people are those who will not admit it, indeed who even may not be aware of it. Faced with this Orwellian instrument of mental torture, students understandably settle for the lesser rap. Confession at least allows them to demonstrate the valued thing called 'sensitivity.' Young white males in particular carry a heavy burden of political incorrectness, and must work hard at demonstrating themselves innocent of both racism and sexism not to mention lookism, ableism, and all the other public crimes of a despotic code.' Minogue's conclusion is that morality in America is becoming exclusively a matter of ideological commitment, and that, he thinks, is a form of decadence."

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9202/public.html

Anyhow, I just wanted to add my thoughts and share this quote as a counterpoint to your review.

Respectfully, Mike Feldbush

This movie may lean too heavily on coincidence, and deliver a heavy-handed message, but it also contains two of the most powerful cinematic moments I have *ever* seen. Sometimes a film is great in pieces.

I'm glad it won the Oscar for best film.

While I felt that at times this movie was far too exaggerated and that these racist people couldn't possibly be the status quo, I asked myself in the same breath what I really could know as an upper-middle class white girl living in the suburbs. I distanced myself from the images of the ghettos and new age slave labor and tried to tell my naive self that things weren't really that way, but they continued to haunt me. The shock value of this movie stayed with me, just as it did with Mr. Nicholson, and I believe that that is the point of this movie, to overtly shock the audience into seeing the unhindered, raw, ugly feelings that racism produces. While it could've been done in a calmer manner, this shock-and-awe technique forces the viewer into doing a little soul-searching.

The discord seen on this site is one of the reasons why the film Crash is so powerful. As an African-American young woman I found the depiction of racism confusing. Perhaps that is because as Crash illustrates, racism in American has changed for my generation especially. While my legacy includes slavery and segregation, I never endured any of this. Integration was designed to level the playing field for all races and create a society where all students get equal opportunities. With age, one sees that racism did not suddenly disappear. Now it is in a new stealth-like fashion where people have to walk with caution. It is seen in our public schools when 85% of students in standard courses are Black or Hispanic while those honors and advanced classes are almost all white. It is illustrated by teachers who encourage their African American students to go to Historically Black Universities rather than have them compete with their white counterparts at the top national universities.

The experience of Terrance Howard’s character Cameron Thayer struck a cord with me. This is because he personifies the argument that an increase in socio-economic status will improve the African-American position in society. However, his story does not illustrate this. He is profiled by a white cop who all but rapes his wife right before him. And he does absolutely nothing. This raises questions about what he could or could not do and when it is okay to take a stand.

I take a stand not by being aggressive, angry, or walking around with a chip on my shoulder, but by being educated. Taking a stand is when you attend the university that was built on the blood and sweat of your ancestors. Taking a stand is when you attend a university that your mother could not. Taking a stand is not allowing others' perception of you to challenge you from attaining your dreams. Taking a stand is what Crash is all about!