Did the Community Really Love Sal’s?

Before watching Do the Right Thing, I assumed the film would give a clear sense of who was “right” and who was “wrong” in the neighborhood’s conflicts. Instead, Spike Lee presents a community full of contradictions, loyalties, tensions, and shifting emotions. One moment that especially challenged me was the neighborhood’s relationship with Sal’s Pizzeria. Residents of the community called it a beloved staple of the block early in the day, yet later destroyed it. That raised a question: Did the residents ever truly value Sal and his business, or were they being hypocritical when everything turned violent?

Early in the film, multiple residents discuss their affection for Sal, recalling how they grew up eating there and how his shop has been a part of the block for years. The loyalty and “love” feel genuine, supported when Buggin’ Out tries to start a boycott, and people brush him off. If the community was so committed to Sal’s, then why does everything flip at the end? Why do the same people who defended him early in the day watch his business burn?

The more I thought about it, the more it became clear that the film is not showing hypocrisy, but rather the difference between everyday relationships and the deeper realities of power. The neighborhood did appreciate Sal’s, however, the film reveals how personal fondness can only stretch so far when a much larger system of racism, disrespect, and inequality erupts into view.

Sal may have been part of the community, but he was not of the community. That difference matters. His success relied on Black residents’ money and presence, yet he still controlled the space, the rules, and the images on the walls. The community accepted this dynamic most of the time because nothing “major” challenged it. However, when the conflict escalates with Radio Raheem, that balance collapses. Sal’s violent outburst exposes a truth that was always simmering, which is that his respect for the community had limits.

So were they hypocritical? I don’t think the film wants us to see it that way. The earlier “love” for Sal and the later destruction of his pizzeria are not contradictions. Both are true, as the community could appreciate his years on the block, and still recognize that his business existed within a structure that didn’t value them in the same way they valued it. Lee argues that people can maintain surface-level harmony within unequal systems until something exposes the imbalance too clearly to ignore. When pushed to their limit, the residents act not out of personal betrayal but out of collective grief and rage.

In the end, I think the film pushes us to question the conditions that make such explosions inevitable, and why people must often choose between personal relationships and collective survival.