Brooklyn Neighborhood’s Simmering Racial Tension Through the 'Do The Right Thing'

The first time I saw “Do the Right Thing” was in my English class. Do the Right Thing (1989), directed by Spike Lee, The movie take place in a hot day of summer in a neighborhood of Brooklyn, this is not a action movie with the typical violence ,drugs and firearms, there is people living in this neighborhood ,people with problems living with another people with their own problems ,and although this situation the sense of community was there.

The majority of the neighborhood is black, but the Sal’s Famous Pizzeria has been in the same corner since before the neighborhood changed, in a part of the movie Sal says that “these people have grown up on my pizza.” The words of Sal confirm the change of the neighborhood since he arrives. And in a nearby store that was closed for years a stand of fruit and vegetables was open by a Korean family, and looks like nobody knows the Korean family, but Sal and his sons had been there since de beginning, they know everybody and everybody knows them. 

Sal is a tough business man that just want to get along and administrate his pizza store, one of the Sal sons is vocal racist but the other one is more open toward blacks, the person that act like the voice of Sal in the community is a liable local youth named Mookie ,who also work for Sal as a pizza deliver and acts as a messenger of news. Mookie is a good at his job, but he knows that there is not future in it, He dreams to provide something better to his family. Eventually we meet Da Mayor, I kind of man that knows everting and everybody, Radio Raheem young guy that represent his style of life with music.

This movie focus on racial aspects that happens in this neighborhood between black, Hispanic, Korean, Italians etc. this movie it’s not filled with brotherly love, but no is not hate, either. The use of color in this movie was amazing, I notice warm tones, bright oranges and reads that represent the hot summer, the red color in the first scene that pop up got mi attention, as well the scene where the men’s sitting transmit a joyful vibe, at the beginning the scene of the mans look out of the place but as the tension rises in the film , the conversation between them acted as a break from intense arguments.