DO THE RIGHT THING

In the Spike Lee's movie Do The Right Thing, he portrayed many of the black stereotypes of the 1980's. It compared how different races one another and the relationships between them. In the book Native Son, Richard Wright invented the character Bigger, a black young adult involved in a gang and responsible for murdering a white woman. At the end of the book he wrote a piece How "Bigger" Was Born explaining how he came up with the character Bigger and all of his actions. In this piece he talked about the risk he took in portraying all the black stereotypes. People critiqued him and wanted to know why he couldn't show black lawyers and business men. By using Bigger to analyse his thoughts and what made him to these controversial and stereotypical actions, people now looked at the problem that led Bigger to do that. Just like in the movie it focused on the black characters and events that led them to do what they did. By making a plot around a day in a black man's life, one looks past the stereotypes and understands for the first time what caused that black man to do what he did. Both pieces relate because yes, they do contain stereotypical actions, but they show that those are not the core problem. A common understanding between races on what makes them feel the feelings that cause them to act a certain way will help the problem. If people are willing to change how they act towards one another than these stereotypical actions will go away.
I got something new out of this movie. It showed that it is not impossible for blacks and whites to understand each other, but that each side needs to make the effort to do so. Radio Raheem shows how love and hate coexist within someone, but that individual has the power to choose which one to live by. Buggin' Out viewed the wall in Sal's Pizzeria as a symbol of racism towards blacks because they were not included on the wall. Sal's intention however was not to show any hate towards blacks, rather to show pride for his ethnicity, Italians. Sal did not understand how his intent had a different impact of Buggin' Out. The end of movie resulted in violence, but what did that accomplish? It just showed both sides' disapproval of the other, but not why. If nonviolent action occurred and both sides made an effort to talk, negotiate, and understand the other side, the problem could have been fixed. I believe the core problem of hate, prejudice, and discrimination is that two different sides don't understand the one another. It appears they are so different because at first they look different. However, often both races want the same thing and have the same values. They just have a different ways of showing and interpreting them. I think the movie wanted to show how violence did not accomplish anything. To show the emphasis on violence in the movie, I believe Spike Lee refrained from using guns. Some scenes could have been a lot quicker with a simple bullet shot, but by using intense physical human contact it emphasized violence even more and made me view it as ludicrous.

Power- Document 7- Schools For The Community

Karriema Jordan was a black girl in the eighth grade fighting to change the school's curriculum to help develop an identity for black students. One effective way the school handled it was bringing black teachers into the schools. These teachers cared more about the kids and were less focused on just being there because it was their job. They also started teaching a broader range of history on third world countries as well. Karriema Jordan now learned about African history and other black history instead of just European history. Learning about important impacts her ethnicity had in history gave her and many other black youth an identity. This made them proud to be black, and when they embraced themselves it led them to start striving to do great things. She says, "You weren’t an outsider in your own school. They were part of your environment. I mean, they were black. You can identify with them and they can identify with you." These teachers really made a big change in Karriema's attitude toward school. She felt more connected and was more interested in her studies now because she was studying something more meaningful to her. She felt connected to her studies. By having black teachers and learning about her culture Karriema found that blacks are just as important, just as human as anyone else. Being a minority only holds you back when you think you can't do something because you are a minority. If you have an strong and proud identity and believe you can do great things for yourself as any other human than you will have a much easier time achieving those great things in your life.