Crash

I watched the movie Crash tonight with some friends. It's the second time I've seen it, the first time was I guess several years ago now. I remember having long discussions about it (if you haven't seen it, it's kind of intense). Here's my thought after the second viewing.

I think the main thing I'm taking away from it is that you should treat everybody with kindness. The movie is about people reacting in tense situations based on the race of the people they are interacting with. If you treat everyone with the same kindness, race doesn't matter. Simplistic, I know, but...

I'm sure I'm quoting someone when I say this, but we all have judgments build into our brains. They can be useful, making it so that we don't have to fully process every situation before reacting. It's a survival mechanism. But these judgments can obviously be harmful as this movie pointedly shows.

But perhaps that judgment could not be based on the race of a person, but just on the fact that whoever it is, is in fact a person. If one truly believes that there is good in all people, then that is what will be seen during a crisis. I don't think there is a character in the movie that demonstrates that ability. I don't know if there is a person in the world either. But I know a lot of people who are trying.