I've watched Crash, or parts of it, several times. On one level, I like it. I like the message it sends. But on several levels I don't like it. And I don't like the message it sends, because the message is flawed...badly flawed.
The message of the film is, pure and simple, intended to be that circumstance dictates our perceptions of the people around us...regardless of race, ethnicity, etc.
What I think it unintentionally says is this: race is not the thing, class is. A rich black man is more likely to have a lot in common with a rich white man than a poor black man. Race plays into it, but only a bit. White cops, who are middle class or lower, react badly to well-off blacks...but not because of race. Because of class.
Greg Palast, I've decided, had his moment in the sun when he pointed out the idiocies of the class war, but he has gone well into the deep end and is now just another blathering idiot himself. Who can I identify to articulate the need to fight both the race and the class wars? I don't know. Jimmy Carter? He's a mad-dog Baptist, I don't think so. But I don't mind religious types, sometimes, as long as they practice privacy.
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