One of my favorite movies, Do the Right Thing, is a movie that touches on the deep problems of racism in America, but racism against whom? Due to the conversations of the 1980’s to the present, we all think that it is a “White hates Black” situation. But in fact not only can it be the other way around; it could be other groups of races and ethnic groups. It is as Dr. Jerz mentioned before a cycle, the hated becoming the haters. In the book, Reading the Movies: Twelve Great Films on Video and How to Teach Them, William V. Costanzo mentions how Lee had an intention to avoid stereotypes. If he would have followed them, then he would have only saw an unreliable view of that culture which making mimetic view pointless.

One of the scenes that really touched me was the one where Pino and Mookie get into an intense argument about race and what they think about it.

Mookie: All I hear is “nigger this” and “nigger that” and all your favorite people are so called “niggers”.

Pino: It’s different Magic, Eddie, and Prince are not niggers. I mean there not black… let me explain myself. There not black but better than black.

After being called out on this double standard, Pino makes attacks on the African-American public at large.

Pino: I’ve been reading about your so called leaders. Mr. Al “The Do” Sharpton, Jesse “Keep Hope Alive”!

No one likes being belittled and I think Pino would have reacted the same way as a real person being challenged by believing in a double standard. Afterwards, we see the wonderful scene of a person from different races of the neighborhood not talking so nicely about the fellow New Yorkers. This scene prove an existence of that cycle, haters could be hated.

The whole movie, the tension, and the hidden racism were based on several events that happened in New York. In 1986, three men were attacked by a mob of whites wielding baseball bats in Howard Beach. Costanzo mentioned that “Howard Beach” was screamed after Mookie threw the trash can into the window Sal’s pizzeria (Costanzo 170).

In life they are extremes and moderates in the race issue. If you consider who is peaceful and who is hostile about the race issue you can look at this:

Peaceful: Mother Sister, Da Mayor, Mister Senor Love Daddy, Vito

Hostile: Pino, Buggin' Out, The Police Officers, The Group of Kids

There is only two moderates in this movie, Sal and Mookie. These two characters are swayed by the events in the movie. It takes Buggin’ Out’s explosive behavior for Sal to go on a racial tirade and it took the death of Radio Raheem to help with the riot that destroyed Sal’s pizzeria.

So what does that mean in the real world? These characters, which were indifferent about race, were force to choose a side by the public. This is the same public that supposedly fights against racism. It all goes back against the cycle of hate.

Kevin Hinton