How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Crash.
Quote #7
ANTHONY: You wanna listen to music of the oppressor, you go right ahead.
PETER: How in the lunacy of your mind is hip-hop music of the oppressor.
ANTHONY: Listen to it, man. N***** this, n***** that! You think people go around calling each other honkies all day? "Hey, honkie! How's business?" "Going great, cracker! We're diversifying!" […] You've got absolutely no idea where hip-hop comes from, do you? […] You see, back in the '60s, we had smart Black articulate Black men. Like Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Fred Hampton. These brothers were speaking out, and people were listening. And then, the FBI said, "Oh, no! We can't have that! I know! Let's give the n*****s this music by a bunch of mumbling idiots, and sooner or later they'll all copy it, and nobody'll be able to understand a f***ing word they say! End of problem."
This sounds crazy—and it probably is—but this theory wasn't created for Crash. Some people believe this is true. It's one of those strange conspiracy theories that people like to throw out there just for the heck of it.
Quote #8
FRED: This is weird for a white guy to say, but have you noticed he's talking a lot less "Black" lately? […] Like in this scene, he's supposed to say "don't be talkin' 'bout that", and he changed it to "don't talk to me about that."
CAMERON: You think because of that the audience won't recognize him as a Black man? […]
FRED: All I'm saying is it's not his character. Eddie is supposed to be the smart one, not Jamal, right? You're the expert here, but to me it rings false.
Well, that's awkward. First of all, Fred is expecting a Black man to speak in only one way. On top of that, that way of speaking is supposed to be understood by the audience as less educated, even less intelligent. In fact, Fred basically says that if you sound "Black," that means you're dumb.
Quote #9
CHOP SHOP GUY: Don't be ignorant. They're Thai or Cambodian. Entirely different kind of chinks.
This guy may be racist, but at least he gets the races right, we guess—unlike the vandals who confused Farhad's family for Arabs. But this guy is also willing to do human trafficking, so there goes any sympathy we had for him. Never trust a smart racist, folks. Never trust any racist, actually.