Ethical Media Recommendation
Evan Kramer

When we think of something or someone being ethical in 21st century America images of smiling faces and long strands of different coloured hands clasped together with words like peace and love plastered near by come to mind for the most ideal of thinkers. But how is one supposed to represent real life, or something close to reality, while remaining ethical in the peace, love, and harmony sense of the word? Because we all know that life is not always harmonious and is, as the movie says, a battle between love and hate. Life is perpetually filled with things that are unethical (racism, violence, etc.), but it is not unethical to examine such issues in a society through storytelling and the use of the media. Case in point, Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do The Right Thing.
The movie tells the story of a young pizza delivery worker, Mookie (Spike Lee), who works for a Sal’s Pizzeria, an Italian family owned restaurant which is across the street from a Korean family owned corner store, all on a predominantly African American and Puerto Rican street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. There is a multitude of characters varying races and ethnicities, and on one sweltering summer day racial tensions and internal bigotries explode in conflict. And while there are aspects of Do The Right Thing that are not ethical, because Lee is using the media of film to tell a story that presents the audience with an honest, intentional examination of society the movie is ethical.