Setting: Brooklyn, late 80s, Black neighborhood with several businesses owned by non blacks - Korean grocery, Italian pizza parlor (owned by Sal/Danny Aiello character - two sons - Pino/John Turturro and other guy)

Mookie (Spike) works as delivery person for the Italians (has child with Puerto Rican woman; struggling with role as father)

Series of racial/ethnic confrontations between the African Americans who live in the neighborhood and others - white police who show air of superiority as they drive through the neighborhood mouth "what a waste" at the three guys who sit under the umbrella and drink beer all day, white guy driving car through hydrant water, Korean shop owners (why don't you speak English? get some Genuine Draft)

Other important characters: Radio Raheem roams neighborhood playing NWA song "Fight the Power" playing continually

Smiley, mentally impaired guy with stutter - selling postcard picture of Malcolm and Martin.
Mookie's other friend Bergenow- after hydrant incident wiping the water off his Jordans - complains to Sal - "why aren't there any AfrAms on the Wall of Fame?"

Sal says because he has only Ital-Ams-if you want AfrAms on the Wall, get your own place-friend retorts "I don't see any Ital-Ams eating here" more on this later Sal, although openly racist, drools over Mookie's sister when she comes in, Lee showing how lots of white racist men lust for Black women

Mother Sister - neighborhood wise woman who watches everything in the neighborhood through her window
Old drunk man - trying to court Mother Sister, goes to Sal's offering to sweep up or something for daily beer budget

Three guys under the umbrella - sit around and do nothing all day - but sneer at Koreans - yells to owner "hey Kung Fu!" "how can they have a business already? How long have they been in this country? I've been here a looong time - reflects resentment of AfrAms, history of slavery, been in US for a centuries but lag behind in business ownership - white Americans - 1 in 10 Korean Ams selfemployed; vs. 1 in 15 nonminorities vs. 1 in 67 Afr.Ams - why? - rotating credit assoc. help them start businesses - kej (keh)

Sal, Pino racists - Pino tries to convince father to get out of the neighborhood.
Mookie confronts Pi no about his racism - always using the word nigger- "Who's your favorite athlete?" Magic Johnson, Entertainer - Prince/Bruce, Actor - Eddie Murphy, etc.
Pino says" They're not black they're more than black"
Mookie tries to enlighten him - quotes Farrakhan about Africans' "glorious past" - Pi no "Did I miss something, what glorious past?" Mook: we started civilization-
Jump to stream of racial/ethnic epithets - Mookie - antiltal, Pino antiblk, PR antiKor, Police antiPR, Kor antiJew
whole time HEAT, outside, pizza oven symbol. - confrontation eminent between Radio Raheem, Smiley and Bergenow, who have started boycott, and Sal and the boys
Culminates when the three of them come into the pizza parlor, Raheem won't turn off radio, Sal beats it with a baseball bat, fight ensues, police some, in breaking it up kill Radio Raheem
Mookie throws garbage can through Sal's window - destroy the place, bum it down in anger over Radio Raheem's death; Smiley goes in and hangs the picture of Malcolm and Martin on the waU as it burns
Koreans come out to protect their place when crowd turns on them. Man says "I'm Black too" emphasizes that he shares life of discrimination with Afr. Ams.
Next day Sal comes-exchange with Mookie-1 built this place with my own hands- gives Mookie some money - get impression that he is going to try to be a better father
Is Lee trying to condone interracial/interethnic violence?
Should Sal have hung the picture of Malcolm/Martin on the wall? why or why not?
no-it's his place, he can do what he wants with it; can't listen to everyone who comes in, hang this or that up. private property
yes-as smart business man should cater to tastes of his patrons; if he had he'd still have a business
What's the point of the movie? The Wall of Fame is really symbolic of the larger debate over euro vs. afrocentrism. AfrAms have been denied a sense of pride in their culture, history, heritage, force fed whitewashed history for too long. Lee is issuing a wake up call to white America that if it doesn't start acknowledging the contributions of AfrAms there is going to be large scale racial/ethnic violence. Symbolism of Martin and Malcolm - love and hate - ends movie with quote by each –
MLK 'eye for eye leaves everyone blind; we're in a monologue not a dialogue."
Malcolm - 'violence in selfdefense is not violence, its intelligence.'

So America has a choice to begin the dialogue, open itself to more balanced view of history or suffer the consequences.

Larger symbolism of the characters. Lee is not uncritical in his portrayal of the AfrAm characters - shows many of the undesireables that live there - the drunk old guy - the woman who beats her kid after the old guy saves him but he lies about it - the three loafers who envy the Koreans but just sit on their asses and talk about it, expect business to drop from the sky
Symbols of Raheem - fight the power - silent, angry, young unemployed,
resentful, waiting for catalyst for anger, and like many young Black men killed by police
Bergenow - always standing around polishing his Jordans and griping about lack
of respect for AfrAms but also doing nothing but coveting his Jordans
Smiley - always yammering about Malcolm and Martin, selling their images, but completely ineffective, just points to the past and lives or-that, never doing anything - criticism of Black leadership tod