Most things show their relevance and real nature in retrospect. Film is absolutely not an exception. This Summer I’d been thinking about “Do The Right Thing” because it’s on my top ten list and because it has been a nice round number – 20 years – since its theatrical release. I remember thinking at the time the media and public reaction was equally as bizarre at that for “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which came out just a year earlier.
The response that was most odd to me was the assertion that by just exploring the sources of racial and gender bias and misconception, you’d ignite a firestorm that could actually spill over into the physical. There seemed to be this strange consensus that if you just didn’t talk about it, didn’t confront all the messy truth, it would recede and we’d all go to bed safe that night in our conspiratorial silence.
The truth simmering just underneath it all was this: A film about inequality isn’t as likely to provoke violence and unrest as – say – actual prejudice. If there was going to be a riot or a demonstration that didn’t stay peaceful it was going to be because there were actually problems that hadn’t been solved.
So, I was absolutely struck by a statement Spike Lee made in a recent CNN.com article about this film on its twentieth anniversary (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/20/spike.lee.right.thing/index.html?eref=rss_showbiz): "It's not like this thing has disappeared because {President Obama} is in the White House," he said. Some things have improved, particularly the atmosphere in New York itself, he said. But, "We've got a lot of work to do."
He’s basically saying we’re not living in a post-racial America now that Obama is in the President. And after reading a story about a Harvard professor who was charged with disorderly conduct after police confronted him when he was trying to get into his own house (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/21/massachusetts.harvard.professor.arrested/index.html?eref=rss_topstories) I can only think how little – despite the election of Obama – has actually been accomplished. The same questions people asked after the first theatrical showing of DO THE RIGHT THING are still the ones we’re asking now:
How long will we deny prejudice based upon race, gender and oodles of other things still exists?
What will it take to address these problems with sensitivity and respect?
And – please, oh please - when will this film be more of historical significance that a current reflection of where we are with how we view race?
