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Conversation is an important part of connecting with others and forming relationships. It is the way things are said verbally or non-verbally which will determine how an individual will react or decide to form a relationship with another. The character named Anthony is constantly struggling trying to prove that everyone is stereotyping black people. His constant complaining about stereotyping shows how low his self-esteem is to worry about what other people think. In the beginning, he talks about how a wait-tress acted towards them by stereotyping. That waitress sized us up in two seconds.
We are black and black people don’t tip, so she wasn’t wasting her time. Now, somebody like that, there is nothing you can do to change their mind” (Haggis, 2004). Anthony non-verbally self-disclosed a side of him that reveals that he also stereotypes individuals. It seems like he struggles with a personal issue of being black and being ashamed of who he is, he non verbally is reaching out for acceptance by the way he talks, what he talks about and his body language with such anger. He seems to reach out for empathy from is friend who has a hard hard time putting himself in Antimony’s shoes of his feelings.
The friendship that they have makes Peter feel comfortable enough to disclose his feelings about the racially motivated comments from Anthony. Later in the movie, Anthony makes a generalized statement about a white couple walking down the street that was incorrect at the time. He bases his comments and actions on the body language of the couple he decides to rob. The woman just happens to grab her husband’s arm at the point when he is places himself in her shoes with a concern about giving her enough personal mime within their romantic relationship.
The conflict Anthony has intertwines with the conflict the couple is having at the same moment. Mr.. Cabot is using his listening skills to make sure his wife feels good about their relationship. He Uses his effective listening process which is “a process that requires motivating yourself to listen, clearly hearing the message, paying attention to the message, correctly interpreting the message, evaluating the message, and remembering and responding appropriately (Sole, 2011).
He listened to her concerns, paid attention by responding at the appropriate time, evaluated and responded by the offer of giving her his phone battery the rest of the night. Anthony could have use all six of the skills to realize everyone was not out to get him. The wait-tress in the beginning may have had many tables to tend. He could have really listen carefully to his friend Peter when he verbally told him to evaluate the situation when he told him Ms. Cabot was probably cold when she decided to hold her husband’s arm.
Anthony had a problem with effective listening throughout the vie because is issue of stereotyping was consuming his mind. He continuously makes bad choices in the film because he never took the time to listen and pay attention to what was going on around him. In the end he begins to see morally the things he was doing was wrong. He was able to finally show empathy which ability to identify with and understand how another person feels” (Sole, 2011) during the moment he decide to release the immigrant slaves.