Race in Crash

In the movie Crash, there is a Persian family that is discriminated against and robbed because they look "Arab." But as the father said, after being refused service in a gun store, "Since when is Persian Arab?" The scene really demonstrated that race isn't biological - if it was, people would be able to tell nationality by skin tone. Instead, race is socially constructed. The Persian family is mistreated because of the color of their skin, which is similar to the skin tone of someone who is an Arab. Our society teaches us to be wary of Arabic people. We are bombarded with images of Arab terrorists, and the news teaches us to ignore the many peaceful Arabs, which is why the man in the gun store says something along the lines of, "I'm not gonna sell a gun to an Arab terrorist."

In my personal experience, my father can be kind of racist in the same way. We're Jewish, and he is extremely pro-Israel. I'm all for Israel as well, but I think that Israelis and Palestinians must find a way to cooperate with one another. My father, on the other hand, refuses to accept that some of the Palestinians are willing to work for peace. He thinks they all have ulterior motives. He believes that all Muslims, not just extremists, are anti-Israel. But that's not true. I have a friend from Afghanistan who is Muslim, and my dad doesn't think I should be friends with her. She's honestly the sweetest person I've ever met, and I know that she doesn't wish Israel or the Jews harm at all. But my dad sees her skin, and he knows her religion, and he associates her with militant Palestinians. It's completely ridiculous. Even though her skin is a similar color, she's far from an extremist. And my dad is determined to change my mind and create a lasting impression on the mind of my sister. She recently did a presentation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for her World History class, and my dad read through her presentation and told her to change some things. I was in the next room over, and I overheard him say, "You know why the Palestinians do what they do? Because Islam is a religion that teaches that suicide is honorable." It angers me that he's trying to brainwash my sister with something that isn't remotely true. My father groups people based on their religion and skin tone, without thinking about how not all Arab Muslims are the same.

Another example was something I blogged about at the beginning of the semester, about my mom's experience with race in South Africa. I'll recap the story: she rode a train with a "tan" girl who was going to visit her family. When the girl got off the train, she joined a black family. She was their daughter, and in the eyes of apartheid, she was black. But because of her pale skin, she was able to ride in the white cars of the segregated trains. Race is so subjective - there's no way to "tell." The idea of race is socially constructed, and we try to draw lines between people of different pigmentation when biologically, race doesn't even exist.