Do the Right Thing...really????

I just want to start by saying I'm not sure that anyone in this entire movie really seems to, in my eyes anyway, ever "do the right thing." All they ever do is fight and complain and fight some more. There is a lot of yelling followed by more yelling and occasional fighting, which eventually leads to the death of one of the characters, Radio. It's insane that this movie is called Do the Right Thing because the only person who ever seems to do the right thing is Da Mayor who is the resident town drunk.

Before the big fight scene begins there is a lot of arguing. You have Buggin' Out, Radio, and Smiley all fighting with Sal over different things. All 4 are willing to battle it out in violent ways. Then you have Mookie over there yelling at Buggin' Out to stop and at Sal to put the bat down. He seems to be the voice of reasoning, wanting everyone to coexist somewhat without violence. He seems to be the Martin Luther King, Jr. of the situation while Buggin' Out is more of the Malcolm X and Sal would be seen as the white oppressor. These characters all represent 3 completely different factions of a time where racial inequality was a major problem. You see the "peacemaker", the violent man fighting for his rights, and the "dictator" type figure wanting to control those he believes are beneath him.

The strange thing about this movie is that all of the major characters are minorities. While most of them are African American you see many Hispanic, Asian American, and Italian American characters. However, because some are white, they assume they are better in a sense. They "blend in" more with the majority than do the African Americans. It seems that to make Sal's Pizzeria into Joe's Diner would've been to obvious a representation of white supremacy.

To me, the title of this movie led me to believe that there would be one character who would always try and do the right thing. At first, I somewhat thought that it would be Mookie in the end who tried to keep the peace. I never thought that the town drunk would end up being the one person throughout the whole movie who ending up trying to do the right thing.