
Movies about racial tensions and the effects of significant tragic events take up a large portion of cinematography. Their creators send a particular message through films using verbal and silent visual signs. The movie Crash is an example of a media piece with a strong anti-racism message while showing how ingrained it is in every community – even those who face it themselves. It has a diverse cast of characters that hold their own biases against other groups and even members of communities to which they would say they belong. The use of verbal and nonverbal communication in Crash creates the picture of post-9/11 America plagued by mistrust, hatred, and fear, which is intensified by people’s inability to see their own prejudices.
Communication Model, Co-culture Interactions, and Biases in Verbal Communication
The variety of racial and class distinctions between the characters creates an opportunity for many co-culture interactions and problems during communication. The movie features young and older adults, black, Hispanic, Latino, white, and Middle Eastern characters with low-, middle-, and high-income lifestyles. According to the communication model, the person sending the message encodes it, and the recipient of this message has to decode it to gain its meaning. Each step in this process is influenced by one’s relationship, culture, knowledge, attitude, communication skills, noise, and much more (Jandt 71). As a result, one message can be encoded and decoded in seemingly endless ways.
A simple explanation of the problem can turn into an argument and a perception of a threat. In Crash , characters often start arguing due to their inability to encode and decode messages. For example, Farhad is a Persian-American man with limited English skills. Due to his appearance and speech, most locals perceive him as an Arab foreigner, and they show hostility spurred by the recent September 11 attacks. He is similarly tense and aggressive towards anyone who doubts his American identity. However, his inability to speak English also leads him to misunderstand any negative news as a personal attack. When Daniel Ruiz, a locksmith, tries to explain to Farhad that the man needs to change the door rather than the lock to protect his shop, Farhad is confused, which leads to him suspecting Ruiz of being a scammer. In this case, the unsuccessful process of decoding a message leads to conflict.
However, messages can be specifically coded to show belonging to or distancing from a group. For instance, one can compare the speech of Anthony, Peter, and Cameron. These characters are black, but Anthony and Peter are low-income young men, and Cameron is a famous and rich television director. One can see that Anthony and Peter often use constructions and terms from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), while Cameron does not use AAVE and uses mostly standard English grammar. Here, the correlation between class and culture is posed both as a stereotype imposed on characters and something they continue to uphold as a part of self-identification. When a white colleague of Cameron notes that one of the actors does not speak “black enough,” Cameron initially protests but then gives in as he fears being fired ( Crash ). The internal conflict between enforcing a stereotype and losing his status is based on verbal communication. Similarly, Anthony and Peter may use AAVE unintentionally, but their speech reflects their identification with African-American culture supported by their view of intragroup and intergroup crime.
Biases Shown in Nonverbal Communication
Apart from language barriers and intentional language use, the film also shows how aspects of nonverbal communication create barriers between people. The most notable examples in the movie come from interactions between characters of different races. In the beginning, as Anthony and Peter walk through a predominantly white neighborhood, they see a visibly affluent white couple, Jean and Rick Cabot. While Jean and Rick walk at a distance from one another, Jean moves close to Rick and holds his hand when coming closer to the young black men. Anthony notes that this behavior is a clear sign of mistrust from the woman, and she feels threatened by their presence without them initiating any conflicts. According to the theory of proxemics, she both moves into the intimate space of her husband to feel protected and removes herself as far as possible from the area where the black men are situated (Jandt 252). It is a sign of fear that Jean later confirms through her dialogue. Here, the woman expresses her biases against African-American people without any words.
Impression and Conclusion
The examples discussed above touch only on a small portion of all conflicts covered in Crash . In the movie, people of all races, genders, and economic classes have a variety of biases against one another, and most of them refuse to overcome their open or latent hostility. Crash makes a strong impression as it shows how implicit bias can be as dangerous as apparent hostility and that all people have the capacity to be both hateful and open-minded, depending on their actions and circumstances. The movie also demonstrates that even minor communication differences can affect the outcome of any event. It teaches that, on the one hand, it is crucial to understand one’s own identity in the conversation to encode messages. On the other hand, the culture of recipients cannot be ignored when starting a dialogue, as it shapes the interaction as well. These conclusions can help guide the practice of a future Certified Intercultural Communicator (CIC).