This year marks the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s classic film Do The Right Thing (1989). It is hard to believe I was going into my junior year in high school 20 years ago. It’s even harder to fathom that I’m twenty years older now! Where did the time go? I remember seeing the coming attractions for the film and wondering what Spike was up to now. I wasn’t allowed to go see the film in the theatre for fear of “race riots.” So, I had to wait until it came out on VHS to see it later that year.

I remember seeing the film for the first time—and subsequent times—and feeling a sense of tension throughout the film. The film left me angry, thinking about life, pondering my own decisions, wondering if people were getting the message, and how Spike got Universal to even consider doing this film. The film was powerful, and even after 20 years, I continue to see new things in the film—and ask more questions.

If you’ve taken one of my classes, you know I use this film a lot. Why? It’s a 20 year old film Dan? Its old School? But is it really? My real question is, how far have we really “progressed” in 20 years and have we—societaly speaking—done the “Right thing?”

This is a loaded question, obviously. It cannot be answered in a 700-word blog. But with the recent Gates incident still on the nations mind, Obama being elected to the presidency, and a host of other racially charged issues, we must begin the difficult conversation of answering this question and questions like these.

As a Blackxican living in this “multi-racial” society, I tend to see a lot of racially charged things. And it gets hard trying to explain that to people who do not have to experience racially charged issues on a daily basis. Moreover, it gets down right frustrating getting cross examined and told your story “couldn’t have happened the way you say it did—c’mon, no one treats others that way anymore!” Spike put those issues at your front door step with this film and insists you begin to deal with them.

This film is a symbolic, 3rd dimensional film representing of actual larger issues in today’s societal sphere. Sal’s Wall of Fame, Radio Raheem’s Love & Hate, Bug Eye’s boycott, Da Mayor, Korean store owners, the 3 brothers on the corner, and the theme song “Fight The Power” by Public Enemy constantly reverberating throughout the community are all symbolic of issues such as representation in the media, oppressive factors, nihilism, and even sexism.

From a filmatic perspective, the film is a masterpiece: the colors, the soundtrack, the location, the 26-hour day, the script, the use of Dutch angles to illustrate conflict, the script, and all the extras in the film. All these components make the film worth watching just from a cinematography perspective alone.

But the film goes even deeper than that. Spike let’s us, the audience, see the life and happenings of one neighborhood, for one day, on one block, on one very hot day (It’s a sociological fact that when the heat rises, so does the murder rate). Spike allows you to grapple and struggle with these issues:

• Did Mookie do the right thing?
• Should Sal have put more “brothas” on the wall?
• The paradox of Bug-Eye (played by Giancarlo Esposito) in real life being half African American and Italian American who leads out in boycotting Sal’s pizzeria and wanting the “Eye-Talians” to leave the community—Spike actually cast him for the role because he was bi-ethnic.
• What is the “Right Thing”
• Was Sal a racist? If not, where did Pino get his racist ethos?
• The quotes of both Malcolm X & Martin Luther King at the end of the filmWas Mookie a “sell out” boy working for Sal?

All of these issues are still pressing. In fact, no matter what class I teach, be it all White or all Black, or all whatever…these issues/ questions listed above continue to spark deep and meaningful conversation around race, ethnicity, class, gender, and N.I.M.B.Y (Not In My Back Yard). Do The Right Thing is a powerful film that inspired films like Crash to take matters a step further and probe deeper into the issue of race and ethnicity.

The fact of the matter is, we still have a very long way to go. Does violence actually help? When is the time to just “march” and “protest” and when is the time to take up arms? When is the time to just take it on the lip? Spike doesn’t give much answers—on purpose. He wants us to really deal with some of these issues, and as any good director knows, don’t give the audience answers in the film. It’s abstract art—you make of it what you will. But after hearing the racial issues that arose last week with Henry Louis Gates and the police—which by the way, he is being asked by Harvard to “possibly take a break” because of all the hate mail and death threats he has been receiving—I am not too encouraged that we have “done the right thing” as a society. At least 40 years ago I knew where a person stood when they called me a nigger. Now, I get hugged and kissed by that same person who goes home to call me a nigger or coon but acts out in the same manner sending these racially mixed messages.

We live in an interesting time, 20 years have passed, and a whole lot of new issues have come up—and progress has been made since 1989. But where are we at today? I’m still left with these perplexing questions:

• Are certain oppressed communities just waiting to hurl metal cans trash through the window of White land owners?
  Was Spike just a Black nationalist vomiting his own fury on the silver screen?
  Why didn’t, in the words of Natalie Hopkinson, Bug Eye open his own damn restaurant if he wanted “Brothas” on the wall?
• Culturally speaking, are Black men that angry?
• Could Mookie have used other routes to convey his frustration?
• What didn’t Mookie live up to his father responsibility?
• Why do certain White women continue to clutch their purses around me?
• What is is about race?

 

Just to get the juices flowing again after 20 years...

 

Spike’s Last Words

(Caution, there might be language in here offensive to some)