Emily Burch

Psychology 1010
Lab 2 Morath
9/30/2014
Throughout the movie Crash, you see many stereotypes that are formed, consciously
(explicitly), and unconsciously (implicitly). We as a people tend to make assumptions about others
without knowing them in a in any intimate way. Examples might include, all cops are pigs in suits, or
teachers failed at everything, so thats why they end up back in school, depending on a situation, or
what we have heard, we even go so far as to put a whole race into a single category, a logical fallacy
known as a sweeping generalization. Depending on how we come to the conclusion that the stereotype
is true is how we classify explicit and implicit stereotypes. An example of explicit stereotypes, is at the
beginning of the movie, when the Persian man and his daughter are purchasing a gun.
Upon being given the Persians name, the store owner assumes he is from Iraq. It is a wellknown fact that Iraqis and Americans do not get along. There have been numerous instances of war
between the US and the Middle East, and while America feels justified in its actions, Iraqi innocents
become mixed up in the fray. Due to our shaky relationship with Iraq, many Americans believe that
someone who looks Turkish, Persian, Iraqi, or Egyptian, is automatically a terrorist. Conversely, Middle
Easterners believe us to be terrorists, as many of our war actions have led to the deaths of innocents.
To the store clerk in the gun shop, the Persian man is just another terrorist.
The store clerk feels even more justified by the fact that the Persian man does not speak English
very well. His thought process is, You may live in my country, but you dont speak my language, so a
green card does not make you American. The clerk makes further assumptionswhich many
Americans are prone to making after 9/11that terrorists are migrating to America to attack us from
within (and while this may be true in some cases, the clerk has no backing for his way of thinking in this

particular situation). This is made explicit when the Clerk says he does not want to sell his gun to a
terrorist planning to blow up America. This is explicit stereotyping because the clerk at some point
thought about terrorists and formed his opinion of the Middle Easterners, grouping them altogether.
The clerk had to decide, who is a terrorist? He likely watched the news and saw things like Isis,
the terrorist group, he is old enough, he has some recollection of 9/11. Through reports and
experiences, he has a vague image of what the Taliban look like. He saw innocent people being hurt,
and at some point he forgot that not everyone with dark hair, golden skin, and Middle Eastern accents is
a terrorist. The clerk didnt come to think all Middle Easterners were terrorists because he had never
met one; he began to think this because of the events he saw on the news and rumors he heard from
others. He thought the people he saw on TV were committing unforgivable acts and that he had the
right to refuse the Persian purchase of a firearm.
He considered it his duty to stop terrorism as well, as many Americans do. In many social
settings, Muslims, Islams, and Arabians are refused services and even embarrassed in front of crowds.
The Americans doing this are supporting the Fundamental Attribution Error, because they do not
consider why a Persian may not speak proper English; they only see it from their side of the fence.
On Sandra Bullocks side of the fence, she ends up walking down the street with her husband
and sees two black men who make her feel uneasy. She has an implicit stereotype that, in her case as
well as many, she does not even realize. She does not want to say anything because to her, open
admission is racism, and she does not want to be stereotyped as a racist. Instead she puts her head
down and continues to her car with her husband, doing her best to ignore the two men.
The two men see Sandra tense up, and one goes on about how its because they are black. The
other says its because they have guns. The two men then proceed to rip her out of the car and take the
car. This reinforced Sandras way of thinking.

She had her car stolen in a public settings and did not once consider that she had anything to do
with It. It was her car, she bought it, and no one had a right to take it from her, let alone at gun point.
While it was wrong, her body language is what caused the two men to target her. They might have gone
after someone else, but since they felt that she had a problem with them, they had a problem with her,
reinforcing the Fundamental Attribution error.
The stereotypes we create is just another way we attempt to understand the world and the
people in it. But we end up losing more that way then we gain. In the movie Crash, you see many
stereotypes and the effects they have. We make stereotypes explicitly and implicitly even though we
dont think we are in the wrong or notice we are doing it.