Racism In The Office

In contrast to the Diversity Day episode of The Office, the film Crash depicts harsh examples of intercultural incompetence. In the beginning of the film, certain characters hold specific biases of other races and their own. Throughout the course of the film, some characters come to realizations about their personal and cultural identity and learn to interact competently with members of other cultures.
After dinner with her husband, Jean seeing two black men walking nearby and clings to her husband. This example of aversive racism lies in contrast to the image that her husband tries to portray at work. As Rick is running for a specific job and needs the support of African American voters, his public relations team strategically publicizes images of Rick to appear more appealing to the African American community. While it is okay to be seen with African Americans for the sake of publicity, authentic interaction with members of this culture is less desirable when not in front of a camera. This was shown in the way that she moved closer to her husband.
This action or notion of impression management, conveyed to Peter and Anthony that their presence made her feel uncomfortable (Lustig & Koester, 2013).
Following the altercation with Peter and Anthony, Jean has her husband change the locks in their home. However, once she sees Daniel the repairman, she wants the locks changed again. The preconceived notions that Jean had of men that matched Daniel’s physical appearance caused her to believe that he was a gang member that would sell her house keys to criminals that would burglarize her home later. Alternatively, Jean’s stereotype of Daniel couldn’t have been further from the truth as Daniel was merely a hardworking, family man.
After an incident with the LAPD, Christine and her husband Cameron get into a heated debate. As they both come from affluent upbringings both accuse the other of not knowing what it truly means to be ‘black’. During this debate, Christine accuses Cameron of being afraid that his coworkers might realize that he is black. She admits that her personal identity may not fit her cultural identity, however she is unwilling to roll over when faced with racism. During this scene Cameron and Christine appear to be be entering a cultural identity search. This search appears to be resolved in the scene where Cameron is approached by Fred at work.
On the set, Fred approaches Cameron and says that “Jamal is talking a lot less black” (Haggis, 2004, pg. 54). Cameron is surprised by this and asks Fred if he thinks that this change will cause Jamal to not resonate with audiences as black. It is at this moment that Cameron appears to have an epiphany. Suddenly Cameron realizes how African Americans are perceived. Cameron has now internalized his cultural identity based off of Fred’s ethnocentric belief that Jamal can’t speak eloquently and portray a Black man simultaneously (Lustig & Koester, 2013).
During an interaction with an African American insurance agent, John Ryan displays symbolic racism.
During their interaction, John expresses to Shaniqua how he regrets that the “six other qualified white men” (Haggis, 2004, pg. 57) didn’t get hired over her. Additionally, he tells her that in order to get where she is today, she probably received some handouts, and should return the favor to his father who always helped “the blacks”. John’s statements in this scene depict symbolic racism because he believes that the misfortunes that his father suffered were a result of helping black people. However, this is false. Whether John’s father hired black employees or white employee would have made no difference in his ability to retain his business. Because of his distorted views, John believes that the success and advancements of African American’s threaten the opportunities of Caucasian Americans (Lustig & Koester,
2013). Stereotyping is also depicted in this film during the scene when the Persian family’s store is burglarized. When Shereen reads the graffiti on the store walls, she says to her daughter, “Look at what they wrote. They think we are Arab. When did Persian become Arab?” (Haggis, 2004, pg. 59). Just as the man in the gun store confused the family for being Arab by calling the father Osama, the burglars stereotyped them as Arab as well. This shows how stereotypes can be inaccurate and exaggerated. Instead of realizing that there are many different cultures in the Middle East, the burglars chose to generalize all the cultures of this area into one identity.