Review of Crash

It is fascinating to read the mixed reviews of Crash. It is certainly a controversial film, but I wouldn't apply as a result of beating Brokeback Mountain at the Oscers. I would apply it to the issues it brings up, most notably racism. Though after watching and enjoying it, I must praise the film for what it is. I believe that the film was effective in creating tension in its audience, the editing and camerawork is superb e.g. the close-up of the gun held by the Persian as he seeks retribution through murder. I think that the film is highly effective, in interweaving the plots, to create the climax. It is though somewhat sad that the director, kills off the black guy and I'm not surprised by the amount of negative reactions to that. I though felt thoroughly manipulated, as I was indeed one of the people sitting on the edge of their seat, as the Persian shot at the little girl and pleasantly surprised that she wasn't hurt. I believe that the theme of racism is well explored, he underlines issues of racism in all race and classes and not just the white bourgeois. I can identify Ebert's quote to the film that 'people's assumptions prevent them from seeing the actual person'. The film teaches us a lesson that we should somehow find a way around our racial judgements and not judge the person by their colour. I do indeed think that 'Crash is a film about progress', the main thing is that we learn something from a film and I feel we get that with Crash.
Though I must add that although I'm a fan of the Stereophonics, I can see little to why Maybe Tomorrow would have something to do with the film.

Crash - THE MOVIE

This Film was about as disappointing as Barack Obama's health care bill. For me, it lacked any sense of realism and good acting skill, even thought it caried a heavywieght of actors as the cast. Everything just felt staged, stale and used before. we all know that there is racism in this world, and America has its fair share, but the film lacked any imagination. The racism was not well thought out, and in the end predictable. Its a topic that could have been done better, and yes is somthing a little different to watch, but at times just had me yearning for a pillow. The focus seemed always to be on the white characters and there racism, the other ethnic groups there to simple make the film itself non-racist. If I could give this a rating, it would be a 2 out of 5, good topic but could try harder!!

Crash

I would just like to point out the fact that I was not able to read one of the reviews as the page was not found (it was Foundas's review).

Now, my sentiments about crash are quite mixed. On one side, how refreshing to see something different on screens. Something contemporary which deals with real life issues in a way we can all relate to (well, at least I can). I thought that both reviewers had a fair point, although, after watching it again and thinking about it, I would actually lean towards Foundas's point of view. Not that it was a bad film, at all, but that it simply uses pre-made stereotypes and that the characters don't very three dimensional. Yes, some have a history and you can sense it, you sense that they are not just an empty shell. But others do not have the same depth. And this lack in depth really got to me the second time around.

Also, something that did shock me completely was the Iranian and the Korean characters. All other characters experience a change in their views through something concrete that happened to them. The Iranian character, however, is portrayed as paranoid and then only experiences a change of character because he thinks God has appeared to him. I felt that was a little flimsy. Also, all characters appear from a stereotypical point of view and then change in the eye of the viewer, but not the Asians. The stereotype lives on, there is no turning point. Yes, the man is in the hospital, but that doesn't mean he isn't going to stop his little traffic going on and his wife is still as aggressive as at the beginning of the film. Nearly made me question Haggis's view on Asian Americans. Or maybe he simply didn't have any ideas ... kinda sad if that is the case. Either way you look at it, the Asian Americans don't have the good role.

Also, I was solely disappointed by the ending, it felt ... incomplete and too easy. I am sorry, but, what are the odds for a woman like Sandra Bullock's character to fall down the stairs at that very moment and the only person that would help her is the housekeeper ? Even if it were to happen in real life, what are the odds for that woman to then hug the said housekeeper and feel remorse ?! I am not sure that many people who have the mentality she had in the beginning would just change her mind after falling down the stairs. I feel that reality doesn't work like this. People with prejudice are unlikely to change their view so easily. So, yes, I agree with Foundas when he says it doesn't feel very real. And he has actually experienced Los Angeles, so I'll take his word for it.

