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Stereotypes In Do The Right Thing

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With the eighties being a powerful time in America that came with music, art, and movies with a meaning. These messages relayed back from the black community topics of racism, sexism, and etc. Spike lee presented that with his 1989 film Do the Right Thing. Lee’s film displayed how people deflect stereotypes in a community of tension and racial oppression. One of Lee’s important characters is Sal, an Italian business owner where his pizzeria enterprise is popular, for the being the only establishment of that kind in his Brooklyn neighborhood. Sal’s character in the film is often portrayed as “fair” equal individual to the black patrons of that community. Though, he encounters some scenarios with a few black customers that could say otherwise. …show more content…

He then wants to organize a community boycott against the business until Sal adds or changes the images. Sal’s response is that it’s his business, so he is free to display whatever he wants on the wall. While, Buggin Out feels that if Sal shall conduct business in a black populated community, he should recognize people of his race too. Another incident that justifies Sal’s character is the altercation with Radio Raheem. Twice Sal, voiced his hate for Raheem’s obnoxious loud music, which Sal calls it “jungle music.” In the film, “Fight the Power” is the only song he continuously plays from his jukebox. Raheem turned off his music and that ended the difference. However, the final conflict is taken at the pizzeria, but this time Buggin Out and Radio Raheem are teamed up. They stormed into Sal’s business. Buggin Out begins by yelling at Sal about the pictures, while Raheem stands there playing his music loudly. This led to an argument and Sal yelling racial obscenities and destroying Raheem’s radio with a bat. Sal then says, “I just killed your fucking radio” and Raheem says, “The music.” Next a full out brawl occurs and the police are …show more content…

For it allows “white viewers as a chance it imagine whiteness “from the outside.” Overall, all the characters in the film are “true” they’re not over exaggerated stereotypes. Lee presents this movie in a common-like situation. Where frustration can bring the worse in people no matter if they are not openly racist. It is difficult to determine Sal’s true persona as his actions spoke for him. Flory believes, “Lee encourages many of his white viewers to reflect on and devise a new belief schema for understanding race.” Do the Right Thing is a noteworthy film because the way Lee casts his characters. The play on stereotypes is a common theme among films, but what makes this film different and influential is the impression of “real” life

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Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, two authors, two activists who advocated different strategies to achieve a shared end, have since their deaths, transcended the local, pragmatic potency of their respective narratives of African-American resistance (Garrow, 1991). The film 's use of the metonymic figures “King” and “X” as well as the ethically divergent meta-narratives of which they are the cultural signifiers suffuses its dramatic structure with the ideological tension generated by the trope of “double-consciousness” (Garrow, 1991). The vehicle by which Do the Right Thing represents the black community reminding itself, so to speak, of the presence of these figures is the ubiquitous Smiley, a young man with cerebral palsy who earns money selling photographs of African-American heroes to his Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbors. The film calls attention to one image in particular: the famous photograph of King and Malcolm X shaking hands and smiling during their first and only meeting.

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Spike Lee’s films never fail to spark controversy in the filmgoing world due to constantly dealing with the delicate topic of race and by clearly portraying his pro-black view of the topic. His films point out the corruption of our world and realize the separation of our society, especially in the black culture. In his classic film, Do the Right Thing, he reveals the struggles of an interracial community that doesn 't get along with each other. The climax of the film is undoubtedly when Sal’s famous Pizzeria is vandalized and burned by the community after the police kill Radio Raham because of an aggressive confrontation in his shop.

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Known for it’s provocative message, Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing (1989) direct’s the audiences attention toward police racism and violence. Spike Lee adds a dramatic flare to the movie through intense, colorful lighting and dialog. Characters in the movie fight for and against racial justice. The biggest argument of the movie is when a patron of a local pizza shop, Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito), believes that the pizza shop should have photos of African Americans along with the Italian Americans on the wall. The owner of the shop, Sal (Danny Aiello), disagrees.

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