The film Do The Right Thing, created by Spike Lee was a very complex piece of work. The film contains characters you may see every day and maybe even be able to connect them to some of your friends such as Radio Raheem, your music lover, Buggin' Out, your drama bum, Vito, your bully, Smiley, your handicap and Mookie, your working class hero. Though these characters seem like your regular run of the mill type charters, Spike Less uses them in such a way to which these characters and their actions are used to create meaning or prove a central point. One of the biggest themes Lee stressed in this film is the idea of race and racism in America.
As seen in the film, a large portion of community is African American with the exception of an Asian couple, a group of Hispanics and the proud owner of Sal's Famous Pizzeria and his two sons. For the most part, everyone gets along pretty well... until Buggin' Out comes in for a slice of pizza and makes an observation. He notices that on Sal's "Wall of Fame", everyone is Italian. He makes a scene about it, asking Sal to "put some brothers up on the wall" but Sal refuses and tells Mookie to take care of him "brother." His son Vito is 100% with his father in saying that Sal should have beat him with the bat behind the counter while his other son Pino doesn't agree with his father's actions or his brother's reaction which causes conflict between the two brothers. Though Buggin' Out could have presented himself in a better manner, his point was valid. There are many African American men and women that contributed to some of the biggest parts of American history... so why was it such a hassle to place their pictures on the wall? Sal makes a comment that " It's my wall and I"ll put what I want on it." Of that's the case, Sal obviously didn't want any African Americans on his wall and his son Vito agreed which points out that they are both racist and the community sees it as well, as we can see from Buggin' Out's boycott idea.
Let's look at Radio Raheem. The man who barely spoke in the beginning, but didn't really have to, for his radio was his voice. Though he seemed big and tough and scary, Radio was a nice guy. As stated in Roger Ebert's article, "He wears steel knuckles that spell out "Love" and "Hate" ...although we know he is harmless." Raheem, hence his name, never went anywhere without his radio that blasted but one song, " Fight The Power" by Public Enemy. That entire song in of itself, if you look at some of the lyrics such as "Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me" and "Mother fuck him and John Wayne,Cause I'm Black and I'm proud" has messages of extreme racism that was being seen in the American population at the time it was written. Then we have the entire concept of Radio's radio.
When Sal smashes Radio Raheem's radio, to me I found it symbolic. That radio was Raheem's voice. It breaking symbolized how Sal ( The white American man) took away the voice and freedom of Raheem ( the African American slave.) Another thing to look at is the police who killed Radio Raheem. They were both white. So, Raheem died and Buggin' Out got sent to prison for standing up for themselves and not taking Sal's racism lightly. I find it sad because this entire situation could have been avoided if Sal just put a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. up on his Wall Of Fame and asked Raheem if he would please lower his music. Racism just went too far again.... but will it ever stop?
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