Debrief: Do the Right Thing

We are taught early on that there are two competing discourses in life; good and bad. This manifests in several ways from love and hate, heaven and hell, hero and villain, peace and violence and so on.  This way of thinking was displayed in class today after we finished watching “Do the Right Thing.” Our discussion was led with the question of whether certain characters were “bad guys” or “good guys” or whether they were racist or not. This way of analyzing the characters and the film is flawed, as it perpetuates the idea of one dimensional characters and binary thinking. Humans are complicated and it wouldn’t be an accurate critical view to assume that people are either all bad or all good. This takes away the depth to the story and its subjects. The idea of being “colorblind” is another way these assumptions perpetuate. Race and racism are looked at as two complete opposites; black or white, racist or not. This binary fails to express the complicated system of racism, it makes us target the “bad apples” and those who are overtly racist rather than looking at systems and institutions.  (more about racist spectrum/ prejudice binary:https://www.quora.com/In-what-ways-is-racism-a-spectrum-rather-than-a-binary )

    I think “Do the Right Thing” was exploring how opposites interact with each other. This is seen in a literal sense with the characters of different racial backgrounds and in the scene with the love and hate rings. But it is also an underlying theme about peace vs violence. The quotes at the end by MLK and Malcolm X also demonstrate this idea of two competing ideologies.