Anthony's Poor Self-Concept In The Film Crash

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Self-concept is an idea based on the beliefs someone has about themselves and the responses of others. Two characters that displayed poor self-concept in the movie were Anthony played as Ludacris, and Christine Thayer played as Thandie Newton. Anthony is an African-American male living in a city where he is surrounded by many people of another race. Because he is one of the only African-American males seen in the city, he is perceived as dangerous by other races. In one of the scenes of the film, Anthony was walking down the street with another African-American male and passed by a white couple. As the white couple passed by Anthony and his friend, the white woman clinched her husband in fear. After seeing this response, Anthony expressed …show more content…

Officer Ryan’s perception of the situation at hand was one that led to an escalation. He pulled over Mr. and Mrs. Thayer though his partner warned him they did nothing wrong. His response was simply, “they were doing something.” Officer Ryan’s initial perception of Mrs. Thayer was incorrect, as he perceived her to be a white woman that was engaging in fellatio with a black man. Once Officer Ryan engaged in a conversation with Mr. Thayer and noticed how lightly he and his wife were taking the current situation, he became aggravated and asked Mr. Thayer to step out of the vehicle to perform a sobriety test. Once this incident occurred, Mrs. Thayer’s perception of Officer Ryan changed. She viewed him as a crooked and nefarious officer. As a result, the communication between Officer Ryan and Mrs. Thayer escalated as she became argumentative. Mrs. Thayer’s perception of Officer Ryan changed once again as he manipulated his “pat down.” Officer Ryan manipulated his “right” as an officer and as a result the communication between Mrs. Thayer and himself escalated. Furthermore, the communication between Officer Ryan and Mrs. Thayer escalated further when he stated that Mrs. Thayer had a “dirty mouth” and that Mr. Thayer would know all about, considering their recent activity before being pulled over. In my opinion, I believe that both Officer Ryan and Mrs. Thayer could have managed their perceptions differently if they both did not stereotype one another. While initially, Mrs. Thayer believed that Officer Ryan was a harmless officer pulling them over after a fun night out, that quickly changed as she viewed him as a spiteful cop that had it out for African-American individuals. Officer Ryan, on the other hand,

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