Should ‘Crash' have won the 'Best Film' Oscar?

Yes. Since the Oscars on March 5, I have heard quite a few people say they were upset about Crash winning. But, I would say that in the same way Brokeback Mountain touched us, Crash challenged us. Some people say Crash had no storyline. I would say that the film was more of a character study. Others say the film is unrealistic - no sane woman would stand there as she got assaulted by a police officer in the way Thandie Newton’s character did. True, I would not have let a cop get away with trying to – cop a feel (scuse the pun..). And then, are also those who say Crash didn’t go far enough to expose racism in a ‘multicultural’ society.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson this week wrote, ‘many blacks take it as an article of faith that that most whites are hopelessly racist’. And the new FX Channel (for US viewers) documentary series ‘Black. White.’ (on the FX channel in the US), illustrates just how differently people of different races, specifically Black and White people, view the existence of racism in America. In my experience, I have heard too many people say, ‘racism doesn’t exist, it’s actually ignorance’. Fact is, most of us who live in ‘multicultural’ societies are far too neurotic to have an open and honest conversation about race and racism – with people of other races. Therefore, in attempting to call out EVERYONE’S racial bias and by making public the conversations that most of us only have with our families or people of the same race, Crash is both a brave and important film.

And Crash succeeded in trying to get us all to talk about it. The film has got those people who have their heads stuck in the sand – and the rest of us - to re evaluate how we interact with each other, and look at the source of our collective racism (and no, having friends or a partner of another race does NOT make you exempt from having racial bias). I know it succeeded because I saw the film with a reasonably diverse group of people. I observed how people of different races laughed, sucked their teeth (me – hahahha), got angry and felt empathy – or sympathy for each of the (flawed) characters. For example, I sympathized (against my better judgment) with Matt Dillon’s character when I discovered how his racial bias stemmed from. He was still a hateful man, but I all of a sudden I empathized with him. He became more tragic then evil. And while I was indignant when Sandra Bullock’s character clutched her bag as two young black men (played by Ludacris and Larenz Tate) walk past her, many of the white people in the audience were embarrassed by her behavior…. And I found myself asking why they were embarrassed - was it because they could relate to her?! Then, less than five minutes later, EVERYBODY was stunned when the two young black men turned out not to be what we thought they were.

Yeah, Crash messed with us. And it made us think about how we all judge each other, where the source of that judgment comes from and what the consequences are. Crash started a public conversation about race in many quarters – and that is a good start. Few films have attempted to do that – or do it successfully.