Do the Right Thing

Controversial when it was first released (the media publicly speculated that it would ignite violence), this Spike Lee film explores how racial inequality drives conflict in a predominantly African-American community on the hottest day of the summer. Lee’s masterwork remains profoundly relevant 30 years later, especially against the backdrop of recent American history. As problematic racial reconciliation films like “Green Book” and “The Best of Enemies” continue to thrive in mainstream American cinema, pushing racist tropes ahead of fully realized characters and “solving” racism with easy answers, “Do the Right Thing” is only more essential in speaking to the present day. Inspired by the racially-motivated killings of a black man named Michael Griffith and an elderly black woman named Eleanor Bumpurs (shot by the New York Police Department, no less), “Do the Right Thing” served and still serves as a window into a country that has historically devalued the lives of African Americans.