Sociological Concept of Crash

The Sociological Concept of Crash Sociology is the systemic study of human society and social interaction. Sociologists study human societies and their social interactions in order to develop theories of how human behavior is shaped by group life and how, in turn, group life is affected by individuals (Kendall, 4). The movie Crash (Haggis, 2005), is full of many sociological issues, such as race, social class, and gender. Crash makes you see how group life is affected by individuals and how human behavior is shaped by group life. The main issue throughout the movie is racism and the perspectives on different cultures. The movie is set in Los Angeles, a city with a cultural mix of every nationality. The movie starts out at a scene of an accident. In the first line, Graham (Don Cheadle) says, “It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something”. That line describes the movie of how everyone “crashes” into each other. As that happens, not everyone gets a nice feeling. The movie continually shows negative feelings people have towards each other. At the accident scene, Ria (Jennifer Esposito), whom is Latina, is involved in the accident. As she exits her vehicle, she approaches Kim Lee (Alexis Rhee), who is very upset and also involved in the accident. Kim, who is Asian, immediately makes a comment towards Ria about her being Mexican. Ria in return makes fun of the way Kim talks, due to Asians speech patterns. The sociological concept that is shown is ethnocentrism. Each one of the women is judging the other person’s culture by their own. Crash is full of ethnocentrism. As the movie continues, so does the conflict between different nationalities. A Persian store owner and his daughter were attempting to

Cited: 1. Haggis, P. (Director). (2005). Crash [Motion Picture]. United States: Lions Gate Entertainment. 2. Kendall, D. (2007). Sociology in our times (7th ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth.