Do the Right Thing

We recently watched the movie "Do the Right Thing". A movie that takes place in New York on a block. We first see the voice of the air Senior Love Daddy (Samuel Jackson). We then see our main character of the story Mookie (Spike Lee) going to his job run by an Italian family. During the hottest day of the year, Mookie's friend Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito) complain about the wall of Fame having no black people on it. He is then kicked out of the pizzeria. We see a whole plethora  of characters each with their own somewhat racist stereotype attached to them.

This film says a lot about race and racism in America. One example is how african americans were treated by white authority figures such as the cops in the movie that don't care if  the African Americans get hurt. Back around the 1980's if an African American owned a nice car police would automatically think he/she has stolen it. Another form of racism is the accents that the Korean grocery store owners have and when Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) constantly says "English, do you speak it." This shows how the stereotype of all asian english speakers being almost impossible to understand because of their accent.

During the movie we see the progression and life of Mookie. During the entire movie Mookie is constantly insulted by the older brother/employee of the pizzeria Pito (John Turturro). Even at one point they break the 4th wall to say racial slurs to each other. Mookies life is full of insults wether coming from Pito or his girlfriend/ mother of his child Tina (Rosie Perez) for not being a good father by working all the time. Spike Lee seems to make a point in saying Mookie is the one storing all this racial hate, which then turns into a riot. During the movie I started to agree with Roger Ebert in his saying that there are no heroes or villains in this film.

This movie really shows the racial discrimination in obviously comedic manner until towards the end. Wether it be the mob-like italians, the self absorbed african american hating white cop, or the complaining african american elderly group. This film shows how problems like Sal's could occur during the time of this film.

Boys N The Hood

There are a lot of characters in the Boys N the Hood that put on the tough guise. The tough guise is when a man will follow male stereotypes, for example when a male tries to act tough or when a male will start a fight to protect their masculinity. There are numerous characters if not all the characters  in the Boys N the Hood that demonstrate this. Doughboy , Chris, Dookie, and Monster all use the tough guise by all owning a gun, wanting to start a fight if needed and talking down against every female in the neighborhood.

Using this tough guise is both beneficial and disastrous. The main beneficial way is that it makes them less of a target to get killed in their neighbor. Using the tough guise makes them seem tough, this helps because gangs and such usually pick on the weak and defenseless to kill off because they are an easier target. There is some bad to the tough guise though. To look tough you'll have to think tough and bull-headed, this clouds your judgment and makes them do idiotic things like murder and shoot. This makes them murderers and could have a likelier chance of being killed or arrested for life.


There are a lot of people who put on the tough guise, but there are examples of better men that make better decisions in their lifetime. One of these men is our main character Trey. Trey makes the better decision of not going to kill the gang that killed his best friend. Also he treats females with the respect that they deserve. Another man who also shows better traits is Trey's father Furious Stiles. Stiles is a man who is well educated. He is kind and nurturing towards his son. He teaches Trey all that he needs to know to succeed and be great.