Crash Film Assignment

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Interpersonal Communication (GSL 112 1C)

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Imagine an African American male walking down the street from tutoring a bunch of school students on his way home to watch over his enabled grandmother in need of much help with her activities of daily living. As the male is walking down the street a cop pull up in his automobile and starts to question the young male. The cop makes very racist remarks and assumes the male is a trouble maker based on the color of his skin. The male, instead of letting it go and remain respectful to the officer, argues back with him and continues to be disrespectful and rude. This scenario is similar to a scene of interpersonal conflict in the film “Crash” of a Persian man being treated differently because of the color of his skin and the way he looks.

In the film “Crash” a Persian man named Farhad and his daughter named Dorri are in a gun store looking to buy a gun for protection, for they too own a store and fear getting robbed and killed. While Farhad and Dorri are in the store trying to decide which gun to buy the gun store owner, who remained nameless in the film, assumes they are Arabs and do not want to sell Farhad the gun. In assuming this the gun store owner makes remarks that are unkind and mean to Farhad. Farhad, feeling hurt and angry of the gun store owner’s assumptions and rude remarks, yells back in anger at the gun store owner. The gun store owner already not liking Farhad and his daughter kicks him out of the store. Dorri who had already given the gun store owner the money tells him that he can give her the money back or the gun.

The gun store owner not wanting to lose a profit hands over the gun and bullets reluctantly. This was a conflict of emotional intelligence. What was done wrong in handling this situation effectively was the gun store owner expressed his views and opinions about Farhad and Dorri’s ethical background rudely and made false assumptions. The gun store owner ridiculed Farhad because of the color of his skin and the way he looked. The gun store owner also judged Farhad and Dorri based on the langue they were speaking and the accent in their voice.

Another thing the gun store owner did wrong was he used profane language. He treated Farhad like he was a terrorist and like he didn’t belong in this country. Farhad was also wrong in the way he handled the situation as well. What Farhad did wrong in the way he handled this situation effectively was he chose to argue back with the gun store owner and made rude comments towards the gun store owner as well. Farhad elevated his voice levels and used threatening hand gestures by pointing and raising his hands. He also used profane language.

There are many things both men could have done differently so that there was not an interpersonal conflict. Some of those things are the gun store owner could have kept his opinions to himself and not have spoken rudely to Farhad. He could have also treated Farhad with respect and not like a terrorist. He did not have to use profane language and prejudged Farhad and Dorri because of who he thought they were. Farhad could have chosen to ignore the gun store owner and not have argued back with him.

He could have not raised his voice in anger and not have made threatening hand gestures. He also did not have to use profane language just because the gun store owner did. They both could have spoken respectfully to each other and treated one another like men. The whole situation could have been avoided if the gun store owner treated Farhad like a human being and Farhad had ignored the gun store owner when he did not treat him as such. To have good interpersonal communication skills you have to have good emotional intelligence.

Both Farhad and the gun store owner distributed poor interpersonal communication skills by not being aware of one another’s feelings. They both failed to realize that they were hurting one another by the words they chose to use in their heated argument. Let this be an example of what not to do when you want to have good interpersonal communication skills.

References

Haggis, P. (Director). (2004). Crash [Film]. Los Angeles: Bob Yari Productions