Review of Crash

I hadn’t seen this movie before – possibly the title didn’t make me want to rush to the cinema, but I was gripped by the different stories and at times horrified by the assumptions made about the characters just based solely on their race. Whilst I think that Scott Foundas is overly harsh in his criticism of the film, I do feel that the film does use stereotypes to give the illusion that LA is a very difficult place to live and that you are constantly in fear of your life. The film has picked out these extreme ends of the spectrum for dramatic effect, in particular, the Persian shopkeeper who seemed to get angry as soon as anyone tried to explain anything to him.
I agree with Ebert’s view that this is a film where the characters are not held back by political correctness – they say what they really think. I enjoyed the way that the individual stories began to mingle together, often with shocking consequences like the shooting of the little girl. The opening sequence of the film where Don Cheadle’s character says that you have to crash into someone in order to have any sort of physical contact could be true of many big cities. People do live in their own little world, often only reacting to others when circumstances force them to.

The Abenaki and Seminole tribes

Okay, So my first choice of tribes today was the Seminole Tribe of Florida, because their name was completely unfamiliar to me and was not already taken by someone else on this blog, haha.

http://www.seminoletribe.com/

The Seminole tribe was based in Florida. And on their website, included in the first few things you can find, is a little text saying that they are a Federally Recognized Indian Tribe and that they are the only tribe that never signed a peace treaty. And that is something, considering where it is placed, that they are very proud of.

The website showcases a series of categories, varying from the History of the tribe to their culture, the tourism and business aspects and their very own newspaper, The Seminole Tribune. They do have a number of services such as a museum you can visit, a village, a swamp safari and even a motocross ! And let's just note than on top of the page of the website is a little logo which has the colours of the tribe and that says : Seminole Tribe of Florida - In God We Trust. It's nearly an embrace to the American culture there ! How many times have we not associated that quote to the USA ?!

If you look at the history of their tribe, there is a part devoted on the sole fact that they never surrendered, and they are very proud of that fact. It seems like the tribe, today, has found ways of making money (through selling tobacco essentially) and are considered one of the most successful tribes. They have made money through gambling but also other business enterprises and seem to be able to take good care of their community.

Now, second website (and therefor second tribe) is this one : http://www.elnuabenakitribe.org/ The ELNU Abenaki tribe. Compared to the previous website, the layout is much simpler (just wanted to point it out) and the colours less aggressive; here we have a dominance of white and green, on the other one, powerful, aggressive colours such as red, yellow and black gave a different atmosphere.

The Tribe of the Abenaki is based in Southern Vermont. They say they want to maintain their culture in modern society. They say they are not like the average modern tribes, they try to focus mainly on the historical aspect of their culture. They study and teach their history and have many traditional artisans.

Every now and again, they live the way their ancestors lived to be closer to the culture and to be sure this culture will be passed onto future generations. They do this when they have the time, to reconnect fully with their ancestors. They really are focused on their traditions and their history, therefor every year they have a conference that is open to other natives but also non-natives. Their aim is to provide a non-biased history of their tribe.

Native American Tribes

http://www.greatdreams.com/apache/apache-tribe.htm

The Apache tribe consisting of six regional groups, that occupied a lot a Southwest America, including Arizona, New Mexico and indeed Mexico itself. The apache are considered to be one of the first native american groups to inhabit the Southwest.

The image depicting the Apache war leader Jeronimo, represents a lot of what the Apache tribe epitamised. The values of aggressiveness and courage in the face of difficulty. The very picture suggests as he holds up a gun, that they will not give in, or give up their land without a fight. These qualities aroused fear amongst white settlers in Arizona and New Mexico. He was eventually captured in 1909, yet his legacy seems to have stood, on through time as a prominent native American figure. Indeed his name has come to be famous in popular culture and in many Westerns.

http://www.comancheindian.com/

The comanche tribe occupied much of the Southern Great plains, including parts of Oklahoma and Texas. Like the Apache's the Comanche were known for many of their conflicts with white settlers and indeed with other tribes such as the 'Crow', 'Cherokee 'Choctaw' and 'Apache' tribes. The website notes that they were the first tribe to use horses, yet they also supplied Americans with horses to reach the gold rush of California 1849. The website is not quite as in depth as the first and leaves a rather sad message at the end saying 'what we know of them is through often biased 3rd party account'.

Native American tribes

http://www.delawaretribe.org/

The first tribe is the Lenape or Delaware tribe who now live in Oklahoma. Their website says that they were one of the first tribes to come into contact with European settlers and they make the point that they showed kindness to the new arrivals but were then forced to give up their homelands and move across America, eventually forced into Indian Country – Oklahoma. There is mention of them being warriors – ready to fight but also that they were considered as peacemakers in disputes between tribes. In May 2009, they were granted Federal Recognition as an Indian Tribe.
http://www.quileutenation.org/

This is the website of the Quileute tribe. This caught my eye as this tribe is featured in the Twilight novels. Having read the books I had assumed that this was a fictional tribe so I was surprised to find it. The tribe seem to have suffered less than some others as although they live on a reservation; it is the land they have always lived in, in a remote area of Washington state. They have built a successful tourist trade based on fishing, whale watching and hiking.

