אומנות, משפט וגזענות: בעקבות הסרט "התרסקות"

We believe that Crash (a 2004 film by Paul Haggis) is a masterpiece. Revisiting it,we studied racism, underlying prejudices, and the relevant mental mechanisms that help perpetuating them. Through it, we could somewhat appreciate the power of excellent works of art to counter prejudices and their poisonous fruits. Next, we compared the law with art as potential tools for dealing with prejudice and racism.We have gained several conclusions from that process: First, the film illustrates the power of art to sow prejudice antidotes. Second, we realized that being a resilient phenomenon, stereotypes are readily, often inadvertently adopted, and their impact is spontaneous and hard to control, particularly in stressful situations. Third, a range of forces must be mobilized to counter prejudice, and this is where the law comes into play. In other words, though an essential and protective tool, art – even excellent and transformative – often cannot replace the law in the struggle against prejudice. Both are usually needed, and quite often even their combined power is insufficient.Let us elaborate a bit. Promoting a mental state known as empathy, fine art has the power to impact on human behavior when the law does not. A chapter of this article addresses the mental mechanisms that serve the formation of prejudices and illustrates how good art could encourage empathy as a counter force and help challenging stereotypes. Nevertheless, the narrative of Crash underlines extreme situations of existential fear where “extra” defense is needed. It provides insights into ways in which the cocktail of prejudice and sense of emergency affects human behavior and makes for a good case in favor of a legal “pre-commitment”. Taken from constitutional law, this concept acknowledges the human need for a powerful, preemptive system against prejudice that would uphold human rights in emergency situations, when they are most vulnerable to violation by individuals and societies. In short, art and law are two complementary human creations that participate in our complex and conflictual existence. Both may create mechanisms that help in the struggle against the human propensity to racism. And since this is such a harsh struggle, we need every available means: personal and collective, legal and other (psychological, cultural, educational, political, and artistic). It is only by activating and combining these means that we humans can, perhaps, prevent the crash.