Do the Right Thing
Bed-Stuy summer drama
Do the Right Thing is Spike Lee's 1989 film about racial tensions in a Brooklyn neighborhood on the hottest day of the year.
The title has become shorthand for moral action, especially regarding race relations.
Beyond the film, the phrase do the right thing is a common appeal to conscience: You know what you have to do—just do the right thing.
Western Long Island borough
- Bed-StuyBrooklyn neighborhood nickname
- 1989Final Cold War year
- SmileyName suggesting happiness
- heatwaveProlonged abnormally high temperatures
Rosie Perez · Ruby Dee · racial tensions · pizzeria · boycott · trash can · riot · neighborhood
Moral goodness or merit
- honorHigh regard, moral dignity
- decencyMoral appropriateness in behavior
- fairnessJust and equal treatment
- equityImpartial treatment or ownership value
honesty · trustworthiness · rectitude · uprightness · benevolence · altruism · compassion · goodness
Forced choice between undesirables
- quandaryState of perplexity
- predicamentDifficult, unpleasant situation
- crossroadsMeeting of routes
- decisionSettled course of action
conflict · conscience · uncertainty · consequences · character · judgment · integrity · accountability
Just and equal treatment
- equityImpartial treatment or ownership value
- due processGuaranteed judicial fairness
- advocacyPleading for a cause
- equalitySame status for all
restitution · accountability · reform · systemic · injustice · protest · activism · solidarity
Brooklyn
Western Long Island borough
Rosie Perez · Ruby Dee · heatwave · racial tensions · pizzeria · boycott · trash can · riot · neighborhood · gentrification
virtue
Moral goodness or merit
- honorHigh regard, moral dignity
- decencyMoral appropriateness in behavior
- fairnessJust and equal treatment
equity · honesty · trustworthiness · rectitude · uprightness · benevolence · altruism · compassion · goodness · probity
dilemma
Forced choice between undesirables
- quandaryState of perplexity
- predicamentDifficult, unpleasant situation
- crossroadsMeeting of routes
decision · conflict · conscience · uncertainty · consequences · character · judgment · integrity · accountability · responsibility
fairness
Just and equal treatment
- equityImpartial treatment or ownership value
- due processGuaranteed judicial fairness
- advocacyPleading for a cause
equality · restitution · accountability · reform · systemic · injustice · protest · activism · solidarity · community
- 1989 FilmsBatman, Dead Poets Society, Driving Miss Daisy, Glory, Field of Dreams
- Black CinemaMoonlight, Black Panther, Coming to America, Friday, The Color Purple
- Working-Class DramaThe Full Monty, Norma Rae, Billy Elliot, Rosetta, Sweet Sixteen
Do the Right ThingDriving Miss Daisy
1989 Best Picture winner
Green Book · The Help · popcorn movie · Remember the Titans · Oscar bait
doing, doer, doers, undoing, right, rights, righted, righting, rightful