Crash (The Film)

The movie Crash was a great commentary on racism and life in the United States, specifically Los Angeles.  I think that it really brought light to the fact that racism is not gone, and it may be even more commonplace than we think.  Much of the brutality of racism is gone, but some still remains – as we see with the cops.  But what we still have is the other remnants – the stereotyping, the slurs, and in some of us, the hatred.  In Durango, sometimes we don’t realize that there are still many people out there who still hate other races just because they are from a different country, their have a different skin color, or they dislike that person’s stereotype.  The strangest thing that I saw in this movie was when the two carjackers were talking about racism, and how they feel that whites are racists and are always judging them.  But it made me realize that in judging us to be racists, they are being racist to us.  Then we feel that animosity, and are racist right back, so it’s this never-ending cycle that we can’t seem to get out of.  As for if it could ever end, I think it could, but it is doubtful because of the way that we keep perpetuating the process.  I think that over time, it will slowly eliminate itself, but truly getting rid of it seems highly improbable. 

Situational Influences and Christopher Columbus

Columbus was neither a villain nor a hero, although he committed acts that fell into both categories.  We feel the need to categorize him, but that is due to our own fundamental attribution error – blaming his actions on his disposition, rather than on situational influences.  Christopher Columbus is not a hero or a villain, but merely a man whose situation made for the future colonization and Indian decimation in the Americas. 

One of the major influences on his behavior was a natural lust for power, fame, and riches.  Queen Isabella promised him all of these things with “10% of the profits, governorship over new-found lands, and the fame that would go with a new title: Admiral of the Ocean Sea” (Zinn).  Even today, the lure of these promises would make many people do almost anything. This lure was also the catalyst for the ‘heroic’ things he did, such as beginning colonization and the evolution of America.  But the promises of power only held true if he succeeded in his mission to bring the kingdom gold, slaves, and other riches.  If he didn’t deliver, then he would get nothing.  This may be how the Spaniards’ abuse of power began: “I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.” (Zinn, Columbus) 

His environment had an effect on his decisions as well, because he was in a new land without any kings, laws, or justice.  If he and his men thought that they could get away with anything, there was nothing to stop them from doing what they wanted. 

Most of the upper class during this time period had slaves, which breeds a sort of disregard for those people who were different than them.  Columbus and his men wouldn’t have thought twice about bringing back these people as slaves and treating the roughly.  You can hear this sort of mentality from Columbus: “I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased.”(Columbus’ Journal)  This kind of attitude is conducive to abuse of the natives, and resulted in their massacre.

Christopher Columbus had many forces acting on him during 1492, and so he was not a villain nor a hero, but a result of situational influences that were merely a cultural part of the times and within the nature of mankind, but leading him to a secure place in history.