Kalyan Narayanan - 2020 Near Scholar

2019-20 JOHN NEAR GRANT Recipient “We’ve Got to Fight the Powers That Be”: Discourse and Disobedience in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing Kalyan Narayanan

“You’ve Got to Fight the Powers That Be”: Discourse and Disobedience in Spike Lee’s ​Do the Right Thing

Kalyan Narayanan 2020 John Near Scholar Mentors: Dr. Pauline Paskali and Mrs. Lauri Vaughan April 15, 2020

Narayanan 2 Speaking amid inflamed tensions over slavery caused by the Mexican-American War, Henry David Thoreau remarked in his 1849 essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”: Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. ​It​ makes it worse.

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Here, Thoreau defines two major poles of social reform. For those who believe in the importance of reform by majority consensus, justice is discursive, based on the debate and compromise of ideologies. For those who favor Thoreau's politics of resistance, justice is activist in nature, formed out of open resistance and disobedience towards those structures deemed exceptionally unjust. This activist justice only increases in potency as discursive justice fails to solve the issue at hand.

Thoreau’s dichotomy has naturally resonated through many reform movements in the United States. As the Congressional forces of compromise put forth the Compromise of 1850, abolitionists such as John Brown took direct action to assault the institutions of slavery. As congressional leaders continue to recognize the rights reinstated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, black Americans marched on Selma.

Spike Lee’s controversial 1989 film ​Do the Right Thing ​is ultimately about this same interplay between these ideas of discourse and disobedience as it applies to contemporary 1980s 1

Henry David Thoreau, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience," 1849, https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Thoreau/Civil%20Disobedience.pdf​.

Narayanan 3 racism. Set on the hottest day of the summer in a Brooklyn neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy), the film captures how the increasing racial tensions between Bed-Stuy’s black, white, Korean, and Puerto Rican populations culminate in the death of a young black man, Radio Raheem, and the destruction of Sal’s Pizzeria, a local shop run by an Italian American family.

Widely controversial, the film was simultaneously praised for its thoughtful and even-handed 2

analysis of American racism and criticized for appearing inflammatory and dangerous.

Embedded within the narrative is a rich painting of Bed-Stuy’s deeply multivalent yet divisive community, which is perhaps the source of this controversy. With such racial, gender, and generational diversity, an additional diversity of opinion on racial issues arises that critic William Bartley describes as an exact encapsulation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “universalistic 3

definition of community.” Yet, as professor and radio host Michael Eric Dyson notes, the diversity and openness of the community’s discussions also serve to reveal the more hidden and 4

discreet racial tensions within the community. The end result of these racial discourses, University of California, Berkeley, film and media professor Marilyn Fabe explains, is a film 5

“structured throughout as a constant play of opposite modalities clashing against one another.”

With these factors in mind, a close analysis of Lee’s narrative, musical, and cinematographic choices reveals a belief that, in the context of constant and pressing racism in the 1980s, it is

"​Do the Right Thing​: Issues and Images," ​New York Times​ (New York, NY), July 8, 1989, https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/09/movies/do-the-right-thing-issues-and-images.html.

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William Bartley, "Mookie as 'Wavering Hero': ​Do the Right Thing​ and the American Historical Romance," Literature/Film Quarterly​ 34, no. 1 (2006): 13, JSTOR. 3

​Michael Eric Dyson, ​Reflecting Black: African American Cultural Criticism​ (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), 29, ProQuest Ebook Central.

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​Marilyn Fabe, ​Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique​, tenth anniversary ed. (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2014), 267, ProQuest Ebook Central.

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Narayanan 4 direct acts of disobedience and not racial discourses or debates that are productive in actually fighting racism.

Spike Lee’s Post-Soul Disobedience This film is gonna make people pick sides, especially Italians and Blacks. In my eyes, there are no winners in this one. Blacks burn down the pizzeria, but so what? Radio Raheem is dead or paralyzed and the conditions that we live under have not gotten any better. Isn’t it strange? There has been a recent upsurge in racial attacks in this country.

At the same time, Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby are the biggest names in TV and film.

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What a paradox.

—Spike Lee while writing ​Do the Right Thing,​ January 23, 1988 7

By 1986, black Americans constituted 44% of the prison population of the United States.

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At the same time, black Americans represented 12% of the total population. Black Americans under eighteen had a poverty rate of 43% while white Americans in the same age group had a 9

poverty rate of 11%. Meanwhile, the drug epidemic strangled working class communities alive, 10

a reality only worsened by the Reagan administration’s slashing of social services. As social

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​Spike Lee and Lisa Jones, ​Do the Right Thing​ (New York, NY: Fireside, 1989), 60.

Patrick A. Langan, ​Race of Prisoners Admitted to State and Federal Institutions, 1926-86,​ ed. Thomas Hester, report no. NCJ-125618 (U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1991), 5, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/125618.pdf.

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​Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, "A-1. Race and Hispanic Origin for the United States: 1790 to 1990.," table, United States Census Bureau, February 2005, accessed February 22, 2020, https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html.

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"Table 3. Poverty Status of People, by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1959 to 2018," table, United States Census Bureau, accessed February 22, 2020, https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-people.html. ​Emily C. Morry, "I Too Sing America: The Sense of Place in African American Music, 1920-1992" (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 2013), 344, http://hdl.handle.net/1802/26651.

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Narayanan 5 critic and author Cornel West explains, these conditions contributed to a “sense of psychological 11

depression, personal worthlessness, and social despair so widespread in black America.” At the same time, the most popular musical artist of the decade was, by far, Michael Jackson and the 12

most popular comedian was Eddie Murphy​.

The truth of the black situation in America was standing in direct contrast with black breakthroughs in white mainstream media, a fact exploited by Ronald Reagan’s conservative 13

co-optation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideology of colorblindness. For King, colorblindness meant seeing all as equal, regardless of race, so that those who were deserving could finally be 14

treated as equal and not discriminated against. For Reagan, who cast the advancements of black entertainers in the mainstream media as a sign that racism had been defeated, colorblindness was a tool with which he reversed a plethora of Johnson-era Great Society programs under the guise 15

of reforming a meritocracy. Thus, as West notes, conservatives like Reagan, ignoring the plights of working class black Americans as a result of their own poor life choices, “talk[ed] 16

about values and attitudes as if political and economic structures hardly exist.”

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Cornel West, ​Race Matters​ (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1993), 12.

​Nelson George, ​Post-Soul Nation: The Explosive, Contradictory, Triumphant, and Tragic 1980s as Experienced by African Americans (Previously Known as Blacks and Before That Negroes)​ (New York, NY: Viking Penguin, 2004), Kindle.

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​Justin Daniel Gomer, "Colorblindness, a Life: Race, Film and the Articulation of an Ideology" (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2014), 4, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7v70v6k4.

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14

​Gomer, 3.

15

​Gomer, 64.

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West, ​Race Matters,​ 13.

Narayanan 6 Yet, amid this tumult, black purchasing power was real and potent, creating a market for 17

art created by black artists. In film, this meant the rise of post-soul black cinema, roughly defined as black cinema released after Lee’s 1986 film, ​She’s Gotta Have It,​ that especially diverged from the earlier sensationalism of the 1970s Blaxploitation, or soul-era, black film 18

movement. Where hypermasculinity and a commercialized conservative condemnation of working class values had defined Blaxploitation, post-soul black filmmakers attempted to utilize traditionally black aesthetics to focus more on the cultural and ideological diversity present 19

within the black community. Correlatively, post-soul black artists, often young black men, focused on depicting the black working class, a group simultaneously demonized and 20

misrepresented in both Reagan’s rhetoric and Blaxploitation films, in a sympathetic light. As a result, perhaps due to this sense of an apparent fading of the victories of the Civil Rights movement, post-soul artists favored Malcolm X, a figure whose working class-centric conceptions of black power, pride, and separatism had not gained mainstream success during the 21

original Civil Rights movement. As West explains, Malcolm X had tapped into the “black existential angst derive[d] from the lived experience of ontological wounds and emotional scars 22

inflicted by white supremacist beliefs and images permeating U.S. society and culture.” Thus,

​William R. Grant, IV, ​Post-Soul Black Cinema: Discontinuities, Innovations, and Breakpoints, 1970-1995 (New York, NY: Routledge, 2004), 71, ProQuest Ebook Central.

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18

​Grant, ​Post-Soul Black​, 69.

19

​Grant, 63.

20

​Grant, 4.

21

​Grant, 62.

22

​West, ​Race Matters,​ 17.

Narayanan 7 in reflecting the reality of the black experience in the 1980s, post-soul black cinema similarly tapped into this “existential angst” by affording, for example, special attention to the actual strategies of representation used in depicting black Americans in an attempt to combat those 23

white supremacist beliefs.

Do the Right Thing,​ as a result of its working class focus, multiculturalism, and release date, fits neatly into the general post-soul trend. Thus, viewing the film with basic elements of post-soul cinema in mind not only provides a context for why Lee overarchingly tends towards a support of disobedience and direct action as the most potent bulwark against American racism, but also offers an opportunity to relate these ideas of disobedience to the Malcolm X-Martin Luther King Jr. dichotomy presented throughout the film and a potential answer to the implicit question of what the “right thing” is.

The Discursive Narrative While the overall narrative of ​Do the Right Thing i​ s somewhat straightforward, much of the actual length of the film focuses on establishing the post-soul heteroglossia of Bed-Stuy.

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Thus, as critic Jennifer Radtke writes, “from the partialness of our familiarity with each character in this scene, from the never conclusive yet always richly suggestive relationships between characters in this scene, emerges a diffuse yet rich sense of the community in its totality—its 25

strengths, its hesitations, whims, and convictions.” What is this “rich sense of community”?

​Kendall Phillips, "Spike Lee's ​Do the Right Thing,​ " in ​Controversial Cinema: The Films That Outraged America​ (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008), 122, ProQuest Ebook Central.

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J​ames C. McKelly, "The Double Truth, Ruth: ​Do the Right Thing​ and the Culture of Ambiguity," ​African American Review​ 32, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 223, JSTOR. 24

​Jennifer Radtke, "​Do the Right Thing​ in Black and White: Spike Lee's Bi-Cultural Method," ​Midwest Quarterly 4​ 1, no. 2 (Winter 2000): Questia Online Librar​y​.

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Narayanan 8 Given the fact that the community’s diverse racial discourse is unable to prevent violence, Lee’s narrative raises the possibility that the “sense of the community” is one of internal war, where a reliance on discourse and debate as the sole and primary pathway to resolve issues of race may have actually endangered the carefully calibrated racial climate.

Jade, Buggin’ Out, and Radio Raheem Jade’s response to Buggin’ Out’s attempts to impel a boycott of Sal’s Pizzeria constitutes a major act of racial discourse intermingling with the racial tensions of the Bed-Stuy community.

Jade explains, “Buggin’ Out, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but you can really direct your 26

energies in a more useful way.” The implication behind Jade’s contention that Buggin’ Out should be looking for something “more useful” is that his current endeavor is fundamentally 27

superficial. Furthermore, in establishing that this specious action is important enough to him that dissuasion would be considered “disrespectful,” Jade implicates Buggin’ Out to be an 28

injustice collector, or someone who looks for things to get mad about. However, Jade provides no alternative, only the vague directive to find a “more useful way,” ostensibly not the tested direct actional method of the boycott. Additionally, Buggin’ Out’s anger towards Sal only increases as he is met with increasing verbal resistance to his actions. Where his initial scene comes across almost comical, by the time he arrives at the end of the day, Buggin’ Out yells with the humiliation garnered from the community’s discourse clamping down on his right to boycott.

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​Do the Right Thing​, directed, produced and screenplay by Spike Lee, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, 1989.

​Tejumola Olaniyan, "'Uplift the Race!': ​Coming to America,​ ​ Do the Right Thing​, and the Poetics and Politics of 'Othering,'" ​Cultural Critique​, no. 34 (Fall 1996): 106, JSTOR. 27

​Marilyn Fabe, ​Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique​, tenth anniversary ed. (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2014), 279, ProQuest Ebook Central.

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Narayanan 9 29

Thus, Jade’s racial discourse serves to not only subdue and mitigate direct action against

racism, without also moderating the drive to direct disobedience itself, but also to increase racial tensions. Jade, a figure of respect and power in the Bed-Stuy community, also then recalls the aforementioned words by Thoreau that it is the fault of those in power who refuse direct action that when direct action is finally set forth, it is far more virulent than need be.

Radio Raheem’s brass knuckles, one of which is inscribed with “hate” and the other “love,” represent one of the more hidden racial discourses in the narrative. In speaking to Mookie, Radio Raheem explains “STATIC! One hand is always fighting the other. Left Hand Hate is kicking much ass and it looks like Right Hand Love is finished. Hold up. Stop the 30

presses. Love is coming back, yes, it’s Love. Love has won. Left Hand Hate KO’ed by Love.”

As Auburn University professor James C. McKelly notes, “the moral cosmology Radio Raheem here narrates is very compelling. In it, ‘good’ is not only identifiable and absolute, but ultimately 31

more powerful than ‘evil,’ which, correspondingly, is equally pure and clear.” Radio Raheem’s entire world view is defined by these oppositional binaries of “love” and “hate.” This dynamic itself references the racial discourse between the ideologies associated with love and hate. As 32

West explains, “a love ethic must be at the center of a politics of conversion.” Oppositionally, “black existential ​angst​ derives from the lived experience of ontological wounds and emotional scars inflicted by white supremacist beliefs and images permeating U.S. society and culture.”

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​Do the Right​.

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​Do the Right​.

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​McKelly, "The Double," 218.

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​West, ​Race Matters,​ 18.

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​West, 17.

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Narayanan 10 Thus, a racial discourse is brought about by Radio Raheem’s “hate knuckle” representing a politics of “angst” with the “love knuckle” representing a politics of “conversion.”

Yet, when interacting in the racialized public sphere, Radio Raheem, as McKelly notes, spurns his love ideology by making the first violent contact with Sal during the final confrontation at Sal’s Pizzeria because Sal has destroyed Radio Raheem’s jukebox while it plays 34

“Fight the Power,” Radio Raheem’s other ideology on display. In other words, when placed in a particularly uncomfortable situation, Radio Raheem acts not because of his “love” over “hate” ideology, but because his ideology has been attacked. Thus, the ideas held in Radio Raheem’s internal racial dialogues are not powerful enough to dissuade him from violence while, ironically, his view of the discourse’s significance is enough to push him to violence.

Da Mayor With Da Mayor, Lee portrays racial discourse as a force that degrades a community’s ability to combat the effects of systemic, multigenerational racism. As McKelly notes, “Da Mayor exhibits a sense of integrity, a sense of ‘right,’ as the film’s title designates it, which 35

seems to transcend the politics of race.” Da Mayor selflessly saves a young boy from being hit by a car and later, when the mob turns its anger towards Sal in the aftermath of Radio Raheem’s death, attempts to defuse the situation by explaining, correctly, that Sal did not kill Radio Raheem. Of course, it is also Da Mayor who earlier explains to Mookie that he must always do the right thing. The Bed-Stuy community, however, when speaking with or talking about Da 36

Mayor, focuses on his lowly economic position and subservience to white capitalism. Whether

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​McKelly, "The Double," 218.

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​Lee and Jones, ​Do the Right,​ 47.

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​McKelly, "The Double," 219.

Narayanan 11 it is Mother Sister chastising him for his drunkenness or Ahmad for his impoverishment, Da Mayor is the subject of all these characters’ ideas on how not to live life in a working class black community. Disregarded is the fact that it was because of the brutalities of white capitalism that 37

Da Mayor was forced into his position in it. ​ Rather, to the black community, Da Mayor is 38

another black male emasculated and forgotten by black and white society alike. Thus, Lee, in another post-soul moment, places the voices of contemporary conservatives in the Bed-Stuy community’s reactions towards Da Mayor. So, in a moment both within and outside of the film, stagnant racial discourse counterproductively obscures and stifles direct action against racism.

Here, Lee correlates well with West, who explains that black communities in the late 1980s and 1990s were withdrawn from “a vibrant tradition of resistance” and “a credible sense 39

of political struggle.” The Bed-Stuy community is unwilling to engage in direct action or, again in West’s words, to show that it is “visibly upset about the condition of black America.”

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Bed-Stuy’s “new black conservatives” thus take form in both the young and old of the community. In a particularly vicious moment in the film, Ahmad, a young peer of Mookie, attacks Da Mayor for his poverty and drunkenness. Da Mayor responds by exclaiming, “What do you know? Until you have stood in the doorway and heard the hunger of your five children, unable to do a damn thing about it, you don’t know shit. You don’t know my pain, you don’t 41

know me.” As New York University professor Ed Guerrero explains, “What Ahmad sees is a

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McKelly, 219.

38

​Radtke, “​Do the Right​.”

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​West, ​Race Matters,​ 37.

40

​West, 38.

41

​Do the Right​.

Narayanan 12 little too much of his post-industrial, dead-end future looming in the specter of Da Mayor worn 42

out, thrown away and inebriated.” Thus, Lee’s racial discourse is cast as a cyclic occurrence, continually hampering progress and reengaging a dispirited nihilism in the black American community.

The Riot Mookie chooses to reject the weight of societal discourses the moment he throws the garbage can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria. This act of disobedience has the effect of not only directly resisting racism but shattering the community’s patterns of discourse and debate.

Lee notes in his stage directions for this moment, “a lone garbage can thrown through the air has 43

released a tidal wave of frustration.” Thus, Mookie’s action, made of unknown ideology, has disrupted the community’s reliance on discourse, revealing the underlying tension built up from years of tense discussion. Physically speaking, the very fact that it is the pizzeria, a community meeting place for discussion and debate, that is destroyed by the riot represents the larger, 44

metaphorical destruction of the community’s racial discourse.” Furthermore, Mookie’s action has the effect of unifying the community with a common goal, pushing it towards a type of collectivist direct action. Without spending time debating the ethics of the riot, an entire mob bursts into Sal’s Pizzeria. In a stage direction, Lee even describes how “one might have thought that the elders—who through the years have been broken down, whipped, their spirits crushed,

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​Ed Guerrero, ​Do the Right Thing,​ BFI Modern Classics (London, UK: British Film Institute, 2001), 49.

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​Lee and Jones, ​Do the Right,​ 249.

​Catherine Pouzoulet, "The Cinema of Spike Lee: Images of a Mosaic City," in Spike Lee's ​Do the Right Thing,​ ed. Mark A. Reid (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 41.

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Narayanan 13 beaten into submission—would be docile, strictly onlookers. That’s not true except for Da 45

Mayor. The rest of the elders are right up in it with the young people.” The Korean community too becomes unified with the black community due to Mookie’s action. As the mob turns its focus to the Koreangrocery store, owner Sonny exclaims “I'm black, I'm black! Me-you, the 46

same!” The mob, moved by this statement chooses not to disrupt the Korean establishment, 47

thus establishing a unity between these two groups. Mookie’s action has broken down racial barriers, racism, and literal challenges with discourse between the Koreans and black Americans.

As the bitter violence between blacks and Koreans during the L.A. riots would later demonstrate, the lack of violence between the two groups in the film may be a bit of unbridled 48

optimism on the part of Lee. However, the unity between the two groups effectively establishes that the community’s divergences through discourse are ultimately superseded by common 49

oppression faced by the groups. Lee does appear to be acutely aware of the irony in this moment of racial harmony in the midst of a sea of racial violence, and as the fire burns the pizzeria down, Lee cuts to an image of the Wall of Fame, with “Fight the Power” still playing in the background. As Guerrero notes, “for a brief, ironic, moment, to the theme music of 'Fight the Power', the ‘Wall of Fame’—a ruin looking like the set in a war movie—is finally integrated.”

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​Lee and Jones, ​Do the Right,​ 250.

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​Do the Right​.

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​Olaniyan, "Uplift the Race!" 106.

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​Phillip Hanson, "The Politics of Inner City Identity in ​Do the Right Thing,​ " ​South Central Review​ 20 (2003): 61, JSTOR. 48

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Hanson, 61.

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​Guerrero, ​Do the Right,​ 81.

Narayanan 14 Lee is not condoning this violence but contextualizing it. Phillip Hanson, a critic writing in the ​South Central Review​, neatly summarizes that the “riot is an emotional response to the 51

assumptions behind an imposed status.” In Bed-Stuy, the only “imposed status” is that of the racial discourse and debate. Mookie’s action and disobedience, if nothing else, questions the assumption of import placed on that discourse by the community.

Lee also takes care to make sure that the question of whether Mookie’s action was actually morally or ethically justified is almost forgotten, as Mookie’s action, like Radio Raheem’s attack on Sal, arises more out of an anger over Radio Raheem’s death and Sal’s racism than any specific ideology. In other words, at no point does Mookie explicitly say why he throws the trash can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria. Thus, this perception of Mookie’s action then ties once again into the understanding of the film as a tragedy of how racial discussion and discourse taken so far without reform worsens the eventual act of disobedience, depriving it of an ideology in the process. Thus, in Lee’s view, disobedience based on ideology is an immediate requisite for reform in an unjust society. As West notes, “where there is no framework of moral 52

reasoning, the people close ranks in a war of all against all.”

“Fight the Power” and Bill Lee’s Jazz-Orchestral Score Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” the anthem of Radio Raheem, is a consistent and recurring theme in ​Do the Right Thing,​ despite being juxtaposed and interceded with varying jazz and orchestral traditions. West notes that for Malcolm X, “much of black religion and black 53

music had misdirected black rage away from white racism” Thus, in reengaging this black rage

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Hanson, "The Politics," 63.

52

West, ​Race Matters,​ 31.

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West, 100.

Narayanan 15 towards perceived white racism with lyrics such as “​Elvis was a hero to most / But he never meant shit to me you see / Straight up racist that sucker was​,” “Fight the Power” is inherently a 54

post-soul song. ​ In relation to these other musical genres depicted in the film, “Fight the Power” then serves as an aural analogue for the film’s spirit of disobedience, only conflicting with the moderate mainstream dialogues represented by the jazz-orchestral score composed by Bill Lee, Spike Lee’s father.

A Multicultural Mixtape?

On a broad scale, Spike Lee’s use of jazz and hip-hop music, predominantly black styles, 55

reflects a post-soul aesthetic sense to utilize black traditions to accompany black narrative. In this way, the very combination of music Lee utilizes represents a basic disobedience towards the 56

institutionalized racism in Hollywood that previously prevented such expression. However, the diversity of the music cannot be simplified to a simple white-black binary, as the sheer constancy of the film’s genre juxtapositions directs attention to the actual types of musical genres 57

employed.

In the 1970s, jazz musicians such as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, through the free 58

jazz movement, reached the zenith of their protest phase. Working from what critic Emily

​"Fight the Power," by Carlton Ridenhour, et al., performed by Public Enemy, on ​Do the Right Thing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack​, Motown, 1989, audiocassette, https://open.spotify.com/track/6lrs0IVK1i7SsVXxYW3IUG. 54

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​Grant, ​Post-Soul Black​, 7.

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​Grant, 7.

​Victoria Johnson, "Polyphony and Cultural Expression: Interpreting Musical Traditions in ​Do the Right Thing,​ " ​Film Quarterly​ 47, no. 2 (Winter 1993-94): 20, JSTOR. 57

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​Morry, "I Too Sing," 285.

Narayanan 16 59

Morry termed an “activist grammar,” they adapted black power ideals into their own work. By the 1980s, however, mainstream jazz returned​​ to a traditional tilt, primarily propelled by two of the Marsalis brothers, Wynton and Branford, the latter of whom plays the lead saxophone in ​Do 60

the Right Thing.​ For this reason, Lee’s use of jazz music, particularly with Marsalis as the performer, can be thought of as a direct allusion to a past activism now realigned into a staid and conventional discourse, similar to the reigning and historically deep-set antipathy to disobedience the character dynamics of Bed-Stuy’s community evoke. At the same time, Lee also utilizes white European classical orchestrations, composed by his father, Bill Lee, as an 61

underscore for most of the jazz motifs performed by Marsalis.

Thus, the jazz and classical pieces, if imitating the racial dialogues of Bed-Stuy, establish that discursive stagnancy as a path to reform only serves to protect white power structures. In other words, as critic Victoria Johnson explains, “the folk-orchestral and the African-American musical tradition of jazz represent voices which are, respectively and symbolically, one of status quo and nostalgic association (aligned with assimilation, passivity, and social acceptance) and one of continued resistance and assertiveness (aligned with exceptionalism, activity, and social

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​Morry, 285.

​Wynton Marsalis, "What Jazz Is - and Isn't," ​wyntonmarsalis.org​ (blog), entry posted July 31, 1988, https://wyntonmarsalis.org/news/entry/music-what-jazz-is-and-isnt.

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​"Malcolm and Martin," by William Lee, performed by The Natural Spiritual Orchestra and Branford Marsalis, on ​Do the Right Thing: Original Motion Picture Score,​ Columbia, 1989, audiocassette, https://open.spotify.com/track/4f4K7YpxdO2dWCmA6H8mvb.

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Narayanan 17 62

change).” This conflict is perhaps best witnessed in Bill Lee’s “Malcolm and Martin,” which accompanies the quotes that end the film: Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert.

Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue.

Violence ends by destroying itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in 63

the destroyers. —Martin Luther King Jr.

I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it’s self- defense, I call it intelligence. —Malcolm X

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62

​Johnson, "Polyphony and Cultural," 22.

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​Do the Right​.

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​Do the Right​.

