The Cultural Differences and Its Impact on Intercultural Communication in the Film and Literature
Addressing Cultural Differences
There is a lot of beauty in the diversity of culture.it brings us together when we embrace the differences in culture, which make us unique and beautiful. This essay’s aim is to try and analyze the cultural differences and its impact on intercultural communication from the film The Black Panther and the two articles of choice, I’m black.im white.im both.im neither and A Model of Culture-general Competence for education and Training. Addressing and appreciating cultural differences is important because it helps us nurture relationships and proper understanding about one another which enhance long term togetherness.
There are so many white movies which show the possibilities and opportunities the white have exploited within their society and it might not mean much to them but when it comes to black culture having a movie with a black superhero is a huge deal to their community. It gives them a sense of pride and ownership because it marks a milestone in celebrating a marginalized group. The black panther is one of the latest Marvel superhero film expressing how it is like to be a black man in the world especially both in America and Africa. Wakanda being a fictional community is derived from the real African concept, real people and ideologies. The film opens with Tchalla ascending to the throne of wakanda after his father’s death. Being a royal member the new king had been sheltered from the reality in wakanda; which was that five tribes fought over the discovery of a certain metal, the vibranium.one warrior took some herb that was affected by this metal thus becoming the first black panther and united the people that formed the Wakanda community. (Smith Jamil,2018)
With the vibranium came inventions and technology for the people.it was later discovered by Tchalla’s father that his brother Njobu had been selling the vibranium to criminals and in the midst of the confrontation, Njobu was stabbed and killed. Killmonger returns to wakanda to avenge his father’s death by challenging the new king over a fight which he won and was
enthroned after its assumed Tchalla died in the fight. After Tchalla is healed he returns home to take back the royal throne through a battle against Kilmonger and his army. After he is defeated he chooses death over being imprisoned. Tchalla is eventually reinstated as the rightful king and wakanda reunited again. (Smith Jamil,2018)
From the Black Panther the black culture was mirrored by use of African language and when the cast spoke in English they had an African accent that gave the film an African taste. This went along way to bring out the authenticity and preserve the black culture.in addition when Killmonger went to back home to Wakanda from California he prided himself by using the locals’ dialect Ebonic. this is how he connected with his people and showed his sense of pride in the community as one of them. There was also the element of using different Black community tribes. Starting from Tchalla announcement to ascend to the throne to his fight with Killmonger at the waterfall, the beautiful tribesmen of wakanda gathered at the ceremony cheering on their potential king. Basically this ideology was drawn from real life set up in the Southern African tribes. Some of this fictional tribes in the movie were part of the co cultural group that formed wakanda and were united by one ruler. (Smith Jamil,2018)
One of the articles of reference is I’m black.im white.im both.im neither by Celeste Headlee. Which highlights the authors dilemmas and struggle with trying to fit in the society. She talks about her grandfather’s struggles for being black and marrying a white woman and he couldn’t even get a hotel room in a whites or blacks neighborhood back then when intermarriages were illegal. She also talks about how part of her family was as a result of rape by slave owners. She also has a decent in south America where she was partly brought up and from that and her brown skin color, people thought of her as a Latino. She strongly identifies as a black but most African Americans see her as not black enough. in short she has no racial identity.
Regardless of her plight Celeste identifies as her race as just a brown human being. From a personal experience, I resonate with Celeste for being unappreciated for not being black in my own community. I fail to understand why my own people have put up this list of who qualifies to be called black or why it’s such a huge deal if I marry outside my own culture.
According to the findings of “A Model of Culture-general Competence for education and Training in short is a military based study meant to make certain that the US personnel are ready to work with people from different cultural backgrounds; How the staff should apply the findings of this study called Adaptive Readiness Culture (ARC) as a model to test further a set of general skills in specific areas of knowledge.ARC is comprised of twelve competences further divided into four groups namely: Diplomatic mindset,-maintain a mission orientation, understanding of self in a cultural context and manage attitudes towards culture. Cultural Learning involves developing reliable information source and learning about the new culture. Cultural reasoning, coping with cultural surprises and developing cultural explanations for their behavior and taking on a cultural perspective. Lastly, Intercultural Interaction-this involves cross cultural communications and controlling self-presentation. (Rasmussen Louise, 2015)
Essentially there is need for using a culture general competence model that provides a non-biased platform for decision making, taking action, and accomplishing a mission in different regions. A model that supports operations in any given region and culture is what is referred to as culture general. in order to put up a functional model one has to build one based on a research on those who do the job well and those who have previously engaged with different cultures. In conclusion the different competences highlighted from the military study were developed based on the analysis of the strategies culturally analyzed therefore the model is critical especially in tasks that require face to face interactions. (Rasmussen Louise, 2015).in our world today it is
significant for all of us to make it our responsibility to learn about our immediate associates so
that we can avoid conflicts in future.
References
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Smith Jamil, http://time.com/black-panther/ retrieved May2018
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Headlee, Celeste. “I’m Black. I’m White. I’m Both. I’m Neither. Georgia Public Radio. GPB Media, 20 May 2015. Retrieved, May 2018
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Rasmussen, Louise. “7 Habits of Cross-Cultural Experts.” A Model of Culture-general Competence for education and Training. Global Cognition. Global Cognition, 11 November 2015. Retrieved, May 2018
