An Analysis of Ethnocentrism in Crash

苟雯雯

Abstract：In 2006，the Crash won the Academy Award for Best Picture of Oscar and triggered a fierce discussion on ethnocentrism in the whole world.America seems like a smelter containing various races，cultures，religious beliefs and customs.However，those different things in this huge smelter unavoidably rub and crash with each other，and put numerous barriers in cross-cultural communication.In this paper，the writer setting the Crash as an example analyzes the influence of ethnocentrism on communication.

Key words：Crash；Ethnocentrism；Communication；Cross-culture

1.Brief Introduction to Crash

All people here seems transformed his role from good to evil.Black people are innocent to the rooted bias，so they struggle to get rid of this predicament，just as the two black bullies.They protested the bias，but on the other hand，they committed a crime.As an alien race in the society，the Persian was also excluded by social main stream and finally urged his impulsive action to Daniel with his extreme self-protection awareness.For the main group，policeman Ryan deliberately fondled a black woman to ventilate his grievance on black people but tried his best to save her in an accident in the next day.It seems his company Hansen was an antiracist，but when he saw the black guy badly dressed and impolite，bias to the blacks appeared.From a perspective of a more in-depth，all those behaviors were influenced by the ethnocentrism in cross-cultural communication.

2.Behaviors of Ethnocentrism in Cross-Cultural Communication

In 1950，German sociologist Adorno gave a broad description of ethnocentrism— Members of any social group hold biases and hostile attitude to out-groups.Each nation or ethnic group consider their ways of life，beliefs，values，behaviors as the best and the central standard to measure and evaluate other ethnic groups，thus became hostile and cultural pattern.

Personalitys behaviors of ethnocentrism are multi-aspects.At first，considering ones group is superior than others，is the most significant token.The judges wife in Crash，is a perfect representative.She considered the black as criminal and inferior，so she showed her anger and contempt with black people，regardless of the black locksmith and nurse who were on the besides.Secondly，holding hostile attitude to other groups，and believing the threaten from others.The officer Ryan gave an example.He felt unworthy for his fathers loss that resulted from black people，and，act brutally on the black couple for revenge.Thirdly，being unwilling to contact with other groups，and easily to be irritated by people of other groups and using verbal sacasms and racist jokes，is also an important trace.Persian shopkeeper in the movie，showed his distrust and sarcasm to the locksmith.Those extreme actions should be attributed to his diffident in the complex society where full of excludable signals.What makes this movie excellent is that every action of people is meaningful to reveal the theme.From peoples behaviors，the influence of ethnocentrism on communication is exposed clearly.

3.The Influence of Ethnocentrism on Communication

Ethnocentrism，in some degree，is positive.But it is for mainly the in-group members，such as cultivating collective spirits，and inheriting cultures.But it imposes much negative and aggressive influence on cross-cultural communication.Ethnocentrism is a concept，taken deeply root in ones mind，but is unconsciously expressed in every small detail.In communication，the listener is able to feel the speakers attitude from words，pace，tone，face expressions and gesture，which could not be totally hided.After the listener perceives those signals，he would make some reactions that may be same negative.So，cross-cultural communication fails.What facilitated the two black bullies to rub car，might be the action of the judges wife when she saw two blacks.She immediately closed to her husband and held his arm tightly，because of her prejudice and fear to the blacks.But her such small actions were easily noticed by the two blacks，and made them feel very uncomfortable.

4.Conclusion

Ethnocentrism results in failure of cross-cultural communication，which is universal and inveterate.Although this negative influence is an objective reality，it could be decreased and alleviated by subjective efforts.For example，it is advisable to be ethnorelativism in cross-cultural communication，which emphasizes the use of out-group members cultural frame of reference in interpreting their behaviors.International cooperation becomes increasingly close，followed by more cross-cultural communication.So，how to reduce the negative influence of ethnocentrism will be a long-time topic around the world.

Bibliography

[1] NI Chun-yan.Analysis of ethnocentrism.美中外語.2008.

[2] 关世杰.跨文化交流学.北京大学出版社.1995.

[3] 马丹丹.从撞车看民族中心主义.长江丛刊.2015.

（作者单位：西南财经大学经贸外语学院）