Narayanan 18 Despite the opposition the quotes on the screen evoke, the piece is relatively plaintive, using the saxophonic voice in a more traditional context while using strings to largely imitate the saxophone and provide an occasional drone. The piece ends with a clear and typical V-I 65

resolution with no key changes noticeable in the piece. In other words, the piece evokes the very discourse many in the Bed-Stuy community would support: oppositional yet unwilling to engage in direct action and disobedience against the opponent. Naturally, this community provides for McKelly’s argument that “as the film depicts it, Bed-Stuy . . . in its insistence on a plurality of differences, uncovers the naturalized binary oppositions by means of which the 66

cultural hegemony guarantees homogeneity and perpetuates the status quo of its ascendancy.”

That is, “the cultural hegemony” represented by the jazz-orchestral score, following the sheer mayhem of the riot incited and ended with “Fight the Power,” reasserts itself as the dominant

discourse, a striking similarity to the film’s spoken racial discourse subduing disobedience and action.

Just as Malcolm X “feared the culturally hybrid character,” Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” post-soul characteristics directly assault the stagnancy of Bill Lee and Branford 67

Marsalis’s jazz-orchestral score. Hip-hop music was borne out of a working class black 68

discontent with their socioeconomic immobility. As a result, hip-hop music, in the 1980s, was 69

almost inextricably linked with black ghetto and inner city life. Thus, hip-hop music is

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​"Malcolm and Martin."

66

​McKelly, "The Double," 223.

67

West, ​Race Matters​, 31.

68

​Morry, "I Too Sing," 332.

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​Morry, 334.

Narayanan 19 70

inherently political and revolutionary. Layered within The Bomb Squad’s production of “Fight 71

the Power” is the integration of three separate saxophone solos by Marsalis. In a ​Rolling Stone interview with Kory Grow, Keith Boxley, the Public Enemy member and songwriter also known as Keith Shocklee, describes how that saxophone came to be: “I wanted to have a sax in the record but I didn’t want it in a smooth, melodic fashion; I wanted someone to play it almost like 72

a weapon.” Thus, the use of Marsalis’s saxophone in a style with which it is not normally associated breaks the standard musical dialogue a saxophone usually shares with other instruments in the same way Mookie’s action breaks the norms of racial discourse in Bed-Stuy.

This use of jazz as simply a piece fitted into an overall structure of hip-hop also correlates well with the perceptions of the black working-class identity. That is, the very primacy of a black working class musical form in the film’s anthem rejects that aforementioned conservative and liberal debate about the working class. As Hanson puts it, “One way ​Do the Right Thing​ suggests the community fight is by refusing to accept the identity written for it by the dominant culture.

Hence, the stress on positing socioeconomically located (those of the black underclass) African-American cultural practices and even racially centered physical differences in opposition 73

to the dominant society. ” Thus, the disobedience of the black working class not only resists middle-class black dialogues but subsumes it, again seemingly referencing an idea of

70

​Morry, 343.

​Kory Grow, "Riot on the Set: How Public Enemy Crafted the Anthem 'Fight the Power,'" ​Rolling Stone​, June 30, 2014, https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/riot-on-the-set-how-public-enemy-crafted-the-anthem-fight-the-p ower-244152/.

71

72

Grow.

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​Hanson, "The Politics," 56.

Narayanan 20 disobedience, when pushed to the edge by continuous debate, as overwhelmingly potent. As Bartley notes, “Fight the Power” represents “the will to do what is necessary, in violent self-defense, to bring an end to oppression, in defiance, if necessary, of precedent, of routine allegiances, and of customary social practices.”

74

This constant motivic use of “Fight the Power” all builds to one more key facet, however.

Johnson explains that “one of the methods ​Do the Right Thing u​ ses to promote audience sympathy for Radio Raheem and to portray the complete senselessness of his death is to 75

gradually render Public Enemy’s tract familiar via its repetition.” The primary effect of this repetition is for “Fight the Power” to appear less disjunctive and digressive to the audience.

76

Thus, in achieving this normality, the music prompts an understanding correlative to that of the Koreans being unified with the blacks at the close of the riot. Particularly, these new normative aspects of “Fight the Power” establish it as a style correlative to the already-familiar jazz-orchestral styles, intertwining them in the mind of the audience and thus, finally attempting to achieve a legitimacy for the methods of direct action and disobedience that Mookie’s act represents.

Representation and Imagery Given the history of caricatures and extreme stereotypes in both mainstream Hollywood film and 1970s-era Blaxploitation films, post-soul black cinema, with black artists finally with

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​Bartley, "Mookie as Wavering," 13.

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​Johnson, "Polyphony and Cultural," 25.

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​Johnson, 25.

Narayanan 21 77

more legitimate creative control, gives special attention to the issue of representation. Critic Kendall Phillips contends that representation is the central focus of ​Do the Right Thing​. He argues that the film is ultimately predicated on the “question of who has authority to control the 78

spaces of representation.” Indeed, within the film, Lee appears to reference this understanding with the fact that it is Buggin’ Out’s quest to add black faces to Sal’s Wall of Fame that is the 79

central conflict of the film. However, on a broader level, the film’s post-soul visual aesthetic related to its depiction of Bed-Stuy’s characters, is an important representational pathway. As Catherine Pouzoulet remarks, “Spike Lee is fully aware that depicting the ghetto as a regular neighborhood, with its families, social life, and characters, as it no longer exists, is in fact more disturbing to mainstream audiences than adopting the sort of realistic approach John Singleton 80

used in ​Boyz n the Hood.​ ” Thus, another instance of Lee’s support of an ideology of disobedience arises: Lee’s post-soul focus on depicting black American characters in non-traditional lenses demonstrates the potency of disobedience in removing representational racial barriers, by being in itself an act of disobedience against the common discursive representations and perceptions of black Americans.

Visualizing Radio Raheem Through his portrayal of Radio Raheem, Lee directly attacks stereotypical assumptions about Radio Raheem’s character, a direct act of disobedience against the institutionalized racism

77

​Grant, ​Post-Soul Black​, 5.

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​Phillips, "Spike Lee's," 122.

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​Phillips, 124.

80

Pouzoulet, "The Cinema," 41.

Narayanan 22 81

present in prior artistic depictions of black Americans. Throughout the film, Fabe notes that Lee depends on “expressive spatial distortions” in camera angle, particularly extreme low or high 82

angles and slant of the Dutch angle, to depict moments of tension and skewed perspective. Lee chooses to depict Radio Raheem with the largest range of these angles, particularly Dutch angles combined with close-ups and especially low angles that emphasize Radio Raheem’s stature and 83

strength. Thus, from a purely visual level, Radio Raheem’s sheer size seems to correlate with 84

white fears of the black hoodlum. Lee was fully aware of this immediate characterization, even explaining in his production notes that “white people cross the street when they see [Radio 85

Raheem] coming. The Bernie Goetzes of the world want to kill him.” Indeed, Lee notably uses 86

this angle in Radio Raheem’s final and violent confrontation with Sal.

