Conflict between Nationalities: Crash, and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

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Living in the United States can be hard. People need to deal with racism, sexism, and any other kinds of abuse. Even today, racism, prejudice, and stereotyping still happen. There is no way of stopping it. Immigrants have the hardest time moving to a different country because they need to know the language and the culture the country has to offer. However, the language barrier concerns most immigrants and frightens people. In the movie Crash by Paul Haggis, it displays the clash of different ethnicity and their challenge in the world. People were stereotyped, sexually abused, and judged. In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman describes a Hmong family struggling to help with her medical problem, but the language barrier between the family and the hospital causes conflicts. America offers a great challenge to its people because of the vast diversity of ethnicities.
With the huge ethnicity difference in America, people are trying to overpower others. People do whatever he/she can to get whatever he/she wants. People hang around 2 or more people so they can be seen intimidating to others. In Crash, two African Americans named Peter and Anthony strolls through the streets of LA and Anthony exams his surroundings and notices how people act towards them. One of the people he spots is Jean, who supposedly “tucked in” when she saw them. Anthony believes the only reason she did that is because she’s afraid that black people steal things and might steal her stuff. Turns out, Peter and Anthony did hijack the SUV. Notice how Jean didn’t fight back because they seem intimidating especially with a gun. She could have called the cops on them, but she didn’t. Another reason might be that because of the stereotypes of ...

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... struggle to live in, but it is capable to those who are strong willed. However, even the people in America and live there all their lives struggle. Immigrants just have it harder. America can be portray as everyone’s main country to live in because it’s one of the richest countries today. America has its ups and downs depending on the person’s point of view. No one can decide if one should live in America or not. Once the decision is made it could be hard to get out of America with everything one had in their past. Even worst, there might not be a way one can turn back. Remember, “Looks can be deceiving.”

Works Cited

Anne, Fadiman. The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, And The Collision Of Two Cultures. New York: Noonday Press, 1994. Print.
Crash. Dir. Paul Haggis. Prod. Mark R. Harris et al. Yari Film Group, 2004. Film.

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