'Do the Right Thing' Revisited

Spike Lee’s 1989 classic Do the Right Thing is known for having sparked debates over conflicting methods of addressing racial oppression, namely, Martin Luther King Jr.’s non-violent, integrationist approach and Malcom X’s separatist and–when necessary–violent one. But those more focused on the film’s moral conflict are quick to overlook its cultural, and perhaps even aesthetic, tableau of multiethnic urban enclaves, and the political implications they hold.