Hispanic immigration to the USA

Facts versus Fallacies

This first website is a website about a book written by two university professors and an alumnus. It is, thus, a brief encounter of what the book says about hispanic immigration. And it is all about the misconceptions people have and how, economically, these immigrants are very beneficial for the United States. Indeed, they accept the first jobs they can find, most of the time, jobs other people do not want to do, at least not for such low wages. They want to work hard and go up the ladder towards their American Dream.

The Hispanic Challenge

This second website is basically a long article completely against latino immigration and telling the USA they should be on their guards concerning such an immigration. Indeed, the author sees these immigrants as dangerous for the social and cultural aspects of the United States. He says that this group does not want to assimilate and have created a community excluded from the rest of the population. They speak their own language, have their own politics and, more importantly, their own culture which they do not want to share.

The author starts the article by talking about what the United States are and the history around them. Indeed, there was immigration at that time and all different immigrants came together to form what is now America. If it hadn't been for all these immigrants, the United States wouldn't be what they are but just another country such as Canada or Mexico. But, the point is, everyone worked together. The problem with the latino immigrants is that they do not wish to work with the rest of the population to be included and enrich the country. No, they want to stay together and be a threat to the wonderful american (white and protestant, by the way) culture.

Pro and Anti Latino Immigration

http://news.feetintwoworlds.org/2009/11/09/pro-immigrant-demonstrators-and-hispanic-media-confront-sheriff-arpaio-on-visit-to-southern-california/
My first website focusing on a pro-Latino immigration view 'telling the stories of todays immigrants' looks at a situation in which pro-immigrant protestors confront this 'Sherriff Arpaio' over his 'aggressive tactics' towards what the website calls 'undocumented immigrants'. It is interesting from the start how the website refuses to use the word 'illegal' in identifying the immigrants. The video clip on the website shows the protests and looks in on the poster's branding sherriff Arpaio as one of the 'KKK', yet the protests seem almost celebratory as there seems to be music playing in Latino style. The posters seem to suggest anger, yet anger is not really what comes through in the people. The ageing white Sherriff, seems to be the one getting frustrated by the protests, yet he maintains his view that the 'people like what (he's) doing'.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/02/08/immigration-activists-concerned-about-anti-latino-/
My second website is from the Southern California Public radio. It sits on the fence over the matter, and draws in many comments from the American public, on its comment board.
It looks at the issues of the 'growing Latino sentiment in the Tea Party crowd'. It is interesting to look at the various comments on the board, most being anti-immigration. One comment from a Mexican-American interestingly supports the idea of closing the border, emphasising the fact that they are 'overstretched' due to this growing number of immigration. Another comment brands illegal immigrants 'aliens'. There is very much a growing fear amongst what is for now the white majority.

Latino immigration

http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/about/
This organisation is the Federation of Immigration Reform. They are a group set up by ‘concerned citizens’ who want to bring immigration to what they feel is a more reasonable level and to have strong immigration laws in order to remove illegal aliens altogether. There is an article commenting on Obama’s State of the Union speech where they feel that in order to get Americans back to work it is necessary to remove all illegal aliens to free up jobs. There is a strong feeling of wanting to keep America for the Americans but no discussion of the effects to the economy or the diversity of the nation.
http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3507096.html
This is an article on a Stanford University website which comments on the importance of the Latino population in the US. It makes an interesting point that a lot of Americans know little or nothing about the history of these people but that they make up such a large proportion of the population. The article mentions that generally Latinos are hard working and don’t find it difficult to find work which is different to the view given in the Huntington article we discussed in the seminar.

Anti-Latino Immigration

This is a link to a blog by Kellene Bishop which paints a very bleak picture of the future of the United States. She takes the view that there is no want or need for the mass immigration of Mexican nationals into the United States, and lists the ways in which, in her eyes, they would ruin the country further.

"Think of the impression that such parents may have on their children. They begin their relationship with our nation by defying our laws and are financially rewarded for it. Hmmmm. I wonder what message this sends to their children?"

