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July 27, 2005
2 left thumbs: Crash-ing race
Writers Jeff Chang and Sylvia Chan do the Ebert-Roeper thing over Crash at Alternet: "CHANG: [In] this post 9/11 moment, Crash [comes out] during a time of war. Our nation is in “crisis,” we have a “deeply divided nation,” as the media [tells] us. When Grand Canyon, and one of the first white liberal Hollywood movies, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, were released, the nation was at war. Times of crisis and war are when whites have the strongest desire for reconciliation with blacks, when blackness is most desired as part of a triumphant narrative of nation. Don Cheadle's character is a type of black male protagonist who’s very common these days: a proxy for the state, working against all the unruly elements of internal diversity and external threat.... This is the type of narrative Hollywood needs to keep putting out there right now—the black man as the symbol for our nation, the guy who’s going to provide order for not only the U.S., but for the world. And let’s be real: this isn’t happening in real life. In the end, [Crash] paints racism as a postmodern malaise where conflict happens because we don't touch each other except when we crash. That's bullshit. Racism is structural and institutional more than it is personal and sentimental. CHAN: The pitch is go to see Crash, then go home and ponder your prejudices. For some people it may do that. For a lot of people, though, it won’t. It's the feel-good race hit movie of the summer."
Posted by at July 27, 2005 03:42 PM
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