Portrayal of the Black Male in "do the Right Thing" By: Spike Lee

Portrayal Of The Black Male

All black males in today’s society are raised different and portrayed in many different ways. All black men can grow up to be like Flipper and not like Gator in Jungle Fever. Flipper works at an architecture firm trying to move up, while Gator, Flippers brother is a crack head. All men don’t have to be lazy with no job, kids. Like Kevin Hill (Taye Diggs Show), he is a successful lawyer, adopted a child, black, no girlfriend, and he hires a nanny to help him while he is at work but he still is taking care of his responsibilities. Black males are portrayed in several different ways, hostile, lazy, funny, broke, in fact powerless, educated.

In Do The Right Thing, Spike Lee’s portrays the black male as funny, Sweet Dick Willie, ML, and Coconut Sid are all funny. They are always talking about someone akin a joke out o something or talking about each other. ML says, “They way I see it, if this hot weather continues it will surely melt the polar caps and the whole wide world- the part that ain’t water already- will be flooded”. Coconut Sid replies “ You dumb ass simple mother fucker. Where did you read that”/ ML Says, “ Don’t worry about it. But when it happens and I’m I my boat and ya black ass I drowning, don’t ask me to throw you a lifesaver either”. Sweet Dick Willie says, “Fool, you’re thirty cents away from a quarter. How you gonna get a boat?” “You’re raggedy as a roach”

Spike Lee Also portrays the black male in Do The Right Thing as a hostile person. Buggin out was hostile because he wanted Sal to put a picture of an African American up in the pizzeria because it was a wall full of Italian and the majority blacks patronized the pizzeria by coming to buy slices of pizza everyday. Buggin Out says, “Sal we’re gonna boycott ya fat ass” “Every single one of those pictures is somebody Italian. ”Sal responds, “You want brothers up on the Wall of Fame, you open up your own business, then you can do what you wanna do. My pizzeria, Italian Americans up on the wall.”

Lee, portrays the black male to also be successful. In Jungle Fever Flipper and Cyrus were both successful but unlike Flippers brother, Gator, he is unsuccessful . Flipper is an architect in an architecture firm and Cyrus is a highs school history teacher. Gator is a crack, who steals from his mother and is always begging because he needs money to support his habit. And his mother doesn’t want to believe that he is on drugs when, flipper keeps on telling her that he is. The Good Reverend Doctor doesn’t allow Gator in the house because he know how he is on drugs and steals a lot of things. Flipper wants to move up in the architecture firm