87

Figure 1: Radio Raheem and Buggin’ Out confront Sal. 81

​Fabe, ​Closely Watched​, 271.

82

​Fabe, 273.

83

​Fabe, 274.

84

​Fabe, 282.

85

​Lee and Jones, ​Do the Right,​ 59.

86

​Fabe, ​Closely Watched​, 281.

87

​Do the Right​.

Narayanan 23 Yet, notably, Radio Raheem is depicted in this same skewed way even in moments where he does not demonstrate actions correlative to his stereotype. In Radio Raheem’s first scene in the film, when he approaches his peers Ahmad, Ella, Cee, and Punchy, Lee, after first using a non-skewed and distanced lens for Radio Raheem’s four peers, switches to a close-up Dutch 88

angle the moment Radio Raheem turns on his jukebox, enters the frame, and says “Peace, y’all.”

Bringing the camera so exceptionally close and slanted to Radio Raheem’s face, Lee establishes

Radio Raheem’s apparently threatening nature from the outset. The fact remains, however, that in the initial scene, Radio Raheem had only played music and expressed a desire for “peace.” One could interpret Radio Raheem’s framing as more stereotypical. However, the aforementioned fact that Lee was aware of the stereotype he was employing, implies that he may instead be reclaiming an aesthetic for black Americans. That is, by framing Radio Raheem in a way contrary to how he acts in this initial scene, Lee forces his audience to confront its own assumptions of how Radio Raheem’s character should act. Thus, the power of disobedience is reaffirmed as Lee’s audience is directly confronted with Radio Raheem’s reality.

88

​Do the Right​.

Narayanan 24

Figure 2: Radio Raheem’s Entrance.

89

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X At the same time Lee disobediently attacks racial stereotyping, he disobediently recontextualizes images of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jesse Jackson in an attempt to point out the failures of how they have been represented by historical dialogues, once again reaffirming the greater power of disobedience in combating racism. Lee’s use of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. as imagery occurs through Smiley, a mentally impaired young man who sells copies of the sole picture of the two leaders meeting.

89

​Do the Right​.

Narayanan 25

Figure 3: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

90

On the one hand, using these two figures immediately recalls the tension borne out of the two 91

figures’ ideological and oftentimes oppositional discourse. Furthermore, portraying the two in terms of the sole image where their discourse cooled for a moment, resulting in a few smiles, is the ultimate irony as, in reality, King’s views and X’s views were never conjoined or resolved 92

into a single, unified ideology or movement. Thus, the central fact that the Civil Rights movement did not share permanent success for the working class black American echoes through Bed-Stuy’s own intractable racial discourse. That is, Lee is utilizing the prominence of the

90

​Guerrero, ​Do the Right​, 45.

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​McKelly, "The Double," 217.

92

​Olaniyan, "Uplift the Race!" 101.

Narayanan 26 X-King discourse as a pathway to establish that such heated and oppositional racial debates rarely produce viable solutions.

At the same time, by placing the image in the hands of Smiley, a character who may not be aware of the full significance of the picture he holds, Smiley’s incomprehensibility and irrelevance draws attention to the fact that though Malcolm X and Martin Luther King disagreed on how racism could best be fought, they always agreed “on the necessity to continue the 93

struggle.” Indeed, while Lee may lean towards the X camp, having opened his shooting script with a quote from X’s autobiography, the fact remains that despite King’s co-optation by 94

conservatives in the 1980s, King stood for disobedience as well. Thus, in disobediently disregarding the historical perceptions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as ideologically incongruous, Lee establishes how the two figures shared the common belief in constant, direct action as the sole pathway of combating racism.

The Riot, Visualized These disobedient depictions of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, and Radio Raheem also clue the audience in to the final meaning of Mookie’s choice to throw the garbage can through Sal’s window. As Kellner explains, Lee chooses to “pan a long and slow shot of Mookie methodically walking away to pick up a garbage can and then returning to throw 95

it through the window of the pizzeria.” ​Because Mookie’s act is not depicted in the slanted or close angles that the audience has come to associate with tension, danger, and Radio Raheem, Mookie’s act of disobedience gains a greater legitimacy and force. Thus, in finally depicting

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​Olaniyan, 100-01.

94

​Lee and Jones, ​Do the Right,1​ 20.

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​Kellner, "Aesthetics, Ethics," 84.

Narayanan 27 Mookie’s act of disobedience in an non-skewed light and accepting the resulting controversy, the film represents an ultimate of disobedience: action against racism.

96

Figure 4: Mookie prepares to throw the garbage can.

Doing the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing i​ s titled ​Do the Right Thing​, not ​The Right Thing.​ If Lee had truly endeavored to make a film that was not a call to immediate action towards racism and simply dealt with its tragedy and circumstances, would he not have removed the “do”? If Lee did not believe in the power of disobedience, would he not have cast the destruction of Sal’s Pizzeria as somewhat cathartic for Bed-Stuy’s people of color? Lee did not win an Oscar for ​Do the Right

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​Do the Right​.

Narayanan 28 Thing.​ In fact, the film did not even earn nominations for Best Director or Best Picture. It is unclear if, in the context of the past several years’ #OscarsSoWhite movement, this situation and controversy would be repeated today, though Lee did finally win his first competitive Oscar in 2019 for ​BlacKkKlansman​, a considerably less controversial film. Yet, in some ways, that very lack of recognition for Lee only validates his message further. For Lee, the “right thing” was taking strong, direct actions or disobedient stances against racism, not falling privy to the particulars of racial dialogues and debates. In this way, the fact that the film was controversial yet ignored, the fact that the film did something, and the fact that it was constantly spurned for being inflammatory yet ultimately only reflective of the country’s own racial violence, only legitimizes its place as one of the key events in America’s racial history.

Narayanan 29

Bibliography Bartley, William. "Mookie as 'Wavering Hero': ​Do the Right Thing​ and the American Historical Romance." ​Literature/Film Quarterly​ 34, no. 1 (2006): 9-18. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43797251.

Bartley formulates an idea of Mookie as a hero who is forced to make a choice that has no right or correct answer. In other words, in Bartley’s perception, Mookie must throw the trash can through the window and he must not. This correlates well with Radtke’s interpretation of the central dilemma as a question of and not either/or. Additionally, Bartley conceives of the idea of the community’s discourse as representative of a King-ian school of thought.

