Aevia Trainor
HIST 218
First Blog Post
Do the Right Thing

Black History Month is an annual celebration used to recognize, remember and honor the contributions and achievements made by people of African descent throughout history of the United States. This is important to commemorate because too often those of us who are fortunate enough to be put in a place of privilege fail to truly recognize the significance of our country’s past. Our history has left traumatizing impacts on black communities and continues to systematically impact and oppress them today.

The program I attended was Spike Lee’s 1989 film “Do The Right Thing” which highlights the various power struggles between racial groups in a lower working class black neighborhood. The movie takes place in New York in the early 80’s where the owner of a local pizzeria deliberately decides to only display white people’s portraits on their restaurant’s wall of fame. This soon becomes a symbolic act of racism as tensions rise throughout the city. The purpose of this film is to capture the intensity of those racial tensions and highlight the similarities those themes and issues that are still prevalent in today’s society. It also exposes varying realities and experiences in life, initiating the discussion regarding the racism, prejudice and violence that African Americans are subjected to and the consequences of it.

The film succeeds in producing a number of questions, such as what does racism look like? What would have satisfied the oppressed character’s desire? Would taking down all the pictures be just as good as putting up a black person on the wall of fame? What characters in the film should or could be considered racist based on the content in their choice of language? What is intended when a character says, “stay black” during the movie?

Through the duration of the film there are several narratives that focus and bring attention to the issues previously mentioned. The first sound presented in the movie was accompanied with the powerful symbolism behind Public Enemy’s lyrics in his song “Fight the Power.” The message is direct and clear; the phrase fight the power conveys fighting against those who are oppressing others. As it has been seen throughout all of history, it is those with power and control that use it to manipulate and oppress others- just as it has happened in our own country’s history with the dehumanization process of enslaving African Americans. The tone of this music very literally sets the pace of the movie.
One of the major conflicts in the story is revolved around the absence of a black face on the wall of fame, especially being that the restaurant was positioned in a black majority neighborhood. This highlights the lack of pride and respect for black people, which undoubtedly relates to their past and current oppression. An example that comes to mind is the introduction of Jim Crow Laws in the late nineteenth century. These laws which enforced racial segregation proved that society had the yearning for separation and distinction between stature based on racial groups.

Further into the film, multiple characters with varying ethnicities go on rants attacking other ethnic groups. This can be interpreted as uncovering and emphasizing the polarization American society has struggled with and continues to struggle with today, all stemming from preconceived and prejudice differences in race. This can be connected to one of the character’s use of outwardly racist language, such as that he “detests [the neighborhood] this place like a sickness” and that famous black people “weren’t actually black.” As racial tensions escalate to a climax within the city, violence erupts in the form of police brutality.

This leads into the next major conflict; a young African American man who was choked to death after the use of unnecessarily harsh detainment strategies. This greatly connects to what we’ve learned in our course regarding the long history of discrimination and violence that has ultimately been continuously subjected onto black people. For instance, take this quote from Cudjo Lewis in the book “Barracoon” written by Zora Hurtson. Cudjo describes the agony of what it was like to be forced into horrible, unlivable conditions, “We cry ’cause we slave. In night time we cry, we say we born and raised to be free people and now we slave. We doan know why we be bring ’way from our country to work lak dis. It strange to us. Everybody lookee at us strange.”

The movie was concluded with a black screen and two quotes; the first by Dr. King advocating for peaceful protesting and the second by Malcolm X advocating for the use of violence as self defense. This highlights the difficulty African Americans face in the constraining position of institutionalized oppression and racial prejudice; being exploited and made voiceless within the same system they need- revealing the deep complexity of and frustration within such a contradictory situation.