Crash: The Movie and Citizen

As I was reading Citizen, I couldn't help but to link Claudia Rankine's vignettes to the film, Crash. Crash won an academy award for best picture in 2004. The film illustrates how different people struggle with racism and stereotypes through society. The one line in Citizen that reminded of Crash was, "And you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description"(108). Throughout the film, you see how the characters' lives are intertwined together and how some characters live up to racist stereotypes or how some struggle to go against them. In the film, there is a black man who begins talking to a white, male police officer. They seem to get along pretty well and the police officer even offers the black man a ride home. In the car, the black man notices that they both have the same ceramic angel that is displayed on the police man's dashboard. The black man had the angel in his pocket and as he was reaching in his pocket to show the police man that they had the same ceramic toy, the police man stopped the car and shot the black man because he thought he was pulling out a gun. This scene in the film accurately displays how some police officers may have a skewed view of black men and violence because of how society has taught dishonest racial stereotypes. There is never one definite profile for a criminal.