Burrows, Cedric Dewayne. "The Contemporary Rhetoric about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in the Post-Reagan Era." Master's thesis, Miami University, 2005. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=miami1118689456&disposition=inline.

Burrows details how Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X have achieved popular success among young black males even in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Era and the Reagan era. Furthermore, Burrows analyzes how the hip-hop generation looked up to Malcolm X over King and Carmichael as the sole icon of the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Do the Right Thing.​ Directed, produced and screenplay by Spike Lee. 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, 1989.

Do the Right Thing​ is without a doubt one of the most seminal films about race in American history. Released in 1989, it considers the explosion into violence of racial tensions in a Brooklyn neighborhood on the hottest day of the summer. Upon release, it was for the most part, critically acclaimed, although some critics considered it inflammatory and likely to cause riots and violence throughout the black American community.

Dyson, Michael Eric. ​Reflecting Black: African American Cultural Criticism​. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Dyson’s excerpt on Lee focuses on how Lee greatly misconstrued the images of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, unnecessarily freezing them in a way that made their ideas staid and their opposition firm. However, Dyson also gives credit to Lee for his ability to anticipate the contemporary, more hidden phase of racism in the United States.

Fabe, Marilyn. ​Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique​.

Tenth Anniversary ed. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Fabe’s excerpt from a book written about the close reading of strongly narrative-driven films analyzes ​Do the Right Thing​’s significant use of juxtapositions and contrasts.

Specifically, Fabe argues that the film’s real point does not lie in ‘doing the right thing,’ rather everything should be viewed in terms of its attempts to open up dialogue, be it

Narayanan 30 Mookie and Sal, Malcolm and Martin, white and black audience members, or the film and the viewer itself.

"Fight the Power." By Carlton Ridenhour, Eric Sadler, Hank Boxley, and Keith Boxley.

Performed by Public Enemy. On ​Do the Right Thing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.​ Motown, 1989, audiocassette. https://open.spotify.com/track/6lrs0IVK1i7SsVXxYW3IUG. Public Enemy’s track “Fight the Power,” written for this film, is an aggressive attack on institutionalized racism. Particularly notable ideas from the track include its proclamation that Elvis was a racist and its interpolation of three separate Branford Marsalis’ saxophone solos.

George, Nelson. ​Post-Soul Nation: The Explosive, Contradictory, Triumphant, and Tragic 1980s as Experienced by African Americans (Previously Known as Blacks and Before That Negroes).​ New York, NY: Viking Penguin, 2004. Kindle.

George, the Village Voice critic who ideated post-soul criticism, expresses in this book a rough timeline of the post-soul black cultural moments, going through the political aspects (i.e. Reagan) and the media breakthroughs like Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live. On ​Do the Right Thing,​ George notes the controversy it sprang up in critical circles.

Gibson, Campbell, and Kay Jung. "A-1. Race and Hispanic Origin for the United States: 1790 to 1990." Table. United States Census Bureau. February 2005. Accessed February 22, 2020. https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html.

Gibson and Jung’s table details the population of the United States by race over the two-hundred-year period from 1790 and 1990. Published by the U.S. Census Bureau, this is probably the single most accurate source on the U.S. population at the specified time intervals.

Gibson, Casarae L. "'Fight the Power': Hip Hop and Civil Unrest in Spike Lee's ​Do the Right Thing."​ ​Black Camera​ 8, no. 2 (Spring 2017): 183-207. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blackcamera.8.2.11.

Gibson analyzes the hip-hop music of ​Do the Right Thing.​ Particularly notable is her contention that the hip-hop music is unique in its ability to ‘drive the narrative forward.’

This claim is supported by Gibson by the implication that “Fight the Power” is threatening to Sal not because of its anti-institutional qualities but of its actual incomprehensibility to Sal, who is not accustomed with hip-hop music.

Gomer, Justin Daniel. "Colorblindness, a Life: Race, Film and the Articulation of an Ideology."

PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2014. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7v70v6k4.

Gomer’s dissertation, one of the most central in this research, discusses the ideology of colorblindness–or pure race-neutrality–that became co-opted by Ronald Reagan and other conservatives in the 1980s. Specifically, the dissertation considers the neo-racism colorblindness represents and the discounting of generational racism it implies by stating that all have equal opportunity and that all success is directly proportional to one’s hard

Narayanan 31 work. Colorblindness fuels policy proposals such as the slicing of affirmative action, social security, and infrastructure along with strengthening Reagan’s rhetoric surrounding the “Welfare Queen.”

Grant, William R., IV. ​Post-Soul Black Cinema: Discontinuities, Innovations, and Breakpoints, 1970-1995​. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Grant’s book chronicles the major films of the post-soul period with respect to Black cinema. Specifically, the book defines post-soul black films as those that reject the stereotypes and condemnation of black ghetto and urban underclass life present in all-to-many Blaxploitation films. Specifically, post-soul black films consider the deeply black aesthetics such as rap and jazz while still constantly confronting racism and figuring ways to be produced. Post-soul films, especially after the release of ​She’s Gotta Have It,​ occur with the significant backing of major studios (such as Universal for ​Do the Right Thing​) who had finally realized the incredible profitability and success that could be gained through black films.

Grow, Kory. "Riot on the Set: How Public Enemy Crafted the Anthem 'Fight the Power.'" ​Rolling Stone,​ June 30, 2014. https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/riot-on-the-set-how-public-enemy-cra fted-the-anthem-fight-the-power-244152/.

Grow’s article, written on the 25th anniversary of ​Do the Right Thing,​ features interviews with Spike Lee, Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Hank Shocklee, and Branford Marsalis on the construction and use of “Fight the Power” in ​Do the Right Thing​’s narrative. Particularly notable is the fact that Shocklee wanted Marsalis to play the saxophone like a weapon.

Hanson, Phillip. "The Politics of Inner City Identity in ​Do the Right Thing​." ​South Central Review​ 20 (2003): 47-66. JSTOR. Here, Hanson deals with the ‘ghettoization’ depicted in ​Do the Right Thing​. Specifically, Hanson considers how Lee’s film deals with the ghettoization by reaffirming the idea that oppression in the ghetto forms a collective identity and sense of community that for young black males becomes defined by action and force.

Johnson, Victoria. "Polyphony and Cultural Expression: Interpreting Musical Traditions in ​Do the Right Thing."​ ​Film Quarterly​ 47, no. 2 (Winter 1993-94): 18-29. JSTOR. Johnson, in a particularly well cited analysis of Spike Lee’s film music, analyzes how the differing musical styles incorporated in the film each correlate to a different segment of culture. Particularly relevant is her description of how the use of rap music is especially important because it immediately draws the audience’s attention and forces them to listen to it.

