At first I didn’t like “Do the Right Thing” – it was vaguely uncomfortable to watch. But then I realized that was the point – the racial tensions in the movie made me uneasy because as much as I would like to think that the world is a better, racism-reduced place, it’s not.
And the thing about racism is that it’s seeped in hate and ignorance. So as much as I would love to say “if Sal and Buggin’ Out could have just talked things out, everything would have been different,” I don’t think that’s true in the slightest. The thing about hate, especially racial hate, is that it defies logic and cool-headed reasoning. Sal could have presented the most rhetorically sound argument possible and Buggin’ Out wouldn’t have been any more convinced than if he screamed “I’ll do what the *$%&# I want!” That’s just the nature of hate.
I guess the issue is that once hatred is established it becomes almost impossible to surpass it – strong, illogical emotion is more difficult to uproot than argument can battle. So at that point, the question becomes is violence inevitable? Or can it be avoided?
The “simple” solution to avoiding violence in “Do the Right Thing” would almost appear to be a willful separation between the blacks of the neighborhood and the italians – if Sal’s pizzeria wasn’t frequented primarily by blacks, there never would have been an issue (then again, he wouldn’t have had any business).
The more complex issue comes into play when dealing with the civic duty of the individuals involved: Was it Sal’s civic duty to put at least one black person on his hall of fame, if only to keep the peace? Perhaps we all owe our societies a bit of compromise as citizens…After all, with the tiniest bit of give and take, Sal could have saved his pizzeria and avoided the explosion of violence that rocked the neighborhood.