The Painful Relevance of “Do the Right Thing” in 2020
Disclaimer: Do the Right Thing is an African American narrative. My perspective as a white individual can only go so far in the viewing and analysis of this film. Know that this piece has been written from that perspective.
31 years ago, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing gave audiences a portrayal of racial tensions in a neighborhood in Brooklyn that remains as one of the most culturally significant films of the 20th century. The film follows a pizza delivery man named Mookie (Spike Lee) and his interactions with different people in his community on the hottest day of the year. Mookie works for Sal’s Famous Pizzeria which is run by Sal (Danny Aiello) and his two sons, Vito (Richard Edison) and Pino (John Turturro), the latter of which is blatantly racist whereas Sal is more subtly racist until the film’s climax. Other characters Mookie interacts with include the neighborhood drunk Da Mayor (Ossie Davis), old wise woman Mother Sister (Ruby Dee), a mentally disabled man named Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith), the always agitated Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), and the boom box wielding Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn).
Most of the movie is simply Mookie’s exchanges with the cast, but some run ins between characters of different races begins to ratchet up tensions on the block. The most notable bout happens between Sal and Radio Raheem when Sal smashes Raheem’s beloved boom box while him and Buggin’ Out attempt to boycott Sal’s for not including any pictures of African Americans on the pizzeria’s wall of fame. Things get uglier from there as a massive fight starts and the cops arrive, eventually choking Radio Raheem to death and arresting Buggin’ Out. This leads to Mookie throwing a trash can through Sal’s, beginning the destruction of the pizzeria by the hands of the infuriated community.
Much of the discussion that surrounds this movie from an analytical perspective is asking did Mookie do the right thing? Throughout the entire movie, Mookie doesn’t really do much to affect the plot and acts as more of a vessel to carry the audience around to see his interactions. So, when he is the one to smash the window with the trash can, Mookie makes a definitive decision for the first time in the movie and makes the decision for the rest of the neighborhood. Mookie was pissed off that his friend was just murdered by the police, but does that mean destroying Sal’s was the right move? Well wait. Why is the question about Mookie doing the right thing? Was it right for Sal to throw out racial slurs and smash Radio Raheem’s boom box? I’d argue that the only ones who clearly did the wrong thing in this movie are the police, who choke Raheem to death, even after they’d pulled him away from the fight. The moral judgement comes down most heavily onto Mookie’s shoulders rather than law enforcement in a disturbingly similar parallel to real life. Spike Lee himself even commented on strictly focusing on Mookie stating that, “In twenty years since the film came out, no black person ever asked me why Mookie threw the garbage can through the window, only white people ask that question.” [i] It is telling that most of the discussion today about Do the Right Thing continues to focus on Mookie’s actions rather than the actions of Sal or the police, revealing more about American culture than many may like to admit.
Three years after Do the Right Thing premiered, four LAPD police officers were acquitted for the use of excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Los Angeles rioted for six days, eventually requiring the National Guard to step in to help contain the outrage. 22 years later, Eric Garner was choked to death by police while continuing to say, “I can’t breathe.” The officer who had Garner in a choke hold was not indicted. Later that year in Ferguson, Missouri, police shot and killed Michael Brown after he had had an altercation with an officer and was running away. Ferguson protested peacefully and violently. Now in 2020, an officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd for nearly nine minutes, killing him. Protests have raged on for nearly a week, some leading to violence, but most of them have been peaceful. Do the Right Thing may be a 31-year-old film but the story it tells hasn’t lost an ounce of potency in that time. Clearly, little has changed in terms of the blatant racial bias against African Americans by law enforcement, and the continued militarization of the police and their brutality tactics have become a new staple for American ‘freedom.’
On May 31, Spike Lee shared a short film called 3 Brothers-Radio Raheem, Eric Garner, and George Floyd which begins with the text “Will History Stop Repeating Itself?” The video cuts between scenes from Radio Raheem’s death in Do the Right Thing and the real life clips of Eric Garner and George Floyd’s deaths. All three were black men choked to death by police officers and Lee’s compilation of their deaths only makes their similarities that much more glaring and disgusting.
Just as it’s important to start questioning if the cops did the right thing by choking Radio Raheem to death while leaving Sal and his sons untouched, it’s about time we start asking our real law enforcement that same question. Actually, it’s far beyond that point now. It’s far beyond questioning who we should be looking into or asking how we can resolve this so everyone is happy. Now is the time for change. So, I implore you, do the right thing.
Works Cited:
[i] Creative Loafing Atlanta. “Spike Lee in his own words.” Youtube. July 14, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dmzvPT-lkA
