Who Did the Right Thing?
Spike Lee’s 1989 film, “Do the Right Thing,” takes place on a hot summer day in Brooklyn. As the sun beams down, heat and tension build between Italian American pizza shop owners and the black customers of the neighborhood. When a local at Sal’s pizzeria points out that there are no black people framed on the restaurant's wall of fame, only Italians, he becomes upset because their entire clientele is black. Agitation rises on both sides, and the wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate. At the film’s climax, white police officers asphyxiate a black man, Radio Raheem, during a fumbled arrest, stimulating Radio's friend and pizzeria delivery boy, Mookie, to throw a trash can through the restaurant's window and incite a riot. By the end of the film, the pizzeria is wholly destroyed, and so is the relationship between the white and black characters in the movie.
By throwing the trash can into the pizzeria’s window, Mookie chose the side of his community and abandoned his co-workers and friends at the pizzeria. Mookie stood up against the pizzeria owners for his friend, who was wrongly killed at the hands of racism. While advocating for what he believes in, he also chose the side of violence. This film poses serious ethical questions regarding racism and violence versus non-violence. I believe that Mookie does the right thing by throwing the trash can into the window of the pizzeria. While violence is ethically wrong, considering Mookie’s position and emotional state, I believe his actions are justified.
Mookie was caught in a catch-22 situation. He was forced to choose between Sal, his employer, and his community. If Mookie were to side with Sal, the pizza shop owner, his neighborhood would turn against him, and he would be excusing the racism that had been building throughout the film because Sal is a friend. When Mookie reaches over the mental fence, takes the lid off of the can, and hauls it through the window, his community cheers him on because he chooses them. His actions symbolize his loyalty to the people who raised him. While this is a violent act, it was the only way to deal with the sadness and anger for Radio’s death. He may have acted impulsively, and I believe his actions are warranted.
Malcolm X once said, “I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man’s problem just to avoid violence.” Toward the beginning of the film, the customer, Buggin Out, who first points out the lack of black people on the wall of fame, approaches the situation with non-violence. He tries to have a conversation with Sal about the wall, but Sal is not receptive to the proposition of changing the photos. Buggin Out and Sal had a non-violent interaction that didn’t make progress. When Buggin Out returns to the pizza shop to confront Sal, his friend, Radio Raheem, comes with him, blasting his radio. Radio and Sal get into a fight about the blasting radio, and Sal ends up maliciously smashing the radio with a baseball bat. Mookie is among the pizzeria customers who watch this act of hatred escalate. Radio then grabs Sal from behind the counter and physically attacks him. Sal used violence against Radio, and Radio met Sal with violence. Violence was used in protest because non-violence was not getting their point across.
While Buggin Out’s approach was morally correct, it was not successful, and the protest turned into one with violence, death, and the pizzeria up in flames. Though I believe violence is wrong, after seeing what Mookie saw, throwing the trash can was the only way to prove a point and get people to listen to what the black community was screaming. To quote Malcolm X again, “it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”
