Racial Inequality In The Film 'Do The Right Thing'

Racial Inequality Throughout the history of the United States, racial inequality continues to be an issue in our society. Most of every race had come a long way from fighting to gain equality. The society today has definitely improved, but there is still racial inequality within today. Racial inequality is imbalance of opportunities and treatments that occur based off someone’s race. There are many explanations on why racial inequality exists and the film Do the Right Thing shows various ways of why racial inequality exists and sociological concepts that are analyzed throughout the movie. One way we can look at racial inequality is through agency and structure. Agency is the social practices of individuals. In other words, agency is the …show more content…
Stratification is a system of layers, classes, or categories. Social stratification is the division of society into groups arranged in social hierarchy. This concept is useful in explaining the reasons for why discrimination exists and why it frames discrimination into societal structure. Social Stratification is also useful in explaining why inequality exists in specific groups in society. In the film, Do the Right Thing shows the power and struggles between African Americans, Italian Americans, Hispanics and Korean Americans. It shows the imbalance of power because they all are fighting for power. All the characters in the film were similar in their social class because they would be considered lower class and to be at bottom of hierarchy. Sal, who is Italian and owns the of the pizzeria, In his pizzeria, he had a wall of fame that were only white celebrities (Italian Americans). This turned into a conflict in the film that was over a wall of fame and how there was no African Americans. The argument boils down to who have control and power over the wall of fame, which is Sal the owner. This argument was over control and power which shows social Stratification. Social stratification is legitimized by