DUE: December 1
POINTS: Up to 20
Length: 5 pages (1,200 words, roughly)

In class, we saw CRASH and had some discussion questions (see below):
(For off-campus 452 students, rent the movie CRASH and watch it).
Then, select ANY ONE (but only one) of the questions we had for discussion
and have some fun with it. Tie to themes of the class.

=====================

Some questions to guide our discussion of CRASH

1) Which of the characters was the most sympathetic?

2) How did racial attitudes shape behavior?
   a) How did you interpret teh "black slang" scene? What was the      
      significance?
   b) How would you "deconstruct" the Matt Dillon character's behavior?
      
3) What was the wife's (the woman abused by by Dillon) complaint to her
husband? Why was that significant in the rest of the movie?
 
4) Did the Iranian shopkeeper's daughter know in advance that the bullets 
were blank? What difference does it make?

5) Is racism often just a shallow front, a stand-in emotion for personal
relationships such as power? How do we separate real racism (it,
individual attitudes) from racism as a convenient symbolic hook (for which
something else could be substituted) in power-games?

6) The movie gets less violent as it progresses. Is this the playing out
of social justice against the backdrop of violence?

7) How were the women portrayed? Was there a common thread in their
characterization?

8) Is the movie about race/gender, or about something else? What
broader themes can you identify? (eg, "justice," "redemption")
 
9) The Ludacris character was simultaneously the one who criticizes
racial stereotyping while acting consistent with those stereotypes.
What was the message the director wanted to convey?

10) Did the Iranian shopkeeping find "justice?" 
 
11) Write a question of your own and address it 

• Kafka and Sartre (points: 70-100; Due Dec 1-8)
• The Monk (by Lewis) (points/due-date variable)
• Peter Singer: Practical Ethics (points/due-date variable)
• Ehrenreich - "Nickle and Dimed" (points: up to 40--Due Nov 3)
  
  ==========DUE DATE PASSED==========
  
• Gender/Race/Class Privilege (Points: up to 30--Due Oct 20)
• Gender Justice (Points: up to 20--Due Oct 13)
• Tyler Questions (Points: up to 20--Due Oct 13)
• Marx, Ideology, Ethics, and the basis of Justice (points: 30 - Due Oct 13
• Sociology Week: up to 20--Due Oct 9)
  
• Sociology Week: up to 20--Due Oct 9)
• Compare and contrast: points: up to 20--Due Oct 6)
• A Marxian framework for ethics: points: up to 30--Due Oct 6)
• October 6: Plato Debate (no points-class particaption
• Pandas (30 points: Due October 6)
  
• Boule de Suif (10 points: Due Sept 13)
• Judging Ivan (20 points: Due Sept 13)
• The Ideology Quiz (20 points; Due Sept 13)

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