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"Crash" the movie - does it sum up America's so called "melting pot"?

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so far you've told me you love me, that i'm sexy and now that I've turned you on.

Are you going to be able to wait until next month ?



I'm only building you up for the let down... I probably won't be able to make it now.

I'm such a loser. But this is not news.

I miss Lee.
And JP.
And Chris. And...

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This is funny dude. You’re talking about people not being a racist but you describe Middle Eastern people as “Towel heads and rag heads”. To me that’s racism but just had to say it is funny to watch you talk about tolerance.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=579229;search_string=towel%20heads;#579229

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=635231;search_string=towel%20heads;#635231

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=719895;search_string=towel%20heads;#719895

There is many many many more, but besides busting on you a bit I agree with you.


In my experience the people of the United States are the most tolerant people I have ever met.
I have experienced racism and we do have problems, but when you are comparing to other places and have realistic exceptions we have it really good here.

What I mean by realistic expectations is for example.
Right after 9-11 I was fired yes unfair but I am sure there our countries where I might have been killed.
I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

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The Melting Pot is a myth. Unless you allow for the fact that it takes several generations for immigrants to acclimate, as well as to be allowed to be seen as equals by the majority of the population.

Each wave of immigrants sets up a country within a country. Nothing wrong with that; a totally expected phenomena considering the usual behaviors of Those Darn Humans. Witness Greektown, Little Italy, Little Havana, Germantown, and on and on. Every major city has these places, which is why they are relatively sparse in the midlle of the country compared to the coasts. But Middle America (my stomping grounds) has it's own form of racism. It's quieter and more subtle, but is as deeply engrained as elsewhere.

The Melting Pot is one of those nice safe primary school models that gets totally destroyed when you study cultural interactions as a serious topic. This is not a knock on any individual or how we would like things to be - it is how groups of people from different cultures interact when thrown together.

The 3 first-level determinants of culture are race, religion, and language; so it is no surprise that the primary divide between groups is race - and it is why racism dies so hard.

A very good look at how we construct cultural identity, as well as all other value laden perspectives, is a 3-part series by a guy named Morris Masey. Can't remember the main title, but the 1st segment is titled "What you are is where you were when . . ."

Bottom line is that all cultures have race as an identifying factor, it is at their core. How people deal with it is a matter of the values they accumulated, mostly at a very young age.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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This is funny dude. You’re talking about people not being a racist but you describe Middle Eastern people as “Towel heads and rag heads”. To me that’s racism but just had to say it is funny to watch you talk about tolerance.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=579229;search_string=towel%20heads;#579229

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=635231;search_string=towel%20heads;#635231

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=719895;search_string=towel%20heads;#719895

There is many many many more, but besides busting on you a bit I agree with you.


In my experience the people of the United States are the most tolerant people I have ever met.
I have experienced racism and we do have problems, but when you are comparing to other places and have realistic exceptions we have it really good here.

What I mean by realistic expectations is for example.
Right after 9-11 I was fired yes unfair but I am sure there our countries where I might have been killed.



And where is the reference you imply I called all the middle easterns such term? perhaps you misunderstood or are not able to digest the fact that I do not like terrorist and call them as I see fit. Unlike someone who seems more in suport to their ideal:S. Totally off topic.
"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon

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I take that as you have never been in AZ, TX, NM, Florida.



rotflmao!

rl



By that response, anyone could assume you have been victim of racism, or have been unable to see the latinamerican explosion in those areas.

Go and check Hialeah for example.....

As usual, nothing of substance to the matter being discussed.:|
"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon

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So I guess that you of all people should know what I am?

If it was by your standards I would be a Sudaca, no thanks.

Maybe you need a little geography lesson, you see, America, is the whole continent, from the very tip down south of Patagonia, all the way to the north, which is shared by the Canadian Nunavut and Northwest Territories.

Whoever the term America is also vastly acknowledged through the world as being that of the USA and its citizens, which I am. Perhaps news to you but I wouldn't be surprised.
"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon

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I don't think i have any sort of "obsession" with the US, although i'm married to an American, so that might be why i'm naturally curious to learn and understand the country in greater detail.



Not obsessed?

1) Fast food nation

2) Did the US win WWII for the Europeans

3) I wish the price of Gas in the US would double overnight

I would say that with these "subtle" threads you demonstrate a trend.



What trend?

That:
a)i don't eat fast food, something that we have as much of here as you do there

b)i want to know the role played by the US in the Second World War, because frankly i do not fully understand, and it was implied - by one of your country men - that had it not been for the US, and i quote "I would be speaking German". I wanted to know if there was substance to that.

c)that thread was something of a generalisation and was merely posted as a means to try to get people who were complaining about a gas hike to $3 or $4 a gallon to realise they still actually, had it very good, compared with Europeans who are paying double that and have always paid 3 times what those there pay. And it wasn't posted as sour grapes, as many said, with me wishing "bad vibe" and "ill feeling" on anyone there, it was really posted (in an ineffective way, albeit) to say "um you guys really still can't complain about the price of gas there because it's still cheap. I understand now many have the problem not with the selling price, but the fact they now have to budget for the hikes, which is where the problem arises, something that i learnt from the post, and was productive.

How is that being obsessed with the US? If you look at the posts here, many many posts are comparative across the US and the UK (crime, gun laws - or lack thereof, war related issues, terrorist related stuff, news articles) - why do you think i have some weird US obsession? I'm not trying to denigrate your country, and if it appears that way, maybe you are being too sensitive about things because no one else is taking it that way (with the aside of a few people in the gas price thread, but we have since buried the hatchet on that one).


I think not, as I can be considered as one of those minorities, never had an issue with any authority, including when I got my Security Clearance. Go figure.

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What is your definition of actual American? I'm US citizen. Or maybe you apply the EU standards when even 2nd generations are not really EU's?



Dude what are you talking about, EU standards? Look all i want is an American - someone who lives in America - to comment on what they think about Crash. It's that simple, i don't care if you just moved there and have some experience or lived there for generations.

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I would not withdraw racism out of the picture, as there are all kinds of racism, in this country as well as in any others, but I can personally compare the UK and the US, as I have lived in both, and was never ever subject to racism as I was in the UK, in elementary school, so was my father, while in the London Hospital while specializing as cardiologyst. True story.



That's interesting, but i'm wasn't asking for a comparative study between the UK and US. I know there is rascism here, but i'm interested in the American model, how much Crash as a film truly reflects that (and whether it even does or doesn't).

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

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the OLD 1990s Cronenberg movie is:

"Since a road accident left him with serious facial and bodily scarring, a former 'TV scientist' has become obsessed by the marriage of motor car technology with what he sees as the `raw sexuality' of car-crash victims."

Very dark and intense.



That's a very good movie. As for the new one with the same name, haven't seen it yet, but hust ordered it from the DVD club. Now I'm very eager to see it.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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