Do the Right Thing (1989)

Fast forwarding to 1989, Do the Right Thing is a movie that occurs at the tail end of the American New Wave. The movie takes place in a neighborhood in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, which is mostly black. In the neighborhood, there is a pizzeria that is run by Italian-Americans that hate black people. Throughout the movie, tensions rise between Sal and the people in the neighborhood, more specifically, Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem.

In one scene of the movie, Buggin’ Out is at the pizzeria and looks at the wall full of pictures in Sal’s Pizzeria. He then asks Sal why there aren’t any black people on the wall, indicating that he should have some famous celebrities on the wall that are black because of the neighborhood that the pizzeria is in. Sal then tells him that the pizzeria is his business and that he could do whatever he wants with the place. After Sal kicked him out, Buggin’ Out decided to start a boycott on Sal’s Pizzeria, with the only supporters being Radio Raheem and Smiley.

In this scene, it shows the commentaries about racism specifically toward black people. When Buggin’ Out asked Sal about the Wall of Fame in the pizzeria, he felt that he should respect the people that live in the neighborhood by having people with a different race on the wall. On Sal’s Wall of Fame, they are all famous Italian-Americans that probably none of the people in the neighborhood would know except him. After Sal tells Buggin’ Out that he could do whatever he wanted with his business along with what to do with the Wall of Fame, he talks down to him and decides to kick him out when he tries to stand up for people of his race. Similar to many of the Civil Rights activists, Buggin’ Out decides to start a boycott on Sal’s Pizzeria and protest against it.

This movie shows a lot about what goes on with racism towards black people. There are messages that show that the pizzeria have oppressed the people in the neighborhood and that they want to do something about it. Out of the movies I’ve watched so far, this is not necessarily my favorite because it had a lot going on and it dealt with really heavy content with the messages that it brought out.