In a few weeks it will be the 32-year anniversary of Lee’s film, Do The Right Thing. The movie was about a sunny day in a Brooklyn, New York neighborhood where racial tensions were present. Unfortunately, it ended with a tragic death of a Black man named Radio Rahiem, who was played by Bill Nunn, in the hands of a police officer named Gary Long, played by Rick Aiello.  

The event would lead to violence in the streets as Lee, who played Mookie, threw a trash can at a pizza place and that encouraged the crowd to destroy the store. It led to additional fights and arrests.  

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At the end of the movie, different quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are displayed about how to confront racism and violence. 

Lee was motivated to create Do The Right Thing after the assassination of Eleanor Bumpers at the hands of New York police officers. The movie is listed as one of the 100 Essential Films of all time.  

Despite the success of the film, the Academy Award winner is upset to see that not much has changed since the 1989 movie came as it relates to police brutality. 

“When you see brother Eric Garner, when you see king George Floyd murdered, lynched, I think about Ray (Radio) Rahiem and you would think and hope that 30 something years later that Black people stop being hunted down by animals,” Lee said at a Cannes Film Festival press conference. 

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