For me the blog is good, as it takes a strong view, though possibly goes to far into what is her own opinion and true facts. The problem of illegal immigration will always be a problem for the United States, as with any country, and its now and not later that the government needs to act to control the stem coming into and dealing with the illegal immigrants already in the boarders.

Hurricane Katrina

This article, though length, gives a good analysis of the reaction and suffering for some of the African-Americans who were effected by Hurricane Katrina. It tries to look at the situation from all angles, and come to a conclusion about why certain measures where not in place, and if they were then why they were not enacted. The hurricane devastated much of New Orleans, leaving many of the population, for which is heavily black, with no were to go to escape the carnage.

The report finds in its conclusion that showed 'that a combination of poverty and perceptions of racism and inequities influenced African Americans to not evacuate, even after reaching the stage of high threat perception.' If the government and local officials had reacted quicker to the threat, and later when getting people to safety, it seems to me that many lives could have been saved. I do not believe that race had a dominant factor in reactions by officials, it may have been underlying in a minority, but the speed and extent of the damage meant that by the time everything was in place, it was to late for most.

Katrina and Fox

Fox News is pretty infamous for its support to the Republican party. And this article, in my opinion, depicts it clearly. Finding a website devoted entirely on Katrina was extremely hard to find and it seemed like the only interesting links I could find had both already been taken. So, the Fox News article was the next best thing. Why ? Because it is an article that talks about the Hurricane and the situation after the facts with a strong republican voice.
The author of the article exposes the fact that African Americans remember having been, in history at some point, neglected, inferior. A feeling that was reinforced after the Hurricane. After the Hurricane, there had been a lot of talking about Bush and the help provided. Many African Americans felt that the help provided would have come quicker and would have been more effective if the majority of people touched by the disaster hadn't been of colour. 77 percent of white americans disagree with these accusations. The article also mentions the fact that black people saw this natural disaster as a proof of racial inequalities in America. 56% of white americans didn't see it as an important lesson.

Yet, what is said (that is a little more positive this time) is that the black community really came together to help the victims of the Hurricane. A lot of money was raised. Even Rap and hip hop stars provided help. [Funnily enough, the said rappers said to not give money to the Red Cross as no one would know where the money would go to ...]
The author also points out that the situation of african americans has really changed through the years. Now, you get millionaire black talk-show presenters (like Oprah Winfrey), over-paid black basketball players, something a couple of decades ago wouldn't have even been possible to think of ! This social change has permitted other blacks to help out more effectively.

Hurricane Katrina's Devastating effect on African American Higher education

My chosen website focuses on the hurricane's effects on schooling for African Americans in New Orleans. http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_hurrican_katrina.html
It raises the issue of 'race relations' and the underlying tensions still remaining between the white community and the black. It is clear that the black community were initially worse off, in terms of their neighbourhood, once the hurricane robbed them of this neighbourhood, in contrast to the rich white community who could cope, many African Americans had 'no cars, no money and no friends out of town to whom they could turn'. It was adament the whites were refusing to help the blacks despite their desperate situation, old ideas of racism and discrimination were cropping up.

The website highlights the 'diaspora of African American college students' from New Orleans as a result of the hurricane, seeking education at various universities situated across different parts of the nation. The damage done by the hurricane to the colleges leaving many black students without schools to study in, the cost of the damage range being 'as high as $350 million'. After the hurricane, it is clear that New Orleans is becoming the 'city to avoid', due to the destoyed educational facilities and in particularly for blacks; the attitudes of 'white blue-collar community' intent on clearing the black population out of the city.

Hurricane Katrina

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090105/thompson
This is an article from December 2008 featured on The Nation website. The reporter investigated the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the cases of the shootings of several black men. It is alleged that the white inhabitants of Algiers Point, a very affluent neighbourhood of New Orleans that was largely unaffected by Katrina, were so concerned about the numbers of people heading for safety in their area that they blockaded the surrounding streets and shot at least eleven people – all black men.
There has been no formal investigation into the events and no charges brought against those that did the shooting. It seems that the rich white people thought that they were under threat from blacks – assuming that they were going to be attacked and therefore justify their actions as self defence.
It is hard to believe that at a time of crisis, when people had suffered already, that these residents chose to act like this rather than offer help and support. It seems clear that in certain areas, racial hatred seems to be so strong.