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'The White-Black Fault Line': Relevancy of Race and Racism in Spectators' Experiences of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing

1998; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 9; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/106461798246998

1096-4649

Brenda Cooper,

Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

Using relevancy as a conceptual framework , this study investigates African American and non - African - American spectators' experiences with Spike Lee's controversial 1989 film Do the Right Thing. An analysis of the specta tors' self - report essays explicates contradictory cultural subjectivities and subsequent interpretations of the film between the spectators based on race . While issues of racism appear irrelevant to the cultural subjectivities of the non - African American spectators , racism and its consequences are the major relevant issues in the viewing experiences of the African American spectators , who link the film's characters and events to broader issues of societal discrimination and marginalization of people of their race . Non - African Americans fail to make this connection , identifying instead with the film's White characters , and they attempt to discount or justify the racism represented in the film . Significantly , examination of the relevancies explicated from the essays reveals personal attitudes of subtle forms of racism among the non - African American spectators .