The Sky Is Falling

So yesterday, the sky fell. A travesty occured. Crash won the Academy Award for best Oscar and white male Academy members patted themselves on the back for a job well done.

Much has been said about this film and the impact that it has made in it's expression and visual depiction of race relations in Los Angeles. People call it a triumph, a momentous moment in filmmaking, a film with spirit. I call it what it is - an over simplified lie. In more plain terms - a piece of crap.

When filmmaker Paul Haggis talked about how he was savagely carjacked from his Porshe a few years ago and how it prompted him to think about issues of race in this country, I laughed. Must be nice to roll around in your 100k sports car with rose tinted windows thinking that the people around you selling oranges on a street corner are just there for decoration. When my friend told me that she heard him speak at a talk about the film and he spent a half an hour discussing the challenge of using one's own multi-million dollar home to shoot in, I wanted to vomit.

The fact of the matter is Crash is an over simplified depiction of racism in this country from the perspective of a privileged white male. As a person of color, I would never even fathom thinking that I could depict the intricacies of racism in a 90 minute film. But then again, I'm not a white man.

If you notice, Crash tells a very black and white tale of race and class in Los Angeles. In the process it essentially silences everyone else. The women in this film have no voice, the ethnic others have no voice. In fact, the point of view in this film is only from a black and white perspective. If you notice, the POV of the latinos, asians, persians, and women are never a part of this picture.

- When Sandra Bullock hugs her maid telling her that she is the best friend she has, we see Sandra Bullock's POV, not the one of the maid. Because her feelings don't really matter do they?

- The POV of the Persian/Latino story line is told in the third person, giving neither men a voice in the personal crises that they are facing.

- Thandie Newton and Jennifer Esposito are both objectified and neither are put in a position to defend themselves from personal attack.

-The south east asian refugees who were enslaved by a Korean man are dropped off in China Town because, you know...they're all the same.

The delicate balance of race and class in this country were put in fucking cliff notes and force fed to people sitting in a theatre already full on $6 popcorn. I hate to think that that people truly believe that as long as they are not overtly racist, what they think or how they act is still okay. The worst instances of racism that I have faced in my life have been the most subtle. You can never put that on film. Who will defend me then? Who will help me out? It's okay to ignore it, if it's not spoken. In the end, this is the message that Crash reinforced to Americans who now think themselves progressive and forward thinking because they were so "moved" by that film.

The worst part of all of this is that a wonderful film, a virtually unmakable film was passed over for an Oscar yesterday. Brokeback Mountain was a film that was made against all odds. It was a period western, a film about two men, in love, made by an Asian director. It was more than that. It was a movie about unrequited love that transcended boundaries. Brokeback Mountain said more about tolerance and healing than Crash could ever dream of saying.

But I guess it's okay for Academy members to vote for Crash and say they are progressive, but not have to say they are progressive enough to honor a film about homosexuality. What they fail to understand is that it's about the universal, heart wrenching experience of love. It was all inclusive, something that Crash would never attempt to be.

So congratulations Academy, you did it. You are sooooo progressive and sooooo not racist. Like when you made fun of Three 6 Mafia, that wasn't racist at all. Hypocrites.