Tonight:
9°c
Spike Lee's classic 1989 New York movie Do The Right Thing — screened by the NFT tonight as part of its Fight The Power season, followed by a Q&A with the maverick director — still resonates even after 20 years.
Set on a searingly hot day in the African-American neighbourhood of Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, the film magisterially depicts the simmering racial tensions that exist between an Italian-American patriarch and proprietor of the local pizzeria and the various black locals who frequent his restaurant; they culminate in a devastating and tragic denouement.
The film forcefully lays bare the seismic racial fault-lines along which New York still runs. For despite its panoply of different cultures and variegated ethnicities, it is often still said that New York, on closer inspection, is much more of a “fruit salad” than a “melting pot”. For all of the change in the city over the past 20 years —falling crime rates, new patterns of immigration, undreamt-of gentrification in parts of Harlem and elsewhere — Lee's portrait of an uneasy city still has an uncomfortable ring of truth.
Many distinct neighbourhoods precariously — often painfully — co-exist side by side: sadly, they simply do not mix. Be it Hassidic Jews in Crown Heights, Italian-Americans in Bensonhurst, West-Indians in Flatbush or African-Americans in Harlem, each ethnicity has its own enclave. For all its plethora of difference and its Babel-like charm, the city remains heavily segregated.
Here in New York, my British accent is a perennial source of consternation, especially in places like Harlem, where (Black) Brits are far from plentiful. Yet it's also a reminder that race still defines America in a way which it doesn't define Britain. Race here is tediously omnipresent, the elephant in every room.
It lurks malevolently in each conversation and exchange, be it in the local bodega, in Popeye's Chicken or at the Chinese take-away: even a Black Brit shoulders the burden of decades of mutual mistrust. You get the feeling that you are unwittingly interacting as representatives of races, as opposed to individuals. You are never allowed to forget that race is the defining subtext, no matter how much you want to — even if, as Obama knows only too well, you are the President.
Despite the talk of Obama being the harbinger of a “post-racial” America, ghettos of both the neighbourhood and the mind are still painfully evident.
London is thousands of miles away, both geographically and mentally, from the ghettoised dystopia depicted in Lee's cult classic and perpetuated today. There are probably more white faces in Brixton today than there are black; in Hackney, Africans, Indians, Turkish and white English all live cheek by jowl, for the most part harmoniously. It is only when juxtaposed with New York's stark racial divisions that I begin to appreciate fully how fortunate we really are as Londoners. Which is not to say that London is devoid of problems — far from it. But our city is undeniably more suffused with an ethos of racial harmony than its transatlantic sister.
Watching Do The Right Thing again should make us want to celebrate London's spirit of tolerance. For while there is a much larger educated black middle class in New York, with an abundance of affluent black professionals enjoying a lifestyle to go with that status, I feel emotionally and socially much freer in London.
If Spike Lee's elegiac tale of Sal, Mooky and Radio Raheem reminds us of London's almost unique open-mindedness and maturity when it comes to race, then it remains a valuable parable for our times.
Reader views (7)
Anyone trying to compare Crown Heights and Stamford Hill has apparently never spent any time in either place, that is just silly. Comparing Tottenham with the Bronx is even more ridiculous. Nowhere in London could be described as a ghetto in the way many areas of NYC can.
Whatever is the case, they are two great cities and I don't understand why anyone would want to live anywhere else!
- Nolan, Londonist
Lindsay is well off beam. He claims there are no racial divisions or tensions in London, and yet, if you go to Stamford Hill or Golders Green (Jewish Quarters) or Peckham or Tottenham (Black Quarters), for example, the same racial divisions and levels of distrust still exist. Please, wake up and smell the coffee Lindsay. New York and Americans are no more racist than London and the British. The difference is, Americans are just more honest about how they feel. But then again, when I read some of the comments pages located in this newspaper, I see that some of the readers are equally forthcoming!
- Sj, London, England
Birds of a feather flock together, and there is little to know interacial mixing, apart from white girls on sink estates carrying mixed race babies. There is no evidence of Muslim Africans/ Chineese, catholic latinos, Jews,Indians. orthodox greek/Pakistanis/ etc etc,mixing. Their homes are walled to preserve their nationality. Its a mixed salad all right, and certaily no melting pot. Check out the school playgrounds.In fact matters haved become more segregated than ever.
- Mark Armstrong, london. uk
Aside from interrelationships between black and white in London which I agree (having grown up in NYC) are much tighter, much of the ethnic mix in London is akin to the "tossed salad" analogy. And given the timescale between the film and current reality, I would question whether NYC is any more or less of a divide than contemporary London. It is just very different, both in terms of black culture and in white society.
- Helene Davidson, London
How right you are!! I remember being so shocked when a mixed couple friends of mine (she white, he black) visited me in London and commented on how relaxed they felt about holding hands whilst walking around town! I was amazed by the comment at the time but it makes sense if this article is to be believed. What a change to hear something positive!
- John Pertemps, London
'London is thousands of miles away, both geographically and mentally...'
Dozens, maybe: the situation is certainly better. But visit Stamford Hill, or Queens' Road Walthamstow ( or Loughton or Bishops Stortford further up the line) to see the other sign of the coin. 'Diversity' is something most people only seem to want a certain amount of: it's great to have a variety of shops, and useful to have communities linked to all parts of the world, but when the British live abroad, it's usually in expat colonies. Sad, but true.
It's an argument for some form of national service to mix up people from different backgrounds in a purposeful way. The biggest breakdowns in social exclusivity followed conscription in the two World Wars. We must be able to design better ways.
- Mdj E10, london uk
My favourite movie of all time. Should be more articles on the Italian-Americans in New York. They make a good read.
- Angus, London, UK
