Am I My Brother's Keeper?

In "The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates, he states, "As a rule, poor black people do not work their way out of the ghetto—and those who do often face the horror of watching their children and grandchildren tumble back." In Crash, Detective Waters is called a "sell out" by his mother for leaving his family to pursue his career dreams.  Meanwhile, his younger brother is involved in a high-profile car theft, and eventually shot dead by an off-duty cop because he thought he reached for a gun. Although Detective Waters defied the rule, his mother and brother remained in poverty. Upon his brother's death, his mother blamed him for not watching after him, for selling out, and leaving the family behind.  In some marginalized communities, there is animosity for leaving, even if it's for good reason.

One of my favorite quotes/proverbs is "Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins;" Crash embodies this message through the loosely intertwined stories. As the viewer, we saw each person's trials, meanwhile they only witnessed superficial encounters with one another. It reminds us that each individual is subjected to wounds that only they understand; by truckling to the weight of their assumptions, the characters all deal with preventable conflicts.  As "The Case for Reparations" details, the black community is victim to a system. Other minorities, too, face oppression within this system.  Many of the problems within Crash, could have been prevented by awareness of the system.  Causes of conflict in the film such as language barriers, the power dynamics of the political system, and red lining, could be handled if they were understood by the characters in the film.  For example, when Daniel attempted to fix Farhad's lock, he discovered that the entire door needed to be changed, not just the lock.  Farhad accused Daniel of cheating him into spending more money. This conflict was the result of his limited English and his experience with being ripped off at the gun store by a racist white man. His assumption leads to a series of catastrophes.  If he had not previously been cheated because of his ethnicity, he would not assume this of Daniel. Daniel and Farhad were similar in their minority status, as well as their socioeconomic class, but the situation escalated because a false interpretation of oppression caused them to see each other as the enemy.