Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing arouses conversation 32 years after its release. The movie brings the topics of racism, police brutality, discrimination and inner-city life to light. The film allows a conversation to spark between races about the discriminations on colored people.
Mookie is a young man living in a Black and Puerto Rican neighborhood in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He works as a delivery man at a pizza shop where an Italian owner Salvotore “Sal” Frangoine has owned it for 25 years. His older son Giuseppe “Pino”, is a racist that disrespects all the neighborhood black people. Sal’s younger son Vito is friends with Mookie and they have a brotherly bond.
One day a man named Buggin Out, who is a man that talks about civil rights, entered Sal’s pizza shop. He demanded that Sal put up pictures of black celebrities since his pizzeria is in a black neighborhood. Sal refuses and this causes an argument leading Mookie to take Buggin Out outside. Buggin Out then returns to the shop with a man named Radio Raheem who earlier got into an argument with Sal for playing his music too loud. They then all get into a fight that is led outside where the police are. Buggin Out is arrested while another police officer chokes Radio Raheem, killing him. This is when “Othering” is depicted. This enraged the spectators then turned to Sal’s restaurant and started destroying his restaurant. The next day Mookie returns to the restaurant wanting his pay. Sal then angrily throws the money at him and tells him he is fired because he blames him for everything that happened. They eventually reconcile at the end.
This film allowed many conversations to happen when it comes to injustice. Even people who are not a part of the colored community can have an understanding of what they go through. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing allows everyone to have a conversation about bettering the injustices in the world.
