Quote:Obviously the blame can be spread around equally and Spike Lee masterfully pits the audience in place where it has to choose who was in the wrong - he business owner, the police, Mookie or Radio Raheem. Lee loves to stoke the flames of racism and there's no better example than that particular scene.


All he had to do was turn down his radio, that's it. He failed to do so and violence erupted. The police elicit excessive force and kill a guy for doing nothing more than playing a radio too loud.


Mookie overreacts and throws a trash can through the front window, sparking the riot. Bad deeds all around.


This movie came out when I was 19 and at the time, I viewed the movie a bit differently than I do now.


The only problem I have with the scene now is the reality of a riot such as that starting up at all. Sal was a local businessman who had been there for decades. He had no beef with those people and they had none with him except for Buggin out wanting pics of black people on the wall as opposed to Italians. Outside of that, it was a symbiotic relationship and they got along well. There was no reason for that fight to start up. That was a true community that looked out for one another and I think it's unrealistic that they would turn on each other the way they did just because of a lack of African Americans on the walls.

 

Yeah, but Buggin' played a huge role in all this too, as his antics were just as instigating as Raheem's. 

 

The issue wasn't Buggin' wanting pictures of black people on the wall, the issue was how he went about getting his wishes. I wouldn't [BAD WORD REMOVED] on him if he was on fire, the way he acted. Had he respectfully explained his case and showed some tact maybe I'd feel a bit of sympathy toward his side. 

 

And Mookie showed zero respect/ loyalty to his boss by throwing the trash can through the window and inciting the riot. He pretty much made Sal's one son look like a prophet with his comments about "trust" earlier...

 

I also disagree somewhat with your opinion that they looked out for one another as a community....several of the community disrespected the old man character known as the mayor, they all seemed to reject the Korean's in the store across the street, they weren't too friendly with the white dude in the Larry Bird jersey either.....and funny, no one (other than Buggin & maybe Mookie) seemed to care for Raheem all that much until he was killed, then all of a sudden the entire neighborhood went into mob mentality mode and were acting as if their firstborn was taken from them....

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