Race Through Modern Cinema

Paper Summary:

Fictional and non-fictional stories differ in the impact that each has on an audience. This paper examines how the 1998 murder of James Byrd in Whitney Dow's and Marco Williams' documentary, "The Two Towns of Jasper", may have a more powerful effect on the viewer than the death of "Radio Raheem," played by actor Bill Nunn in Spike Lee's fictional film, "Do the Right Thing". It looks at how Dow and Williams presented a realistic and unbiased piece of work while Spike Lee's depiction may be questionable. It concludes that many would agree that de facto segregation has a critical influence in the way people see each other.

From the Paper:

"The death of "Radio Raheem" led to significant changes in the neighborhood. Sal's pizzeria was destroyed and the Italian-Americans were no longer welcome in Bed-Sty. "Buggin Out," a black character in the film, who was trying to boycott Sal's place after Sal (Danny Aiello) refused to hang photos of prominent African-Americans on the walls, had finally gotten the black community on his side. Up until riot scene, none of the other blacks in the neighborhood, except "Radio Raheem," would follow him and the reason for that was that everybody loved Sal's food."

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