Langan, Patrick A. ​Race of Prisoners Admitted to State and Federal Institutions, 1926-86​. Edited

by Thomas Hester. Report no. NCJ-125618. U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1991. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/125618.pdf.

Narayanan 32 Langan’s federal report details, by race, the movements of prisoners into U.S. State and Federal Institutions between 1926 and 1986. The findings definitively show how black American males were increasingly incarcerated as the century progressed, accounting for 21% of admissions in 1926 and 44% of admissions in 1986.

Lee, Spike, and Kaleem Aftab. ​Spike Lee: That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It.​ New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.

Aftab’s biography of Lee details the making of a variety of his films. Most relevant to this project was the discussion of ​Do the Right Thing​, where excerpts from an interview with Ernest Dickerson, the film’s Director of Photography, are provided. In the excerpt, Dickerson notes that he always feels red is associated with significant tension.

Lee, Spike, and Lisa Jones. ​Do the Right Thing.​ New York, NY: Fireside, 1989.

In this book-form of Lee’s production notes for ​Do the Right Thing,​ Lee, the writer-director of the film, discusses the origins of the film, describing many studios and actors' resistance to making the film, how the film was directly influenced by the Eleanor Bumpers and Michael Stewart cases, the influence of ​The Autobiography of Malcolm X (which Lee was reading while he wrote the film), and how many of the names in the film are based off of Afro-American icons. Lisa Jones, along with being the co-writer of this book and Spike Lee's previous two film companion books (for ​She's Gotta Have It​ and School Daze),​ is also playwright and former journalist for the ​Village Voice.​ This source is one of the most seminal in my research because this explicitly shows what exactly was going through Lee's head while he came up with the ideas for the film. Lee and Jones present how characters evolved and changed through the course of writing the screenplay and, as a result, allowing viewers of the film to gain potential insight into their eventual characterization in the film.

Lubiano, Wahneema. "But Compared to What?: Reading Realism, Representation, and Essentialism in​ School Daze​, ​Do the Right Thing,​ and the Spike Lee Discourse." ​Black American Literature Forum​ 25, no. 2 (Summer 1991): 253-82. JSTOR. Lubiano, a professor at Duke and formerly Princeton, takes a particularly critical perspective of ​Do the Right Thing,​ considering that for Da Mayor and Mookie, work is what provides ‘manhood’ in the Bed-Stuy community. Thus, Lubiano draws an important parallel in the narratives of Mookie and Da Mayor.

"Malcolm and Martin." By William Lee. Performed by The Natural Spiritual Orchestra and Branford Marsalis. On ​Do the Right Thing: Original Motion Picture Score​. Columbia, 1989, audiocassette. https://open.spotify.com/track/4f4K7YpxdO2dWCmA6H8mvb.

Lee’s piece entitled “Malcolm and Martin” plays during the display of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quotes. The orchestral piece once more features Branford Marsalis on saxophone.

McGowan, Todd. ​Spike Lee​. Contemporary Film Directors. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Narayanan 33 McGowan’s excerpt on ​Do the Right Thing​ from a volume about Spike Lee ideates Lee as a filmmaker who relies always on the extremes. To McGowan, everyone in ​Do the Right Thing​ is an extreme caricature beyond reality. The point of Lee’s set up of these conflicts is then to simply expose the dangers and disasters of these excesses and the simplicity they can arise from. In McGowan’s view, Lee is not a filmmaker who offers solutions.

McKelly, James C. "The Double Truth, Ruth: ​Do the Right Thing​ and the Culture of Ambiguity."

African American Review​ 32, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 215-27. JSTOR. McKelly visualizes ​Do the Right Thing​ as a film defined by the concept of ‘and’. Nothing in the film can be viewed as a singular ideology separated from all other nuances. It must be viewed in concert with its opposition because as McKelly argues, Lee believes the opposition is just as valid and genuine. Lee reflects this concept most clearly in the final overlay of contradictory quotes by Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X which McKelly argues the audience should take as one and the same.

Morry, Emily C. "I Too Sing America: The Sense of Place in African American Music, 1920-1992." PhD diss., University of Rochester, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1802/26651.

Morry, in a PhD dissertation, considers how the various strains of black music were informed by their sociopolitical contexts. Particularly important in her research is the emergence of funk music in the early 1970s as a response and direct analogue to Black Power sentiments regarding ghettoization.

Olaniyan, Tejumola. "'Uplift the Race!': ​Coming to America,​ ​Do the Right Thing​, and the Poetics and Politics of 'Othering.'" ​Cultural Critique,​ no. 34 (Fall 1996): 91-113. JSTOR. Olaniyan here compares two notorious post-soul films, Eddie Murphy’s ​Coming to America​ and Spike Lee’s ​Do the Right Thing​. In his analysis, Lee’s film displays the complexities of representation to a greater extent than Murphy’s while both films fail in their treatment of gender and sex issues.

Phillips, Kendall. "Spike Lee's ​Do the Right Thing.​ " In ​Controversial Cinema: The Films That Outraged America,​ 86-126. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Phillips, in a book describing the history of the most controversial films in American cinema, details ​Do the Right Thing​. Specifically, he takes the stand that the film should not be considered controversial and that its beauty lies in its ability to navigate difficult ideas without simply agreeing with any one of them.

Pouzoulet, Catherine. "The Cinema of Spike Lee: Images of a Mosaic City." In ​Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing,​ edited by Mark A. Reid, 31-49. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Radtke, Jennifer. "​Do the Right Thing​ in Black and White: Spike Lee's Bi-Cultural Method."

Midwestern Quarterly ​41, no. 2 (Winter 2000). Questia Online Library.

Radtke’s analysis again brings up the idea of and in relation to the film, especially in relation to the film’s sense of community. What is striking about Radtke’s analysis is her

Narayanan 34 point about how Hollywood as a construct was invented to manipulate and cover up the truth from the audience. Lee’s film garnered so much controversy because it was meant to provoke and force out the truth, not to hide the truth behind illusions.

"Table 3. Poverty Status of People, by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1959 to 2018." Table.

United States Census Bureau. Accessed February 22, 2020. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-povertypeople.html.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s table details the poverty rates by race of the American population over the 58-year period between 1959 and 2017. Most notably, for black Americans, poverty rates, almost always ahead of other races, took a massive jump at the start of the 1980s, most likely a result of the drug epidemic and Reagan’s slashing of social and government programs.

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