This evening, several members of my residence hall attended an academic screening of the film The Anatomy of Hate. The documentary was about an hour long and sought to describe the nature of hate within society, both past and present. My reason for blogging about this film is that it explored the problem of hate in a similar context as our discussions of rhetoric in class. Clearly, hate is a rhetorically driven phenomena. Political parties like the Nazis for instance, gained power through their use of speech and persuasion. As an extension of our class discussions on the role of rhetoric in societal change, I want to mention a few other ideas the movie focused on that parallel the concept of rhetoric to promote hate.

Perhaps the most striking idea in the film is that human beings are, in many ways, neurologically wired to hate. The science behind this proposition involves the evolution of the human brain. Our natural instincts demand that we survive. To do this, human beings have developed psychological mechanisms for ensuring individual survival, such as projecting personal insecurities and fears onto others. As a result of these survival tendencies, the possibility of indoctrination arises. As we had seen in class, youth are programmed by their friends, family, and society to hold certain views and beliefs that they hold with them for the entirely of their lives. In this way, culture is passed on from one generation to the next. This is particularly obvious in extreme scenarios such as the Westboro Baptist Church and the KKK, both of which the film covered.

Thus, the difficulty in handling situations of hate is twofold; hate is created through natural human tendencies and reinforced through indoctrination. The Anatomy of Hate offers one suggestion for tackling the widespread problems of hate: communication. When individuals chose to communicate through constructive rhetoric, they inevitably create a bond that reduces the chance of violence. Therefore, it is crucial for individuals or groups to work out their disagreements through words. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, people need to begin talking openly about their feelings and fears about life. If it is indeed true that hate is the biological result of a need to survive and a fear of death, then it is necessary for individuals to begin discussing these issues so that they do not feel that they must resort to hate to protect themselves. It is absolutely true that communication can create a support system and forge commonalities that will prevent the fall to violence.

The significance of The Anatomy of Hate to our class is that it demonstrates how rhetoric can work with human psychology to be both destructive and resolving. The film further reinforces the idea for me that effective rhetoric is not just a useful tool for persuasion, but it can help solve societal problems.

On Tuesday, the members of the English 137H classes went to the State Theatre to watch the 1989 award-winning film Do the Right Thing. The movie is a dramatic account of the racial dynamics within a minority neighborhood in Brooklyn.

The film begins with the local neighborhood DJ waking up his listeners in the morning and informing them that it is going to be a very hot and uncomfortable day. The viewers are then progressively introduced to the other characters of the movie: Mookie, the black pizza delivery worker, Sal, the owner of the Italian pizzeria, his two sons Vito and Pino, the Korean foodstand owners, old Mother Sister, and the old drunk called “Da Mayor.” The characters in the film represent a wide array of racial diversity and personality traits. It is the richness of character development combined with excellent cinematography that is one of the crowning features of Do the Right Thing. Unfortunately for the characters in the movie however, it is the inability to deal with this diversity that contributes to the downfall of their community.

After a series of conflicts and building cultural tensions, racial strains among the residents of the neighborhood exploded into chaotic violence when Sal broke one of the characters’ stereo. In the end, the owner of the stereo ended up being strangled by the police and Sal’s pizzeria was burnt. The main characters lost everything they had and their community was destroyed. The film ended in the morning with the local DJ gently acknowledging the events of the last night and giving the previous day’s forecast: it’s going to be another unbearably hot day.

Beyond the obvious problems of racial tensions and stereotyping portrayed in the movie, Do the Right Thing is social commentary on society’s approach to conflict resolution. As a society, American citizens do not always know how to handle their differences safely and responsibly. Throughout the film, there were only a few occasions in which conflicts and differences were addressed through rhetoric. One such example of this was when Mookie told Sal that he did not want Sal to talk to his sister in an inappropriate manner. Though Sal was unhappy with what Mookie told him, Mookie took a vocal approach to solving his concern. It was this kind of problem-solving that was lacking within the relationships of the community.

The importance of this movie though, does not lie exclusively in the examination of the individuals, but rather in the interaction among the individuals that make up the community. What this movie showed was that using fists instead of words will ultimately destroy a society. At the same time, however, this sophisticated film did not offer any firm answers to problems of misunderstanding and mistrust with respect to cultural differences. Rather, the subtleties of the film brought to light the complexities of diversity and gave viewers the sense that there was more to the conflict than just “talking it out.” The slight ambiguity towards the end of the movie about the relationship between Mookie and Sal when Mookie came to ask Sal for his last payment after the fire suggested that problems among race were difficult and beyond any one, or even two individuals. The ambiguity of the title “Do the Right Thing” further illustrates the tension of the societal conflict. What exactly is “the right thing” is an unanswerable question.

Despite the rather unsettling ending of Do the Right Thing, the significance of the film is unparalleled. The fictional film serves as a serious warning of what could become of our society if we do not begin breaking down our walls to work together, live together, and talk about our differences. Do the Right Thing is the ultimate film for beginning to understand cultural issues. Part of what makes the movie such an excellent movie is that it provides so much material to discuss. Indeed, it is in this kind of discussion that Do the Right Thing compels its viewers to engage.