Systematic Racism In Do The Right Thing By Spike Lee

Many great thinkers make the argument that people have free will or the power to control their own fate. However, in reality, there are numerous larger, societal structures that control every humans’ choices. It becomes a cycle: structures enable or constrain individual agency, and then those persons reinforce the structures with those influenced choices. Therefore, those micro-level decisions seem innate or natural because they act within the macro structure, and those benefitting from these systems will rarely question it. Still, scholars and some media sources try to expose these constricting systems. For instance, despite its numerous themes, storylines, and characters, the movie, Do the Right Thing, directed and written by Spike Lee, ultimately,

For instance, in the main plot of the movie, Buggin out is not just upset about the absence of black representation on Sal’s wall of fame, but he is angry that this white-owned restaurant takes advantage and profits off of black customers, who do not have the capital to start their own businesses (Lee). Therefore, the burning of Sal’s restaurant acts as an expression of grief at Radio Raheem’s murder, but it is also a form of protest against the oppression of systematic racism, following Feagin’s argument that “prejudice is only part of the larger white racial frame” (Yancy, 2). Sal’s homogenous wall of fame is deplorable, but this issue is only a symbolic expression of the larger silencing of black voices, as Feagin says. Sal profits off this community but doesn’t even celebrate their culture and achievement on his wall, completely ignoring Buggin Out in the process. When the white power structures do not listen to marginalized voices, they diminish these lives’ values and restrict the influence they could have within the larger society, double bound in

For example, multiple times the camera shifts over a chalk house with a white picket fence and a smiling sun. Each instance, Mookie, without noticing, walks directly over it, pushing his trends into the street’s pavement (Lee). Through this action, Mookie rejects this childlike hope for the American Dream. He knows that this outcome is inaccessible to him, so he does not even look down. It is not even on his radar. In fact, only the white characters celebrate freedom and meritocracy, the American belief that people are successful due to their own hard work and worth. When Sal watches his restaurant burn, he screams, “I built this fucking place with my bare fucking hands. Every light socket, every piece of tile - me, with these fucking hands” (Lee). Similarly, the white guy who scuffs Buggin Out’s Air Jordan’s retorts that he can live there because “this is a free country” (Leo). However, these two white characters don’t realize what this country is only free for those with the privilege of white skin. They both had the opportunities to start their own business or buy a brownstone townhouse because they benefited from privileges that opened up more opportunities for them. For minorities, meritocracy simply blames them for their oppression, explaining that they are not