A black man is killed by a New York cop, put in a chokehold for the most minor of offenses until he suffocates to death. Following the murder, the community rises up in protest. Yet, in spite of significant evidence, there is no justice. There is no peace.
To anyone who follows the news, this sounds familiar as the story of Eric Garner, a man killed by New York officer Daniel Pantaleo—a homicide for which a grand jury recently failed to reach an indictment. But it’s also strikingly similar to the plot of Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee’s 1989 masterpiece. The film turned 25 this year, but a quarter-century on, its message is still extremely relevant—depressingly so.
Do the Right Thing documents life in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood on one of the hottest days of the year—its people, its places, its friendships and pleasures, and also its rising tensions. Ultimately, the film builds toward two flashpoints of violence and destruction: an altercation that results in the cops killing a young black man named Radio Raheem, and the subsequent riot that destroys Sal’s Pizzeria, a local white-owned business.
Thinking about the movie over the past few days in light of what’s happened in New York, and similar events in Ferguson surrounding the killing of Michael Brown, I’m struck by one line in particular, shouted by a minor character after Radio Raheem is choked to death by police: “He was killed because he had a radio!” You see, in the movie, police come in response to a fight over the volume of Radio Raheem’s boombox. The police come upon a big black guy with brass knuckles and see trouble—but the audience knows better, having seen Radio Raheem playact the triumph of Love over Hate with those rings earlier in the day. But it doesn’t matter. The cops see Radio Raheem as a threat, and they kill him.
He died because he had a radio. How often in real life could we say the same thing?
He died because he was selling cigarettes.
He died because he had a BB gun.
He died because he was wearing a hoodie.
He died because he reached for his wallet.
Do the Right Thing distinguishes itself in part by refusing to preach, by portraying each of its characters, black and white, as humanely and empathetically as possible. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Spike Lee said that he tried not to identify with any particular character, but to simply present the events and “leave it up to the audience to decide who did the right thing.”
Discussions of who did the right thing in the film often hinge upon what happens after Radio Raheem’s death, when Mookie—played by the director—puts a garbage can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria, where the killing took place, inciting a riot that destroys the white-owned business. Did Mookie do the right thing? The way critics and audiences have answered this question over the years reveals a Rorschach test that mirrors our nation’s current problems with how to talk about race. In 1989, many critics responded to the film not with reflection on race relations in America, but with fears about black violence—David Denby and Joe Klein both worried that black audiences would view the film as an incitement to riot. For audiences, meanwhile, the question of whether or not Mookie did the right thing by breaking that window has been a perennial one—but Lee has said in his commentary to the Criterion DVD that no black person has ever asked him that question.
A black man murdered by police. And white people more concerned about riots and the destruction of property than the destruction of a human life. How little things have changed.
Radio Raheem is a fictional character—but he was based on a real person, and as a vehicle for our empathy, for our understanding of shared humanity, and for our grief, Radio Raheem matters. His life matters.
Eric Garner’s life matters. So does Michael Brown’s. And Trayvon Martin’s. And countless other people in an oppressive system that devalues black lives and brutalizes black bodies.
Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter.
We need to keep remembering that, and recognizing it in our actions and in our systems—so that when the 50th anniversary of Do the Right Thing rolls around, the film is resonant in a completely different way: as a document of horrors that our society has left behind us.
Nothing Rhymes with Matthew says
Is it wrong that I’ve always thought the answer to the question posed by the end of the movie was pretty clearly yes (that mookie very much did the right thing) since the first time seeing this movie as an undergrad a decade ago?
By throwing that trash can thru the window of the pizzeria, Mookie gave the angry, black crowd a release valve to finally go ahead and unleash the anger that had been building and building and building and was about to come to a full boil in the wake of Radio Raheem’s senseless death.
By throwing that trash can thru the window of the pizzeria, Mookie ends up saving the lives of the few white people in the neighborhood since there was a pretty damn good chance that if things got any more tense, those specific individuals Danny Aiello and his sons would’ve gotten hurt, and its worth noting that Aiello’s character had been happy serving the neighborhood for how many years? 20? 25? (And its also worth noting that the son that was played by John Turturro having already previously established his rather low opinion of the people living his in his neighborhood-there was almost no way he in particular would’ve escaped that riot unscathed.)
By throwing that trash can thru the window of the pizzeria, Mookie finally gave himself some dignity, and some self respect after going thru the majority of the film being charged by his loved ones as being lackadaisical or unambitious or uncaring about his lot in life other than being a pizza delivery man. The whole film was him kind of coming to an understanding about the psyches of the various people of his neighborhood-black and white!
Mookie to my opinion was very clearly doing the right thing by throwing that trash can thru the window of the pizzeria-he was essentially doing the equivalent of opening the cap of a very recently (and thoroughly) shaken bottle of soda, and that pressure built up needed to come out as soon as possible, and in a way that wouldn’t actually hurt any specific individual. Mookie saw exactly where the situation was headed and for once decided to act ahead of time and do the right thing rather than stand back and let things take their natural course.