Spike Lee Do The Right Thing

A wise man by the name of Martin Luther King Junior once said “Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral”. Spike Lee’s movie, “Do the Right Thing,” showcases a blistering hot 1989 summer day in an African American neighborhood. The minority in the neighborhood--an Italian-American pizzeria owner and his two sons--received the built up hatred from the blacks. Spike Lee’s work perfectly put Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.’s methods to the test and proved that through the use of violence, both black and white ended with destruction, and each race blamed the other. In the movie, a plethora of complex characters undoubtedly disproved Malcolm X’s advice to use violence as a tool for the condemnation of

Malcolm stated he believed there were “plenty” of good and bad people in America. In this regard, his observation is relatively agreeable, and can be represented in the movie as the diffusers and the instigators. The diffusers, such as Da Mayor and Mother sister, are the only representation of who truly attempted to make morally correct choices--to do the right thing. On the other hand, the instigators, such as: Buggin’ Out, Radio Raheem, and Pino, were the main root of the violence, hatred, and trouble. Their actions were ultimately the cause of Raheem’s death and the destruction of Sal’s Pizzeria. Sal and Mookie, the two protagonists, are a mixture of both instigator and diffuser. Sal loves the neighborhood and the people in it, and he always defends the blacks, even when his racist son argues. Only in the end did his slight racist personality show through his confrontation with Radio Raheem, who instigated the conflict with his loud music, which lead to Sal smashing his boombox with a baseball bat. Predictably, Radio Raheem then proceeds in dragging Sal over the counter and outside to fight. Malcolm X would have justified Radio Raheem’s violence as “self-defense” or “intelligence”; however, self defense is not applicable in this particular

MLK Jr. claims the use of violence to achieve racial justice “destroys community.” His claim can easily be applied to Spike Lee’s movie, especially to the end. The violent actions of Sal and Radio Raheem resulted in a physical struggle, which attracted many nearby aggressive blacks, who only added to the violence. When the police arrived, they put Radio Raheem in a choke hold that eventually caused his death. Blaming Sal for the police brutality, the African American crowd (led by Mookie) proceeded in destroying and robbing Sal’s hard-earned restaurant. One man died and another man’s life was destroyed all because an Italian store owner chose his own race for his Wall of Fame. Sal would likely not rebuild and continue his business in that particular neighborhood. Instead of going about getting pictures of black men on a wall in a more polite manner, the community decided to use racism and hatred against each other, despite their shared location and situations. Instead of having a nice pizzeria, the blacks caused a successful business they all visited to turn into another vacant building. The African Americans “humiliate[d] the opponent” rather than “win his understanding” as MLK Jr. stated. If the blacks had taken a different and less violent approach in their attempt to get a “brother” on the wall, Sal most likely would have considered adding to his wall of