Today in class we will reflect upon and share our current views on the thematic elements of

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. Make sure to:

• Answer the first seven questions on your own - thoughtfully, thoroughly, and
HONESTLY - on your computer. REALLY think about this. If you jam through, your
grade will be hit HARD.
• Watch/listen to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power," while reading over the lyrics.
• Read through the historical references, and be prepared to discuss them at the end of class

Questions to consider before viewing:

1. Think about who in our society has voice. Who is listened to? Who is not? When people
feel they have no voice, how do they voice their frustrations, perceptions, and beliefs?

2. Do love and hate, peace and violence coexist in communities of diverse people struggling
with racial and cultural tension? How do you see this manifested in today’s society?

3. Can there be a reconciliation between cultures? Can different cultures understand each
other? Tolerate each other?

4. How is racism really about power rather than about color? Who has power in our society?

5. What are your thoughts on the following?: racial profiling, gentrification, inner city
poverty, economic inequality, alcohol availability in poor neighborhoods, police brutality,
immigrant relations.

6. The name of the film is “Do the Right Thing.” In our complex society, what does it mean
to do the right thing? What is “right?”

7. Consider the following quotes. They appear at the end of the film. Can these ideas
coexist?

Theses quotes appear in the film. What is your reaction to each?

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 defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the
destroyers.

- Dr. 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

Fight the Power

Public Enemy
1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hittin' your heart cause I know you got soul
(Brothers and sisters, hey)
Listen if you're missin' y'all
Swingin' while I'm singin'
Givin' whatcha gettin'
Knowin' what I know
While the Black bands sweatin'
And the rhythm rhymes rollin'
Got to give us what we want
Gotta give us what we need
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power
We've got to fight the powers that be

As the rhythm designed to bounce

What counts is that the rhymes
Designed to fill your mind
Now that you've realized the prides arrived
We got to pump the stuff to make us tough
From the heart
It's a start, a work of art
To revolutionize make a change nothin's strange
People, people we are the same
No we're not the same
'Cause we don't know the game
What we need is awareness, we can't get careless
You say what is this?
My beloved lets get down to business
Mental self defensive fitness
(Yo) bum rush the show
You gotta go for what you know
Make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the Power

Lemme hear you say

Fight the power
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power
We've got to fight the powers that be

Elvis was a hero to most

But he never meant, to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother, him and John Wayne
'Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for four hundred years if you check
Don't worry be happy
Was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
(Get it) lets get this party started right
Right on, c'mon
What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
To make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be
Written by Carlton Ridenhour, Eric Sadler, Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee • Copyright © Reach Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing
Group

There are a number of historical references in the movie:

Tawana Glenda Brawley (born 1972) is an African-American woman from Wappingers Falls, New York, who gained
notoriety in 1987–88 for accusing four white men of having raped her. The charges received widespread national
attention because of her age (15), the persons accused (including police officers and a prosecuting attorney), and the
shocking state in which Brawley was found after the alleged rape. She was found in a trash bag, with racial slurs
written on her body and covered in feces. Brawley's accusations were given widespread media attention in part from
the involvement of her advisers, including the Reverend Al Sharpton and attorneys Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon
Mason.[1]
After hearing evidence, a grand jury concluded in October 1988 that Brawley had not been the victim of a forcible
sexual assault and that she herself may have created the appearance of such an attack.[2][3] The New York prosecutor
whom Brawley had accused as one of her alleged assailants successfully sued Brawley and her three advisers for
defamation.[3]
Brawley initially received considerable support from the African-American community.[4] Some suggested that Brawley
was victimized by biased reporting that adhered to racial stereotypes.[5][6] The mainstream media's coverage drew
heated criticism from the African-American press and many black leaders who showed no degree of skepticism or
disbelief of the teenager and her story.[7] The grand jury's conclusions decreased support for Brawley and her
advisers. Brawley's family has maintained that the allegations were true.

Michael Jerome Stewart (1958, Brooklyn, New York – September 28, 1983, Manhattan, New York) was
a graffiti artist who received recognition after his death following an arrest by New York City Transit Police for spray-
painting graffiti on a subway station wall at First Avenue.[1] His treatment while in police custody and the ensuing trials
of the arresting officers (all of whom were acquitted) sparked debate concerning police brutality and the
responsibilities of arresting officials in handling suspects. The saga was a widely publicized episode in New York
City's history of police brutality cases.
Word of the arrest came out on September 15, 1983, as the Committee Against Racially Motivated Police Violence
was holding a news conference to publicize a Congressional hearing into complaints of police abuse. Stewart had
been arrested earlier that day. He died at age 25, on September 28, after 13 days in a coma. The cause of death was
listed as cardiac arrest.
Giacobbe "Jake" LaMotta (born July 10, 1921) is an American retired professional boxer, former
World Middleweight Champion, and stand-up comedian. Nicknamed "The Bronx Bull" and "The Raging Bull",
LaMotta was a rough fighter, who although not particularly a big puncher, would subject his opponents to vicious
beatings in the ring. With use of constant stalking, brawling and inside fighting, he developed the reputation for being
a 'bully', and is often referred to today as a swarmer and a slugger.
Due to his style of fighting, LaMotta often got as much as he was giving in an era of great middleweights; with a thick
skull and jaw muscles, LaMotta was able to absorb incredible amounts of punishment over the course of his career,
and is thought to have one of the greatest chins in boxing history. LaMotta's six fight rivalry with Sugar Ray
Robinson is one of the most notable in the sport, with LaMotta winning just one of the bouts, although each one was
close and LaMotta dropped Robinson multiple times. LaMotta, who has lived a turbulent life in and out of the ring,
was portrayed by Robert De Niro in the 1980 film Raging Bull.

Themes to Keep in Mind:

• Racial tension as a result of real or perceived loss of power and an attempt to regain
power
• Love and tolerance as necessary to conquer hate of racial difference
• That oppressed people robbed of their voices often speak through action and/or violence
• That all races share responsibility for both the problem and the solution to racial
intolerance
• That lack of effective communication leads to racial violence and intolerance