It’s been 27 years since the 1989 classic Spike Lee film, “Do the Right Thing.” It has gone down as one of the greatest films of all time. The film highlights racial tensions in New York between the local Black community and an Italian-owned pizzeria. Yet despite nearly three decades of progressive movements. Including the Civil Rights movement in the '60s, which kick started the fights against racism, ableism and homophobia, to the push for federal protection for queer and transgender people. With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, it feels like we’re making progress, and we are. Data from the FBI indicates a downward trend in violent crime starting in the mid-'90s. Now I want to be clear that this does not necessarily indicate that all crime is rooted in racial tension; we’re taking great strides to make our country better for everyone. Yet with every step we take forward, we’re weighed down by the reality that equality is a myth.
What makes “Do the Right Thing” unique is how it portrays breakdowns in communication. Characters who can’t hear each other over the ‘noise’ of the world around them—their anger and biases. What’s really interesting about that is that it’s still happening. Ferguson, Baltimore, these are modern instances of the reality of violence rooted in systemic racism. In 1989, these were not new trends. The movie was inspired by the racial incident in Howard Beach where an African American man was chased to his death outside a pizzeria. In 2016, these trends are still not new.
Despite a very long history of acknowledging racial tensions in America, it feels like nothing is getting addressed. Yes, crime is down. Yes, equal marriage rights passed. But racial tensions in America, they don’t date back to the 1980s; they don’t even date back to the Civil Rights Movement. Racial inequality and violence have existed since the founding of this country. Our country, devoted to ideals of freedom and democracy, was built on the backs of slaves. In her speech at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama even reminded us that the White-House was built by slaves. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal,” yet the sad truth is, we don’t, and we don’t want to.
Spoiler warning for those who haven’t seen the film (again, often considered one of the best films of all time), it ends with a powerful riot scene. The characters are involved in a heated debate that ends in a fight. Chaos ensues and a young African American man dies. Seem familiar? Now this scene is not the stereotypical “racist white guy vs. noble underdog,” not by any means. Both parties are imperfect people, but neither are outwardly intolerant. They’re both just trying to live in this world charged with racial inequality. It’s realistic, and that’s why the scene stands out. The protagonist starts a riot, understandably upset, over his friend's death and the pizzeria burns down. A tragic end to a tragic story, of people unfortunate enough to live in Brooklyn on the hottest day of the year.
Yet open up the box and pop disc 2 into your computer and you see an interview with Spike Lee, explaining that the question he gets from white people the most: “Did Mookie [the protagonist] do the right thing? Should he really have burned down the pizzeria?”
The question he gets asked the most has nothing to do with a young man dying in the film. The controversy is over the burning down of a fictional pizzeria. What does it say about our priorities, when we hesitate to address racial violence, and the death of a young man, in works of fiction?
