I really find Do the Right Thing to be a very interesting film. It’s interesting to see the social structure of this neighborhood during this time and all the different people that make it up. There’s the “Mayor” and Mother Sister, who seem to be the wisest people of the neighborhood, even if Mayor seems to be quite a tragic figure. There’s the group of rowdy youths and the group of middle-aged men, both who do a lot of talking but so far very little positive action. Then there are the shopkeepers, who seem to be a distant part of this community, perhaps due to them being Italian-American and Korean, which says much about the views towards race at the time. There’s the very revealing scene in which people of every race let loose a stream of epithets that seem to be circular and unending. The racial tension is very palpable, and often seems escalate to the edge of violence, like when Bugging Out raised an argument about the pictures on the wall of the pizzeria, and how quickly an angry mob formed when the biker scuffed Bugging Out’s sneaker. It seems that soon enough this tension will come to a boiling point.

It’s like the boy with the boom box said: love and hate are constantly warring against each other. There’s much to love about this community and communities in general. It’s nice to know people, to recognize your neighbors and have good relationships with them. It’s also nice to know there are people around you that you could look up to and trust. But there’s also much to hate in this as well. If a community is so close-knit as to view everybody else with distrust and at times hostility, it’s not only a recipe for close-minded people but for dangerous interactions.