Right moment for Right Thing
Spike Lee recognizes how relevant his 1989 film Do the Right Thing continues to be.
The Oscar- winning filmmaker shared a short film this week called 3 Brothers, referring to Eric Garner and George Floyd, black men who died in police custody, and Radio Raheem, a character killed in Lee’s feature film. The 94- second video cuts back and forth between Radio Raheem’s onscreen death and cellphone footage of officers choking Garner, who died six years ago, and Floyd, who died last week. Before his death on May 25, Floyd echoed Garner’s final words: “I can’t breathe.”
Lee released the short during an appearance on CNN, where he told anchor Don Lemon “the attack on black bodies has been here from the get- go.” He said that while he does not necessarily condone violence, he understands why people are reacting to Floyd’s death — and other police brutality — the way they are. “We saw this with the riots in the ’ 60s, with the assassination of Dr. ( Martin Luther) King. Every time something jumps off and we don’t get our justice, people are reacting the way they feel they have to, to be heard.
“People are fed up, and people are tired of the debasing, the killing of black bodies.”
The four Minneapolis officers involved in Floyd’s death were fired the next day, but it was not until days later that Derek Chauvin, captured on video pressing his knee into a handcuffed Floyd’s neck, was charged in his death. The other officers have now all been charged.
Last year, after nearly half a decade of legal proceedings, the Justice Department declined to bring federal charges against anyone involved in Garner’s death — including Daniel Pantaleo, the former New York officer seen on video with his arm around Garner’s neck.
Demonstrations after Floyd’s death summoned questions that, as Lee noted, have been asked many times before: “Why are people rioting? Why are people doing this, doing that?”
In Do the Right Thing, Radio Raheem ( Bill Nunn), who is arguably positioned as the moral centre of the film when he speaks to Mookie ( Lee) about the struggle between love and hate, chokes to death at the hands of a New York officer after getting into a fight with a local pizzeria’s white owner. After this climactic moment, Mookie throws a trash can through the pizzeria window, sparking a riot that leads to additional arrests.