This is a presentation I made for my Narratives of New York course at the Graduate Center, CUNY inspired by our class viewing of Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do The Right Thing. The following is a mix of slideshow screens, videos, and relevant notes. Enjoy.
Music and acts of resistance are key to Do The Right Thing. So first, I think it’s important to dive a bit into the context of African Americans and resistance music – as written about by Ray Pratt for the Oxford Grove Music Online.
Music and Resistance
- “Music has an ability to create a kind of spontaneous collective identity among performers and listeners, facilitating the investment of psychological energy in acts of resistance or serving itself as the expression and embodiment of resistance” (Pratt, 1)
- Ray Pratt defines action as resistant if it’s posed in oppositional terms— in the form of personal behavior against, striving against, or overt opposition towards persons, governments, policies, situations, practices. Resistance in this sense is a psychological state and a form of political behavior. (Pratt, 1-2)
- “In empowering uses of music, people are brought to overt action, to change things through actions that can be described as political… (Pratt, 2-3).
- “Elements of resistance in African American music can be traced to the 17th century when North American slaves essentially remixed the hymns of Christianity that were imposed on them. They created a “counter-cultural quality of black music” and “culture of resistance” under the watch of their masters.
- Songs and music can signify communal social action in eras when other forms of action were not tolerated, meaning when there is cultural suppression music can be self-affirming, an expression of hope, a barrier against assimilation and a weapon of resistance. (Pratt, 3)
- Such musical modes of resistance—whether expressed in spirituals, gospel, call- and-response preaching—eventually shaped the larger culture and became central to the music of North America. (Pratt, 3)
- “We Shall Overcome” made popular by (white) Pete Seeger in the 1940s, but it evolved out of a hymn – “I’ll Overcome Some Day” – written by minister Charles Albert Tindley in 1900.
- Gospel music evolved into rhythm and blues, and then rock and roll. See Sister Rosetta Tharpe – the godmother of rock and roll.
Source: Pratt, Ray. “Resistance, music and.” Grove Music Online. October 16, 2013. Oxford University Press,. Accessed 9 Sep. 2018.
“Fight The Power” by the Isley Brothers (1975)
The theme of “Fight The Power” is prevalent in Do The Right Thing, but it is also the anthem of the film, as performed by Public Enemy. Public Enemy was originally inspired by the Isley Brothers’ song of the same name, which was released in 1975. It’s important to pull out the chorus of this song, as it highlights the plight of Radio Raheem throughout the film: “I try to play my music, they say my music’s too loud.” The chorus begins at 0:55.
I tried to play my music,
They say my music’s too loud
I tried talking about it,
I got the big runaround.
And when I rolled with the punches
I got knocked on the ground.
By all this bullshit going down, hey.
Historical Context for Do The Right Thing
Around the release of the Isley Brothers’ song, in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, there were multiple incidents where white New Yorkers, or the NYPD, killed unarmed African Americans. The film is dedicated to six of these people and their families:
- June 1978 – Arthur Miller, Jr. Police jumped him, beat him up and put him in a chokehold while handcuffed. “He was alive when they put him in the police car and dead when they arrived at the precinct.”
- September 1983 – Michael Stewart. Arrested while spray painting a subway station, he was beaten while transported to the precinct. He was hogtied and beaten unconscious. Sent to Bellevue, he was already comatose with a high blood alcohol level. He was brain dead and had hemorrhaged in a way that suggested he was choked or strangled.
- October 29, 1984 – Eleanor Bumpurs. An elderly Bronx woman with a history of mental illness who fell behind on rent payments. NYCHA called the cops. The NYPD broke down her front door and an officer shot her twice with a shotgun.
- June 12, 1985 – Edmund Perry. A 17-year-old honor student who, allegedly, tried to mug a plainclothes police officer with his brother. He was shot three times in the stomach by the cop.
- December 20, 1986 – Michael Griffith. After his car broke down he sought help in a Pizzeria in Howard Beach. He was confronted by a mob of white men who beat him and his friend. While trying to escape he was chased into traffic and hit by a car on the Belt Parkway.
