I love this movie. It is hard to watch at some points for sure, and it is extremely controversial. (I think that may be why I like it as much as I do—the controversy). I think Spike Lee did an amazing job of integrating controversial social problems into a movie with a good plot that people still want to see and become invested in. The movie was made in 1989, and all the social issues that it addresses are still relevant today; I think that says a lot about society’s blind ignorance in thinking that the brutal and barbaric history of America (and world history) is just that—history— because it is still happening today.

Who did the right thing in the movie? The answer top the question definitely depends on who you ask and what their beliefs are. I think it is interesting that Spike Lee uses another controversial question of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. vs. Malcolm X (who later changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz before he died) to address the bigger controversy: the racial tensions in society. So what was the right way to handle the racial tension? Mookie seemed to take King’s approach throughout the movie until Radio Raheem’s death, when he takes El-Shabazz’s approach and starts the riot. I think most people would say a more passive approach would have worked, but peace does not always work for everyone. Sal did not want to hear what Buggin’ Out was saying at all, and it caused Buggin’ Out to go on a rampage to boycott Sal’s. No one wanted to listen until they finally saw the racism that Sal and his sons had. Sal would have never felt the pain that the black community feels from living in American society, and he still did not feel it when he was grieving his restaurant. In the end, Mookie justified him starting the riot to Radio Raheem’s death, and Sal said it wasn’t about that for him. He said it was about his store that he built himself. The thing is—he can rebuild his restaurant, but they cannot get Radio Raheem back.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz were very different and it is constantly highlighted through how society paints each of them: that one was a saint while the other simply wanted violence and rebellion, but they were actually a bit more similar than society teaches. What society fails to realize is that both King and El-Shabazz’s ideologies and efforts were needed in the fight for civil rights. King was just as tired of the injustice the black community received just as much as El-Shabazz, and, even though they had some differences in their upbringings, ideologies, and beliefs about the racism they faced, they were both brutally murdered. So, who did the right thing? (Hint: they both did, just in different ways).