Many critics often detest Spike Lee’s work, noting that it is an unnecessary call to violence and a grotesque depiction of racial relations. I completely disagree with this stance. I believe the work done in Do the Right Thing, reflected in the ongoing conversation about MLK Jr and Malcolm X, is to send a message out to Black individuals on the evergrowing social gap and racial antagonism between Black people and the rest of the world. His stylistic choices of wide tracking shots and canted angles speak to the prevailing instability of the world that opposes the community-orientated structure of Black relations.

Within this Analysis, they include a quote about the film spoken by film critic and historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter, and author, Roger Ebert, stating “Thoughtless people have accursed Lee of being an angry filmmaker. He has much to be angry about, but I don’t find this in his work. The wonder of “Do the Right Thing” is that he is so fair. Those who found this film an indictment to violence are saying much about themselves, and nothing useful about the movie”

Radio Raheem’s death wasn’t due to his own action but the criminalization of Black bodies within a poverty economic disparity situation. Sal’s white perspective of the community ultimately leads to its peace destruction, symbolizing the power white individuals hold over Black bodies. Paralleling this to the white passersbyer that stepped on Buggin Out’s shoes, having no respect for the community you are gentrifying is just as detrimental as directly killing them. The early amplification of Raheem’s ghetto blaster over the opposing cultural music and Sal crushing it with a baseball bat signifies unprovoked white rage against Black joy– along with Mookie’s confrontation towards Sal’s son about all his favorite athletes, rappers, and activists. All these people are separating Black people from their culture in an attempt to keep them oppressed and silenced.

The movie ends with another canted angle of the ghetto blaster prevailing after being smashed and Radio Raheem’s murder signifies that “fighting the power” doesn’t end here, and this community-based story, as well as the larger Black community, must and will continue to take up space. Otherwise, we will be minimized to oblivion and extinction.

I suggest everyone to watch if any incentives of the Film were unclear to you.