Crash

Reflective Essay:

Crash

Stereotype. According to The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, the definition identifies stereotypes as a generalization, usually exaggerated or oversimplified and often offensive, that is used to describe or distinguish a group.

The main problem or communication perceptions within the movie Crash are the false or partially false ideas and discriminations the characters display. These perceptions cause a lack of knowledge, discrimination, and division among them. Throughout the film many fields of communication are used to display different cultural views Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Chinese, and Persians may agree and disagree with.

This film was set in Los Angeles shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. The main characters included a Brentwood housewife and her attorney husband, a Persian store owner, two police detectives who are also involved with one another, a Black television director and his wife, a Mexican locksmith, two car-jackers, a rookie cop, and a middle-aged Korean couple. Issues of race and gender cause a group of strangers to physically and emotionally collide with one another in this drama from director and screenwriter Paul Haggis.

To provide an example of how nonverbal communication led to a negative perception, a Black character in the film tries to describe how a White woman clutched onto her husband when she saw from afar off two Black men. Nonverbal communication plays a critical role in the perception of others' feelings and intentions. Many studies have been done to more closely examine the relationships between verbal and nonverbal communication. It has been found that, "The centrality of nonverbal cues in making interpersonal judgments has received strong endorsement in recent investigations of person and social perception," (Burgoon & Le Poire, 1999). Burgoon, J.K. & Le Poire, B.A.