The era of hostile racial prejudice, the periods of slavery and racial segregation is an era that has extensively found itself in reluctant conversations across cultures, the effects continuing to radiate from the 19th century, the epicentre of racism. An uncomfortable truth to confront, race as a socio-political concept is a topic we refuse to divulge in or if done so, is a conversation peppered with scientific evidence that is nothing but discriminatory. Significant public figures have dismissed the presence of racial discrimination in the 21st century, the famous misnomer “America doesn’t have a race problem” equalised to Malcom X’s powerful legend, “You get your freedom by letting your enemy know that you'll do anything to get it.” Yet,
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In 1987, Spike Lee attempted to ride out the explosion of fame from his previous feature film, School Daze, a perceptive representation of middle class life and black identity while creating the draft of Do the Right Thing, originally titled as Heat …show more content…
Pinholed to one sweltering summer day, the film represents a heightened tension between racial communities culminating into physical violence, death and broken ties. The film’s protagonist Mookie, who’s muted three dimensionality, is spotlighted at the penultimate climax of the film is a black pizza delivery boy working with a seemingly non-racist Italian American family, the owners of the pizzeria. The film features several characters that seem like caricatures of African Americans, with the dichotomy of being ironically accurate. Radio Raheem, Buggin’ Out, Da Mayor may seem to be vessels of a slightly perverse sense of extreme “blackness” but as we culminate towards the end of the film, a more realistic perception dawns upon the audience, not because of a change in the characters’ behaviour but rather caused by the reorientation of the circumstance of the film. The film also has an extensive cast of humans of other races; the envied Korean Fruit Shop owners across the pizzeria, highlighting the larger categorization of being an outsider juxtaposed with the sub categories created among minority races. An overwhelming single day, Spike Lee has ventured to spotlight the elusiveness of post-colonial racism by
In 1987, Spike Lee attempted to ride out the explosion of fame from his previous feature film, School Daze, a perceptive representation of middle class life and black identity while creating the draft of Do the Right Thing, originally titled as Heat …show more content…
Pinholed to one sweltering summer day, the film represents a heightened tension between racial communities culminating into physical violence, death and broken ties. The film’s protagonist Mookie, who’s muted three dimensionality, is spotlighted at the penultimate climax of the film is a black pizza delivery boy working with a seemingly non-racist Italian American family, the owners of the pizzeria. The film features several characters that seem like caricatures of African Americans, with the dichotomy of being ironically accurate. Radio Raheem, Buggin’ Out, Da Mayor may seem to be vessels of a slightly perverse sense of extreme “blackness” but as we culminate towards the end of the film, a more realistic perception dawns upon the audience, not because of a change in the characters’ behaviour but rather caused by the reorientation of the circumstance of the film. The film also has an extensive cast of humans of other races; the envied Korean Fruit Shop owners across the pizzeria, highlighting the larger categorization of being an outsider juxtaposed with the sub categories created among minority races. An overwhelming single day, Spike Lee has ventured to spotlight the elusiveness of post-colonial racism by