This political study will define the current problem of police violence as a future implication of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. This film defines the increasing racial tensions between the white Italian community and the lower-class African community in the late 1980s. Lee (1989) presents the racial bigotry between Italians and African Americans, which culminates in a series of violent encounters with the NYC police department. Incidents of police violence against African Americans is a major theme in this film, since the Italian characters are often exempt from the level of violence brought forth against black people. This film provides premonition of the current problem of white police violence in the black community, which has resulted
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However, Mookie’s (Spike Lee) and Sal (Danny Aiello) relationship in the pizzeria reflect the class-based stratification of race in this working relationship. In the film, Sal is depicted as the owner of the pizzeria; while Mookie is depicted as a “delivery boy.” This class differential is, of course, a symbolic attempt to observe how people of differing racial backgrounds interact with other. However, Sal’s son, Pino (John Turturro), is an extremely racist individual that continually exacerbates racial tensions with Mookie. More so, Mookie’s friends, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), create further tensions by attacking Sal’s “Wall of Fame” photos by asserting that it does not have any African American celebrities. These tensions define an eventual confrontation with law enforcement, since Lee is also showing the escalating racial tensions that spiral out of control in this working environment. These cinematic interpretations of urban racial violence provide key insights into the current problem of police violence in the United States. In many ways, Lee shows the implications of police violence, which only exacerbates a destabilization in the community. The history of race riots in the United States is also part of a long pattern of racism in the law enforcement community, …show more content…
Lee’s film presents the climatic scene in which a police officer uses excessive violence against Raheem, which ultimately kills him. This police action laid the foundation for a riots that followed, which lee depicts with a stunning degree of accuracy in the urban space. In the 2010s, the over-use of police is very similar to Raheem’s death, which is most popularly identified in the police chokehold that killed Eric garner in 2014. The over-use of police violence is part of the political and social structure of American racism, which views African Americans or minorities as targets of excessive policing procedures to detain and arrest a suspect. Surely, the increased use of guns against African Americans, especially in the Michael brown case, illustrates the reality of Lee’s film as a promotion of the escalating violence that is created by the over-use of force for minor infractions or criminal charges. The implications of racism in urban law enforcement agencies defines the overarching problem of race riots and anger in the African American community in the late 1980s, as well as in the way that these issues continue to be a problem in the 2010s. In this manner, a cinematic examination of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing presents the implications of police violence, which have become a much larger problem in policing
However, Mookie’s (Spike Lee) and Sal (Danny Aiello) relationship in the pizzeria reflect the class-based stratification of race in this working relationship. In the film, Sal is depicted as the owner of the pizzeria; while Mookie is depicted as a “delivery boy.” This class differential is, of course, a symbolic attempt to observe how people of differing racial backgrounds interact with other. However, Sal’s son, Pino (John Turturro), is an extremely racist individual that continually exacerbates racial tensions with Mookie. More so, Mookie’s friends, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), create further tensions by attacking Sal’s “Wall of Fame” photos by asserting that it does not have any African American celebrities. These tensions define an eventual confrontation with law enforcement, since Lee is also showing the escalating racial tensions that spiral out of control in this working environment. These cinematic interpretations of urban racial violence provide key insights into the current problem of police violence in the United States. In many ways, Lee shows the implications of police violence, which only exacerbates a destabilization in the community. The history of race riots in the United States is also part of a long pattern of racism in the law enforcement community, …show more content…
Lee’s film presents the climatic scene in which a police officer uses excessive violence against Raheem, which ultimately kills him. This police action laid the foundation for a riots that followed, which lee depicts with a stunning degree of accuracy in the urban space. In the 2010s, the over-use of police is very similar to Raheem’s death, which is most popularly identified in the police chokehold that killed Eric garner in 2014. The over-use of police violence is part of the political and social structure of American racism, which views African Americans or minorities as targets of excessive policing procedures to detain and arrest a suspect. Surely, the increased use of guns against African Americans, especially in the Michael brown case, illustrates the reality of Lee’s film as a promotion of the escalating violence that is created by the over-use of force for minor infractions or criminal charges. The implications of racism in urban law enforcement agencies defines the overarching problem of race riots and anger in the African American community in the late 1980s, as well as in the way that these issues continue to be a problem in the 2010s. In this manner, a cinematic examination of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing presents the implications of police violence, which have become a much larger problem in policing