Crash

Crash

Andrew Bott

Central Connecticut State University

Abstract

This paper takes a look at the movie Crash (Harris & Haggis 2004), and the micro-aggressions that occur to and between the characters in the movie.  The author includes the three major types of micro-aggressions: assault, insult, and invalidation, and how they occurred, and the effect on the victim(s).  Possible counseling approaches for each micro aggression for the perpetrator, the victim, are individually are discussed. The author’s personal feelings and thoughts related to the aggressions, and possible implications (oppression and discrimination) of the micro aggressions both intentional and unintentional are explored.

Keywords: Crash, Micro-aggression, counseling approaches, oppression, discrimination.

Micro-Assault

 In the opening scene of the movie Jennifer Esposito has been involved in a car accident.  Her car has been rear ended by a women of Asian descent and despite instructions from the police officer on the scene to remain in her car, and return to her car while he interviews the other person involved in the car crash, she gets into a verbal altercation with the driver the Asian women says that Mexicans don’t know how to drive and that she is going to call immigration.  Esposito’s character then blatantly makes fun of how the Asian women is pronouncing (or not pronouncing) English.  Jennifer’s character mimic’s the Asian women’s speech patterns and purposely does not pronounce any of the “R’s” as she is speaking to the other driver and the police, and goes on to say that “maybe if you see over steering wheel you see long line of cars and you blake too.”

This micro aggression starts when the Asian women accuses the Esposito’s character of being Mexican (who don’t know how to drive) which we find out later in the movie that not only that she is not Mexican that she is in fact Dominican and Puerto Rican (kind of ironic as Esposito is of Italian decent), and that being called Mexican is a trigger for her.  At this point in the movie we also don’t know that the Asian women is on the way to the hospital to see her husband who had been run over by a van, and then dumped at the emergency room by the perpetrators.