Movies: Crash, Higher Learning

These were two very different movies. I liked Crash, it really made you look at your own personal biases and predjudices. We all have them even if we do not want to admit to them. Just like Sandra Bullock's reaction when she was walking down the street at night with her husband and she saw the two black males dressed in the baggy clothes and corn rows and she took hold of her husbands arm. She was reacting to a situation where she perceived a danger because of personal experiance or background. In this situation she was correct in being on the defensive but that will not always be the case but this experience will just reinforce what she already perceives to be the truth. We make up our minds about people by our own personal experiences and by what we have been taught either from our parents, our friends or even by what we are told in the news each day. The store keeper thought that everyone was out to cheat him and reacted negatively in every situation they played out in the movie. In the end he let his own prejuices lead him to get revenge on the locksmith who had tried to guide him in what was best for his store.  He would have shot the little girl if his daughter had not bought the blanks for his gun. We will hope that he learned his lesson from the experience since he says that the girl is his guardian angel. Our perceptions and past experiences guide how we react in a given situation. I know I try not to judge people before I get to know them or have all the facts in a situation but sometimes it is hard not to follow your insticts and gut reactions. How people dress and act will determine what you perceive of them. If Sandra Bullock had seen two well dressed black men on the street her reaction would not have been the same.
In Higher Learning it really dealt more with the tension that is created by peoples racist tendancies. This was a very intense movie and kept you waiting for the big blow up that you knew was coming at some point.  It was a huge build up all the way through the movie. I was a little disappointed in Remy, letting himself be led by others, he started out trying to get along with everyone but just didn't quite fit in. Then he was so easily a targer for the Nazi group who then fed off of his insecurities. I don't think he would have gone as far as he did if he would have found others that accepted him when he first arrived at school. He felt accepted in this new group of friends and they made all of the rejections he suffered in the beginning were all because of the minorities taking everything from him that should have been his. Building his anger and fueling his hatred, but all the way through you could see his conflict,  his hesitations in the final shooting and then dropping the gun like it was something offensive and running away.
Racism is so often viewed as a white against black thing but these two movies really show that it comes from all directions not just one. That not ALL of any one group is racist. That no matter who or what you are you have predjuices.