Always Do the Right Thing

                  Shame and Fear are the basis behind drastic actions of people. Not only did the character, Bigger, in Native Son have a fear of the white world, but the author, Richard Wright also did. Wright said, "I must write this novel, not only for others to read, but to free myself of this sense of shame and fear" (448). He used Native Son as a way of expressing his fear. Sal, the owner of the pizzaria in the movie, Do the Right Thing, also did a drastic action to free himself of his fear. He was white, and he owned a shop in an all black community. Though he tried to portray himself as a non-racist man, he had an unintentional fear of what blacks could do to him because he was white. Near the end of the move Sal finally let his fear go by using a baseball bat to smash Radio Raheem's radio. Though the action ended up causing more trouble, it was done as an expression of fear from the black man with the loud music. The blacks then grew a fear of Sal, comparing him to the common white folk at the time, and to release their fear they fought him and burnt down his pizzaria. The reason for all of these actions was to protect themselves from what they feared. It was their self-defense mechanism. Write said, "yet, some curious, wayward motive urges him to supply the answer, for there is the feeling that his dignity as a living being is challenged by something within him that is not understood" (434). They used their violence as self defense to find their answer of why they felt angry. Because of reasons like this, Malcolm X said, "I don't even call it violence when its self-defense, I call it intelligence." X was a supporter of violence when necessary. Do the Right Thing shows that self-defending violence will just lead to more violence, and that the chain will never end. Martin Luther King Jr. supported this idea when he said, "Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers." As long as violence is going on, it will keep going until all sides wear out. With this never ending cycle it was good that mookie and Sal had no hard feelings for eachother at the end of the movie. That represented one step closer to black and white equality without violence.
                     The whole fight at the end of Do the Right Thing was brought upon by two characters, Sal and Radio Raheem. The debate is left open to who did the right thing. Sal owned his pizzaria, and what he did with it was his choice. He had the power to allow in who he wanted, and display what he wanted. Buggin' Out was disturbing the peace in his shop when he complained that there were no "brothers on the wall." When Sal fairly refused to add them to the wall, Buggin' Out just got madder. On top of this disruption, he brought his friend Radio Raheem with him to blast his music. When Sal asked for him to turn it off he refused. Sal had a good option to call the police and ask an officer to deal with the situation, but instead he smashed up the radio by himself. Both Radio Raheem and Sal did the wrong things by not turning off the music and personally smashing the radio. To me this further enforced the fact that the Civil Rights Movement was not only black people trying to fight whites to get power, but it was the strive toward acceptance of one anther in both races. Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out didn't accept Sal, just like Sal didn't accept them. Because of this one way street of unacceptance, equal rights would never be a result. In my oppinion Mookie was the peacekeeper in the film. His throwing of the garbage can through the window at the end was very controversial, but I agree that he did the Right thing. Not only was he giving his black peers the opportunity to express their anger towards white america, but he also gave his boss, Sal, the opportunity for him and his boys to back away to safety. Mookie was the only one who fully understood the reasons on both sides of why blacks and whites were against eachother. Rather than having to fight for his freedom, he had to struggle with how to deal with his respect towards both sides of the street.