Ism

Saw Crash the other night. Three stars. What the movie did make me think about was what type of racism is worse, open or concealed.

I always thought we have perfected a very advanced type of discrimination. I see the same pattern with racial minorities and women. The system is so entrenched that Jim Crow laws and flagrant discrimination against women isn't necessary. Instead the group is encouraged to self-discriminate and destroy iteslf. Black on black crime, women fighting other women. If you are in the dominant group you can simply throw up your hands and say "I didn't do anything, just look at what they are doing to themselves." Every discrimination can be done by proxy. It is clean and efficient.

Crash presents a world where racism is surprisingly upfront. While that is no doubt true from time to time, that kind of racism can be spotted, challenged and in many cases, defeated. Isn't the worse racism the gentle racism that goes silent and undetected through our everday lives? The kind that doesn't show its face or allow itself to be challenged by free speech and the marketplace of ideas.