Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing mixes racial tensions surrounding the main character Mookie, played by Spike Lee, on one of the hottest days in Brooklyn. Mookie represents a medium between his neighborhood, a primarily all black community, and his employer, a white Italian pizzeria owner. Several class concepts connect with this film’s controversial, yet blatant topic of racial prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination. Every character in the film is racist. The characters represent many racial and ethnic perspectives including African American, Italian American, Korean, and white American.
Racial and ethnic hatred is shown through the characters who frequent the Italian restaurant. Sal’s son, Pino, wants to move the Pizzeria into their own neighborhood away from his father’s black clientele, whom he despises. In Mark Reid’s article, “Black Comedy on the Verge of a Breakdown”, he states that Pino celebrates an ethnic-racial apartheid system in which ethnic and racial groups remain in their proper neighborhoods” (101). In response to his son’s backward request, Sal says, “So what if this is a Black neighborhood, so what if we’re a minority. I’ve never had no trouble with … [these] people.
It shows him as vile and hateful as he makes them step out of their vehicle and began to humiliate the woman by doing an invasive body search while forcing her husband to stand there powerless with guns drawn on him; it’s noticeable that the officer’s partner is very uncomfortable with the entire situation, but is stuck in a situation where he has to be his partner. The entire scene really shakes the wife up, and she gets really irritated with her husband about remaining calm and not having her back. Afterwards, Officer Hansen, Ryan’s partner, asks his boss, a black man, to change partners due to Ryan being a racist; he is told that he has to come up with a silly excuse, flatulence, to ride without a partner. The ironic part of it all is the very same officer who humiliated her and her husband, has to be the same officer to save her life in a car accident. It is also shown later that Officer Hansen subconsciously has those same racial issues as he overreacts and assumes the black males, one of the car jackers, has a gun and shoots him dead.
American History X is a movie about a young man named Derek who is a member of the neo-Nazi movement. Like the rest of his family, Derek is racist, extremely prejudiced and discriminates against all minorities. Throughout the movie we see the older brother, Derek change his stereotypical beliefs and attempt to save his brother from making the same mistakes that he once made. American History X is based around the Psychological concepts of discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice. The first concepts portrayed in the movie are discrimination and prejudice.
Buggin’out decided to tell his people to boycott the pizzeria. He later spent the whole day trying to get people to help him boycott Sal’s Pizzeria, but doesn’t get any success. At first Mookie wasn’t agreeing with Buggin’ Out boycott until Pino utters on why “niggers are so stupid”. Mookie and Pino began to have a conversation on Pino favorite celebrities (who were black) and questions him why he is racist. Pino tries to explain how his favorite celebrities are “beyond black” and they’re not niggers.
He then internalizes various public events in order to demonstrate how hatred dominates the whole world and not only his own life. Baldwin freq... ... middle of paper ... ... came as a big shock. After having analyzed his feelings towards race relations in his life, his father’s interpretation of this passage now resembled that of his own. At the start of the essay Baldwin hated his father because his bitterness bothered him but he concludes with the desire to be with his father again. As he evaluates his experiences with racism alongside his feelings from the death of his father, he realizes that his father held correct opinions on white people and his whole life he hated the wrong person.
In the film Buggin’ Out, a friend of Mookie, states that there is a problem will Sal’s famous Pizza shop. In the shop there is a wall of fame with only Italians/ white people on the wall. Being that the pizzeria is in a largely African American community, Buggin’ Out makes the claim that there should be African American people on the wall of fame since they are the ones who spend most of their money in the pizzeria (Warrant). During the social problems process Buggin’ Out goes from making the claim that there are no African Americans on the wall of fame at Sal’s (claimsmaking), to telling everyone in the neighborhood to boycott Sal’s since he will not change the wall (media coverage). Buggin’ Out wants people in the neighborhood to boycott under the ground that Sal has twenty or so pictures of famous Italian people but not a single African American on the wall.
Urban density and elements of physical design are also clear. The Pizza shop plays a significant in developing racial tensions in the movie. The contribution of the shop to racial tension lies in its purpose as a gathering place that brings different races together. At the point when the store burns down, its role in creating racial divide comes out clearly. The racial tension is caused by the division between understanding how it came to burn down and the role that the Koreans in the neighborhood played in its destruction.
“DO THE RIGHT THING” Spike Lee’s movie Do the Right Thing is an excellent portrayal of what life was and is most certainly like in some areas of New York City and across the United States of America. His movie tells the story of Mookie an African American pizza deliveryman, trying to make a living to support his son and girlfriend. He works for Sal and his two sons Vito and Pino who hold completely opposite attitudes when it comes to race. Then there is Radio Raheem who organizes a boycott at Sal’s pizza parlor because of the lack of racial diversity on their wall of fame. As the movie begins you become well aware of the fact that the people who live in this area are extremely vocal about their opinions and attitudes towards people who are not of their race or social background.
Each character in the film reach a point in their lives that makes them question themselves as people, and what they express towards others. Crash shows stories of race, class, and gender post September 11th. The film shows that almost everyone as being unconsciously prejudice towards others and we lack love for others. The first time we see a sense of racism is when a Persian man wants to buy a gun but the gun shop owner refers him as “Osama”, is refused service and is then escorted out. Two African-American men discuss about how they as a group are always being stereotyped but they themselves hijack a couple’s car moments later.