I have always known New York City to be a place of opportunity and adventure—a place where you can go after your dreams and find inspiration in every corner. However, after watching the many portrayals of New York City through an abundance of acclaimed films, I have been forced to reassess what living in New York City really means. I still find it to be a place of opportunity and adventure, but I also realize that it is a place with a lot of social issues and racial inequality, which in turn, can have a great affect on those wishing to reach the top.

Throughout the entire semester, the movie I enjoyed the most and found to be the most truthful to New York City was Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. Being that I am from the South Bronx and live in a neighborhood full of minorities, I almost felt at home while watching Spike Lee’s film. Everything was accurate, from the ways kids play with the fire hydrant in the summer, to the ways people blast salsa or rap music from their large stereos. What also made Spike Lee’s film very realistic was how he touched upon some very serious and real issues—problems that are still very prevalent today, including racism, gentrification, and police brutality. Lee highlighted the issue of racism by showing the tension between Pino and the rest of the black community of Bed-Stuy. He also highlighted gentrification by displaying the friction between the white bicyclist and Buggin’ Out. And finally, Lee also touched upon the issue of police brutality by ending the film with the murder of Radio Raheem, after having an altercation with a police officer.

All of these troubling matters emphasized by Spike Lee’s film hit me very hard and made me question the current state of New York City in terms of racial and social equality. I realized that even though this film was released in 1989, almost 26 years later, New Yorkers are still suffering from the same problems displayed in this film. Gentrification is happening everywhere to the point where lower class citizens are being forced out of their own homes. Racial inequality is rampant in the ways the government, along with many other people, do not acknowledge the life of a black human being. And finally, police brutality still exists, as shown through the deaths of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and many other minorities.

This is why I believe that out of all of the films we have seen this semester, Do The Right Thing is the most truthful and probably the most important of our time. This movie, which was shot almost 3 decades ago, still underlines what many minorities have to suffer through because of their social class and race. It is a film, which makes people like me want to fight for justice and change, so that everyone in New York City and America can have equal opportunity, acknowledgement, respect, and more. Racism, police brutality, and gentrification are all prospects that should be obsolete by now and it makes me angry that these issues still exist. It is up to our generation to make a change.