- December 1987 – Yvonne Smallwood. A 28-year-old woman from the Bronx who was arrested and beaten numerous times by police. She developed a blood clot from the bruising and died under their custody.
New Yorkers Collaborate for Do The Right Thing
- Director, writer, producer and actor Spike Lee was raised in Brooklyn. He was directly inspired by the death of Michael Griffith in Howard Beach while writing Do The Right Thing.
- He tapped local hip-hop group Public Enemy to create the anthem of the film. Chuck D and Flava Flav were from Long Island, NY and met at Adelphi. They were inspired by the themes of the film and the 1975 song by the Isley Brothers.
“Fight The Power” by Public Enemy (1989)
Spike Lee asked Public Enemy to make him an anthem for Do The Right Thing, and, boy, did they come through. It’s important to highlight the third verse of this song, which is only heard in the film when Radio Raheem, Buggin Out and Smiley enter the pizzeria to confront Sal about his wall of fame. The verse discusses white American heroes who are glorified over people of color: Elvis is “the King” of Rock but rock wouldn’t exist without a black woman (Sister Rosetta), and John Wayne is largely responsible for the white cowboy myth when many cowboys were African Americans or Mexicans. The later line in the verse tells listeners to go back 400 years, referencing the Jamestown colony landing and when colonists came to America and slavery began. The third verse begins at 3:20.
Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me you see.
Straight up racist that sucker was simple and plain.
Mother fuck him and John Wayne.
Cause I’m Black and I’m proud.
I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped.
Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps.
Sample a look back you look and find nothing
but rednecks for 400 years if you check.
Theme of “Fight The Power”
- The song is “about fighting the abuse of authority” – Public Enemy
- Attempting to dismantle systemic racist ideologies embodied in Sal, his sons, the white cops and the white gentrifier
- Knowing your community: looking out for and protecting it
- Embodied in Mother Sister and Da Mayor
- What’s in the background of shots?
- Graffiti: “Tawana Told The Truth” (1:15:10) and “Dump Koch” (1:27:25)
- Tawana Brawley was a 15-year-old found in a trash bag, with racial slurs written on her body and covered in feces in Nov 1987. She claimed four white men, some of who were cops, had raped her. A grand jury ruled that she falsified the incident.
- Many of these previous NY incidents occurred under Koch’s watch, Lee wanted people to vote him out and vote in Mayor David Dinkins
- Posters for Jesse Jackson (1:27:25). He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988.
- Graffiti: “Tawana Told The Truth” (1:15:10) and “Dump Koch” (1:27:25)
- Organizing and mobilizing action:
- Boycotting. Buggin Out tries to organize a boycott of Sal’s throughout the film.
- Disruption or destruction of businesses/property. Disruption/destruction of property is one of the most American ways to protest, just look at the Boston Tea Party.
- Voting. There are frequent pleas from the radio DJ to vote, and political posters/murals in the background of shots for and against candidates.
- Saying their names. Remembering and centering the victims, seen when the residents of Mookie’s block chant “Howard Beach” and “Radio”, along with saying the names “Eleanor Bumpurs” and “Michael Stewart”.
Quotes from the Aftermath of Radio Raheem’s Death
- The whole scene here is 27 seconds long, timestamped at 1:37:04 to 1:37:31.
- The community gathers around Sal’s once the police leave. Shocked. Hurt. Angry. Distraught.
- They say names. They remember the victims of police brutality. They say they’re not gonna stand for this. They’re horrified and angry and about to act.
The Theme of Fight The Power Today
Do The Right Thing is reminiscent of the past few years in America and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged in 2013. We remember the victims. We say their names: Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown.
Narratives like Do The Right Thing bring police brutality right in front of people. No longer out of sight, out of mind. It forces white audiences who may think they’re a good guy like Sal for 90% of the film to realize the effects of (micro)aggressions that he and his family put out into the community.
Discussion Questions:
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Valerie Gritsch 