Systemic Racism In Do The Right Thing By Spike Lee

America is a country which has a long and storied history with systemic racism towards black people and people of color, beginning in its infancy with slavery before later evolving into Jim Crow laws and beyond. These systemic racial injustices have persisted into the modern era, manifesting themselves in a variety of ever more obfuscated forms. One of these forms is police brutality, wherein police officers exert excessive and undue violence against civilians, often ending in death. In his 1989 film Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee examines the relationships between people of different races, and how living in a country almost defined by its systemic racism has affected the relationships between these people. Additionally, and also more germane,

Do the Right Thing uses a racial lens in order to explore how the power inequalities formed by the American police system generate distrust, violence, and hate, especially among destitute communities. In the first scene where the police are present, the power dissonance between them and the citizens of Bedford-Stuyvesant is made clear through the contents of the shot and the people in it. At the scene, beginning at 27:35, a man had water sprayed onto his antique convertible by two teenagers operating an open fire hydrant. Seeking redress for the damage to his car, the man asked two police officers who happened to be patrolling near the scene to arrest the teenagers. Before the film shows the officers themselves, it incorporates a shot of their cruiser approaching, with the two officers only silhouettes in the front seats. A police cruiser is a more immediately recognizable symbol of the police, so by doing this, the film can smoothly set up their introduction. When the camera does pan to include the officers, it shows them adorned in heavy police uniforms, continuing to reinforce their role to the