Jesse Jackson cries in Chicago's Grant Park on the night of  November 4, 2008 when news of Barack Obama's victory for president broke.
Top photo: Spike Lee as Mookie in "Do The Right Thing" - the parallels of Mr. Jackson's presidential run in 1988 echoes in posters seen
behind Mr. Lee's character in his landmark 1989 film, whose 20th anniversary arrives in June.  (Top photo: Universal Pictures)
 
Obama Is The American President.  Time To
Pack Up And Stop Fighting For Justice?
By Omar P.L. Moore/The Popcorn Reel        SHARE
February 1, 2009
 
"Hell No!", Mookie of "Do The Right Thing" would probably say to the above question, and he wouldn't be alone. 
President Barack Obama has been in office less than two weeks and so far in the very early going most of America
 is satisfied. 

Does that mean that the battles are over, that fighters for social equality and justice no longer need apply?

The continuing journey to justice and equanimity is always in transition and America is making slow and
steady strides in the right direction and not without the blood, sweat and tears shed to achieve it. 

January 20, 2009 was more than a date.  It was history.  Some would say it was a long time coming.  Others would
say that nothing at all has changed.  Police shootings of  innocent and unarmed black men don't take a break
to salute the nation's first and only black president, as many Oakland, California residents can attest with the
gravely disturbing shooting death of Oscar Grant, 22, exactly one month ago on a train station platform in
the early morning hours of the New Year. 

Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing" addressed police brutality in one highly noted scene based on an amalgam of events
in New York City history in the 1980's, specifically the killing by transit police of Michael Stewart, who had
apparently scribbled graffiti on a subway wall or train and paid for it with his life, and the murders in Howard
Beach, Queens in 1988, when Michael Griffith was chased to his death by a 20-plus member mob of white youths. 

Mr. Lee's landmark film has its 20th year anniversary in June.

One of the most interesting (and hardly discussed) aspects of the film is the support of leadership in the black
community that is divergent.  The character of Da Mayor, played by the late Ossie Davis, gives a visceral response
to Giancarlo Esposito's character Buggin' Out, who is organizing a boycott of the Italian pizzeria in the black
neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. 

"I don't wanna hear none of your damn black foolishness!", says Da Mayor.  Mr. Davis' character is in his sixties or
seventies; presumably a man who once fervently had a cause he believed in, fought the good fight, then retired or
retreated to a corner to be left alone to get through each day of the rest of his life.  Maybe he embodies the
movement led by Dr. King; maybe not.  Buggin' Out, by contrast, is a young, passionate twenty-something who has
been aggrieved by the treatment by Sal (Danny Aiello), the owner of the pizzeria.  A man on a "revolutionary"
mission, Buggin' Out supports the Nelson Mandelas, Marcus Garveys and Malcolm Xs of the world.  Mookie falls,
it seems, somewhere between these two polar opposites.

Mr. Lee's Oscar-nominated film concludes with quotes from Dr. King and Malcolm X, the latter of whom
he did an epic biopic on in 1992, with Denzel Washington in the title Academy Award-nominated role.

President Obama also appears to stand between the worldviews of Buggin' Out and Da Mayor -- at least he
illustrated this in his now-legendary speech "Toward A More Perfect Union" during the presidential campaign
last March 18 in Philadelphia.  In one segment of that speech he said of his former pastor Reverend Wright that
he could "no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who
sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman
who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has
uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

When President Obama as Candidate Obama said in the same speech that "These people are a part of me.  And they
are a part of America, this country that I love," he could have been talking about the same array of
people that Spike Lee populated "Do The Right Thing" with -- a complex, diverse mosaic, that last word one that
former New York City Mayor David Dinkins used during his mayoral campaign in 1989.  Mr. Dinkins became
the first and only black mayor of the Big Apple in November of that year.  Mr. Davis's Da Mayor character
was thought by some to represent Mr. Dinkins in the film.

In "Do The Right Thing" when Mookie throws the garbage can through his employer's window he may well
have been sounding the trumpet that Reverend Wright did. 

"Hate!", shouts Mookie.

Many whites who saw the film asked Mr. Lee, as he has often repeats in interviews, "why does Mookie throw
the trashcan through the window?" 

The director cites that no one black has ever asked him that question.

To that end, there is a parallel in Candidate Obama's speech of last March when he says that "[t]he fact that
so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds
us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning.  That anger is
not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us
from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community
from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change."  This portion of the-then future president's speech
also echoes Dr. King's words, replicated at the end of Mr. Lee's film, that "an eye for an eye only leaves everybody
blind."

President Obama also added in his speech, "[b]ut the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away,
to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that
exists between the races. "  This portion sounds like the ever-evolving Malcolm X, whom the new president
wrote about being influenced by in his book Dreams From My Father.

At the same time in the speech from last March, Mr. Obama perhaps acknowledged the sentiments of Sal, the
white pizzeria owner in Mr. Lee's film, who during a tirade talks about building his business "with my bare
fucking hands", in a climactic encounter with his former worker.  "In fact, a similar anger exists within
segments of the white community.  Most working-and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they
have been particularly privileged by their race.  Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far
as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch.  They've worked hard
all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a
lifetime of labor.  The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced
over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked
through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect."

As new leadership is ushered in to America's highest office, parallels of Mr. Lee's film are strongly reflected
in the subtext of real black poltical leadership.  Posters for Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential run (the year
during which the film was shot in Brooklyn) adorn several scenes in "Do The Right Thing".  Mr. Jackson, a
close King lieutenant, made headlines last year for several off-color statements about Mr. Obama
during an appearance on Fox News Sunday.  Later in the year Mr. Lee was an active recruiter of voters
in Florida, for then-Senator Barack Obama's campaign.  Mr. Obama has hailed Mr. Lee's "Do The Right Thing",
in which John Turturro's Pino character lists several black leaders including Reverend Al Sharpton and
Minister Louis Farrakhan.

After more than 20 years Mr. Lee has remained a vibrant storyteller, his striking visuals a powerful motif and
commentary on race and racism in America, which is also exemplified in his latest feature film "Miracle At
St. Anna" (which arrives on DVD in the U.S. and Canada on February 10).  This year will also be the 30th
anniversary of 40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks, Mr. Lee's production company.  Mr. Lee has become
one of preeminent deans of American cinema in this early 21st century, cementing his legacy with films
that endure, instruct, edify and entertain.  You can always be sure of thought-provoking themes, particularly
in the little-seen "Bamboozled", the award-winning documentary "When The Levees Broke" and the
immensely powerful documentary "4 Little Girls".  The second film was an indictment of the prior occupant
of the White House, an example of film and politics intertwined.  ("She Hate Me" took on George W. Bush
in a satirical way in 2004.)

In the March 18 speech then-Senator Obama said: "As William Faulkner once wrote, 'The past isn't dead
and buried.  In fact, it isn't even past.'  We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this
country.  But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the
African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier
generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow."

The answer to the question titling this article is spoken often by "Silence Of The Lambs" and "Rachel
Getting Married" filmmaker Jonathan Demme: a luta continua.

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