DO THE RIGHT THING 20 YEARS LATER

The year is 1989, this was a confusing year for a teenager growing up in America to understand how the world ticked and moved at the pace it was going. The latest NWA tape was out and me and a few of my good friends are riding around in the city blasting all the tracks off of the album. Since it was not much that teenagers could get into legally that night we decided to hit up that new Spike Lee joint called “Do The Right Thing”. As usual we found a way to sneak into the already packed and sold out viewing of the movie, only to have our perception of race relations changed once the movie ended.

Do The Right Thing was written, produced and directed by Spike Lee. The film tells a tale of bigotry and racial conflict in a multi-ethnic community in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York on the hottest day of the year. Filmed on Stuyvesant Avenue between Lexington Avenue and Quincy Street, the film stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, and John Turturro. Do the Right Thing marks the feature film debuts of both Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez.

The film was released to protests from many reviewers, including the New York magazine; it was openly stated in several newspapers that the film could incite black audiences to riot. No such riots occurred, and Lee criticized white reviewers for assuming that black audiences were incapable of restraining themselves while watching a fictional motion picture.

Do The Right Thing examined racism in all its complexity. A storyline that shows how pre-judgments and misconceptions can fuel the fire of the disease we call racism. If you have never seen Do The Right Thing please check it out.

Do The Right Thing Facts:

This film was inspired by an actual incident in New York where some black youths were chased out of a pizzeria by some white youths in a section of New York known as Howard Beach.

All of the scenes of the "Corner Men" Robin Harris, Paul Benjamin, and Frankie Faison were improvised.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama reportedly watched this movie on their first date.

The opening line is "Wake up," while the closing line in Spike Lee's previous film, School Daze, was also "Wake up."

Here is a famous clip from the movie and Public Enemy’s Do The Right Thing track called “Fight The Power”.