The Black History Month: Do The Right Thing

“Do the right thing” is a funny movie but behind it contains so many meaningful messages about brotherhood and races. This movie reminds us of the current event right now. At the film’s climax, the police used the stick to hold onto the neck of Radio Raheem and choke him to death. That scene made the movie a new turn when the whole neighborhood broke into a riot over the pizza shop of Sal.

Source: IMDb

Throughout the movie, I see so many things in that neighborhood, from the anger over the wall of fame in Sal’s pizza shop to the loud radio of Raheem. Each character has different characteristics, and each of them reacts to the situation in an other way. The character who did the right thing in this movie is Da Mayor. At first, I thought the only character who did the right thing was Mookie because he is the main character and he watched everything happen around the neighborhood. He just wanted to stay peaceful, do a good job at Sal’s pizza and be happy with his wife and his son. Mookie tried to stay away from trouble and he wanted the money Sal owed him. But in the end, Mookie changed completely when he threw the trash can into Sal’s pizza and the riot began.

The anger inside him was so high that he could not control his action. I cannot blame him or anyone for that action because they are being treated unequally and when a son is down, they would stand up to gain the justice back. But it was wrong. There had already been a big mess in the neighborhood and don’t try to put more fuel inside the flames. Mookie was supposed to keep the peace in this neighborhood, go home with his wife and his son, and be a good person. Not like that.

However, I cannot blame him or anyone for that action because they are being treated unequally and when a son is down, they will stand up to gain justice back.

Da Mayor, on the other hand, acted differently. He chose to deal with every situation peacefully and tried to remind everyone in the neighborhood to do the right thing. In one scene, Da Mayor attempts to save the life of Eddie when he was running through the street while no one paid attention to it. It could see that Da Mayor watched the neighborhood everyday, and understood every corner and people around here. What he did is that he wanted to save the next generation of African Americans, he could not have any African American die for some meaningless reason. At the movie’s climax when people wanted to kill Sal for the death of Radio Raheem, Da Mayor tried to protect them from the riot. Deeply inside him, he knew that they did not do it, they did not cause the death of Radio Raheem. Da Mayor is an old man and he definitely had been through so many horrible things in life but he knew what is the best and what they should do. He knew that Sal did not do anything wrong and he knew killing another innocent man can’t not solve any problem.

"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 the destroyers."

The quote of Martin Luther King Jr. at the end of the movie had a meaningful message that violence is like crime, it only divides everyone, raises fear among people. They believe that violence can solve anything, shows people the injustice system that has been built for a long time. This quote related to the climax of the movie when the riot began. The protestors broke down everything and burned down the pizza shop of Sal. Saln clearly did not do anything wrong here, he just did what he had to do. But the protestors did not see in the same way and turned violent to Sal’s family. Violence is a deathly weapon in this case of what Martin Luther King Jr. had said. But in the mind of Malcolm X, violence is like self defense. That can be correct because when a cop was choking Radio Raheem, people around were trying to fight back. In this case, it can be understood. But after all, I agree with the statement of Dr. King because I think that there is always a better way to deal with the problem more than to do it in a violent way.

Throughout so many year of fighting for equal and justice, Black people in America still fights everyday to stay alive. I said try to stay alive because many Black people were killed for no reason. They were killed because they were black. The hateful eyes of people around as well as the prejudice on them will never go away. The racism is still there but it is not like used to be. Nowadays, with a phone on someone's hand can help to bring out the truth and the face of racism in this world. However, today, the Black people had proved their position and their power in the U.S. to show everyone that they are strong and solidarity in every situation. Indeed, we had the first Black President, we had the first Black House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, we had the first female Black Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and so many more. The legacy and the impact of Black people on the American life is undeniable. They are the part of our life and continuing to contribute to the society. I cannot tell how much I admire the Black people and I did a series to talk about the Black History Month because I owe them a lot. Black people had to fight for the Civil Rights and that had set a milestone for other communities in the U.S. to follow their steps. I had a Black friend who used to help me a lot in a class during my community college year. I had a nice customer who bought coffee at the drive-thru everyday and asked me how I was when I worked at McDonald's. I had a Black neighbor who was helping me with the front lawn when I was gardening. This month we celebrate them and honor them and thank you for everything.