Do the Right Thing

The film Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee is set in Brooklyn, New York in the 1980s. The movie revolves around a group of diverse personalities who interact with each other on a hot summer day. The film deals with racism as racial tensions between multiple ethnic groups come to a dangerous head towards the end of the day. The film culminates with the death of a young African American male at the hands of Caucasian police officers. The death leads to riot against the owner of a small pizzeria who played a part in the death of the African American male. Do the Right Thing demonstrates the prevalence of racism even in a highly diverse area as racial tensions have led to increased violence and hatred within these minority groups especially in compacted city areas.

Brooklyn in the 1980s exemplified the term melting pot as diverse groups of ethnicities lived in close vicinities amongst each other. The diverse conglomeration of groups led to the increase of hate crimes and violence towards each other. Political leaders and academics, such as the mayor of New York City, urged for the violence to stop. “The mayor’s speech and the reports which followed analyzing the city’s racial climate made no attempt to explain the causes of deteriorating race relations in the city. There was no analysis of the complex network of interrelated factors which combined to produce an alarming increase in bias-related violence” (Pinderhughes 478). Without a clear analysis of why race relations were so explosive, there could not be a development of a solution to address the causes. Do the Right Thing exemplified the nature of race relations in Brooklyn during the 1980s and how quickly a fuse could be set to explode.

Brooklyn is one of the most populated and diverse boroughs in New York City “with more than two million residents representing Dutch, English, German, Italian, Asian, Orthodox Jewish, African American, and Caribbean heritage” (Young 75). These diverse groups all had their own neighborhoods in Brooklyn. However, the close vicinity within these neighborhoods meant that these groups would interact with each other on a daily basis. During the 1980’s Brooklyn also saw the rise of Hip Hop and many musicians credit Brooklyn as being their home city (Young 75). The influence of Hip Hop in Brooklyn was immense as Brooklyn had the largest African-American population in New York City. The influence of Hip Hop is seen in the film Do the Right Thing as Radio Raheem carries around his boom box throughout the day. The destruction of the boom box leads the death of Radio Raheem and the riot which destroys the pizzeria. This incident demonstrated the difficulty of achieving positive race relations in the midst of violence.

Radio Raheem’s boom box could be a symbol of the treatment of African-Americans in urban areas. The boom box and the music that emanated from it celebrated African-American culture. When Sal the Caucasian pizzeria owner destroyed the boom box he did not realize what would occur because of this act as he did not realize the importance the boom box held for Radio Raheem. The rage of Radio Raheem at the destruction of his music, which symbolically plays “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy, cannot be controlled and he unleashes against all those around him. This could symbolize the rage felt by African-Americans at the oppression and discrimination they encounter on a daily basis. As a result of his rage, Radio Raheem is murdered by Caucasian police officers who are unable to subdue him. This leads to a riot which ensues against the pizzeria. Caucasian viewers of the film debated whether the actions of Mookie, who is the first character to damage the pizzeria, were right or wrong. However, African American viewers do not question Mookie’s actions. The filmmaker attributed this to the Caucasian viewers demonstrating more concern for the property of a Caucasian man rather than concern over the death of an African American male. This demonstrates how cultures of dominance view the film as what is wrong with the minority communities and inversely the way in which a culture of oppression view the film as a minority community standing up against its dominant oppressors.  

The culture of oppression can also be seen in the way certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn, such as the Bedford-Stuyvesant area which is featured in Do the Right Thing, are predominantly African-American. The lack of Caucasian presence in these communities demonstrates that these areas are seen as parts of town which need to be avoided. While there are many conflicts throughout the film between African-Americans and other minorities, the main conflict which ends the film is that between African-Americans and the Caucasian owned pizzerias. This conflict could have arisen in part to the gentrification of the neighborhood which was predominantly African-American. 

The predominantly African-American community of Bedford-Stuyvesant comes to represent African-Americans and Hip Hop in the same way that the city of Compton, on the west coast, came to symbolize African-Americans and the gang warfare that began around the same era of Do the Right Thing. In his analysis on what Compton came to symbolize, Sides describes how the city became representative of the oppressed class. “Yet by the 1980s, Compton had become something else entirely: a metonym for the urban crisis. As the isolated street gang skirmishes of the late 1970s devolved into a brutal guerilla war for control of the lucrative crack cocaine trade in the 1980s…” (Side 583).  Sides discusses the way in which the name Compton has become a symbol of African American decline as the once-prosperous city gave way to gang wars. His analysis demonstrates the way in which a place can come to have meaning and also represent a group of individuals. In the same way, Bedford-Stuyvesant represented African Americans and the growing encroachment of Caucasian business owners and residents created a resentment which exploded towards the end of the film as the pizzeria, a symbol of gentrification, was destroyed.

The residents in the film did not see gentrification as a good thing which would bring new business or residents into the community. They viewed it as another form of oppression in which Caucasian business owners take over businesses which could have been owned by African Americans. This viewpoint exemplifies Collins critique of the oppressed. “In essence, each group identifies the type of oppression with which it feels most comfortable as being fundamental and classifies all other types as being of lesser importance” (Collins 232). These residents do not view the pizzeria owner as a minority, which he is in Bedford-Stuyvesant being one of the few Caucasian residents, or someone who is capable of being oppressed as he is representative of the dominant class. The characters in the film have several conversations about race and oppression throughout the film. The characters in the film also insult each other based on the other’s race which highlights Collins point about the way in which minorities view each other. Each of the diverse groups in the film feels oppressed by the dominant class or by other minorities. This is demonstrated by the African Americans in the film who complain about Asian business owners coming into the neighborhood. These viewpoints could be a cause of racial tensions and a reason why riots erupt in densely populated cities with diverse groups of residents. Collins urges that the thought process needs to change the viewpoint of the oppressed class. Without changing the belief and thought process, a change in behaviors and attitudes minorities hold towards each other cannot be overcome. Although it is important to understand the dichotomy of oppression in order to be able to overcome the dominant order, it is also important to understand that other groups of oppressed minorities are enduring the same struggles against the dominant group.

The tragic figure of Radio Raheem exemplifies the struggle between oppressed groups of individuals through his interpretation of his Love/Hate brass knuckles. “Let me tell you the story of Right Hand, Left Hand. It's a tale of good and evil. Hate: it was with this hand that Cane iced his brother. Love: these five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man…One hand is always fighting the other hand... Left-Hand Hate Koed by Love” (Lee). While those who are being oppressed can continue to view the dominant group and other oppressed groups of minorities as enemies and hold hatred against them, Raheem’s quote and Collins discussion demonstrate that this is not the best solution when it comes to the interactions between diverse groups of people. Raheem urges that love will always conquer over hate which demonstrates the importance of oppressed individuals understanding the struggle that other minorities go through. While the topic of oppression can be analyzed to an extent, the analysis of how oppression can be overcome needs to be focused on as well. As the mayor of New York City attempted to address race relations and increase ethnic cooperativeness through his speeches, an improved approach would have involved a discussion on the meaning of race and oppression. The ways in which diverse groups of people intersect each other can affect the way in which a community becomes diverse and cooperative or whether it becomes similar and exclusive towards others who are deemed outsiders.

Works Cited

Collins, Patricia Hill. “Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection.” Race, Sex and Class. vol. 1 no. 1, 1993, pp. 25-45

Lee, Spike, director. Do the Right Thing. Universal, 1989.

Pinderhughes, Howard. "Anatomy of Racially Motivated Violence in New York City: A Case Study of Youth in Southern Brooklyn, The." Soc. Probs. vol. 40 no. 3, 1983, pp. 478. 

Sides, Josh. "Straight into Compton: American dreams, urban nightmares, and the metamorphosis of a black suburb." American Quarterly, vol. 56 no. 3, 2004, pp. 583-605.

Young, Jennifer R. "Brooklyn Beats: Hip Hop’s Home to Everyone from Everywhere." Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide (2009): 75.