Do The Right Thing Themes

When a neighborhood is gentrified it will not only change the image of it, but also the services available there (Al-Kodmany 2011, 62-63). In other words, gentrification does not only have an impact on the physical aspect of the land, but also the resources that lie there. During the 90s, the Near West Side neighborhood located near Loop, an up-scale neighborhood, sought drastic changes within the area. The changes in racial demographics in the Near West Side indicated that the health risks that affected minorities dropped in the past decade (1992-2002) (Al-Kodmany 2011,

I read nine article that discusses various aspects of gentrification from health issues to detreated housing condition and ethnic cleansing. In my rough draft, I thought discussing only one side of Harlem gentrification might confuse readers because all of the subjects are linked to each other. Therefore, I took main the main ideas from each of the nine articles and discussed them chronologically in my rough draft to give audience a better understanding of the series of events that shaped today’s Harlem. In doing so, I failed to follow the instructions. Thanks to Professor Poltrack’s feedback, I was able to focus on one article and discuss Harlem’s gentrification more effectively. In my final draft, I found to easier to analyze and interpret the meaning of article because I concentrated on one particular subject. Going forward, I will read the instructions carefully, underline the key points and talk to Prof Poltrack if I have any question about the

In the film, Do the Right Thing, director Spike Lee presents the audience with the theme of racism. The title represents the everyday choices that we as Americans of various ethnicities, cultures, and race. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing allows the viewers to decide for themselves the right thing to do about racism. Everyone has the choice to be accepting of cultures, or people different from them. The film portrays how an Italian American named Sal has a neighborhood pizzeria in Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York. The neighborhood is primarily African American, but there is a diverse amount of other cultures made up of, Hispanics, European Americans, also there is a store owned by Koreans. This film displays the discrimination between the races and how this can lead to violence.

Park Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in all of New York City, home to the ultra rich, the top tier of the American upper class, the 1% (Park Avenue). Those who reside in Park Avenue not only have vast amounts of wealth, but an immense amount of influence that has turned the tables in their favor. But, if you go a couple of miles North of Park Avenue and cross the Harlem river, you arrive at the other side of Park Avenue or otherwise known as the Bronx, one of the poorest districts in all of New York (Park Avenue). Here you see the real hardships average Americans must voyage through in order to put food on the table and provide shelter for their families. 40% of the 700,000 residents who

In the book “Code of the Street” introduction, the author Elijah Anderson gives you an outlook on how a city can go from wealth and poverty in just five miles. Anderson’s ethnographic portrayal of urban life in black America through a journey down Philadelphia’s historic Germantown Ave, which connects the appreciation of newly suburban Chestnut Hill and Philly’s main line with the generally less civil society of Germantown proper and its outlying ghetto’s, where a code of the street old as poverty and oppression itself governs the interactions of both willing and unwilling members. The story starts in Chestnut Hill which is often called "the suburb in the city," and finishes in the Northern Liberties subdivision.

There has been a tremendous change in East Harlem between class warfare and gentrification. East Harlem is one more economic factor to the city’s wealth per capita since the attack of September 11, 2000. It is Manhattan’s last remaining development and it is on the agenda of the tax revenue of our government. East Harlem has become a profit driven capitalism. Gentrification enforces capitalism, it does not separate people, it does not go against race, poor and the working class, it wages war on the poor and the working-class.

The film Do the Right Thing is a very relevant on issues of race. The film shows how there is tension between all races. The film shows racial tension between the communities in the hottest day of the year. The heat is a theme in the film. Heat in general gets people on edge and raises tension. The film relates to W.E.B. Dubois work “The Soul of Black Folk.” Dubois (1903) work includes the concepts of the veil and double consciousness. The African Americans in the film deal with the idea of a veil. Mookie the protagonist deals with the idea of double consciousness.

From the early 1980’s into the early 1990’s, hip-hop was an integral tool in the dissemination of young people’s voices against mainstream politics. These times were tense and rather controversial. It began with Reagan’s call for the reemergence of state rights; this call was a form of political messaging which utilized coded language targeting different groups with dual messages also known as dog whistling. It allowed individual states total power and control in instituting their own policies including segregation. On top of the aforementioned and in light of the increased state regulation, intense and increased police brutality became an unfortunate reflection of the times. As a result, many people, especially those of color, lost trust in

In today’s society, gentrification is considered a taboo not to be spoken of unless being attacked; however, Justin Davidson, a professional critic, challenges this notion and examines both sides of this custom. As an author, architecture and classical music critic, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, Davidson approaches the issue of gentrification with a unique style of neutrality that leads his audience to question all they thought they knew about gentrifying.

In order to understand why developers targeted Harlem for gentrification, it is crucial to discuss the causes of gentrification. As the time has progressed people’s preference have changed. The inclination toward fewer children, higher divorce rate, women in the workforce and the postponement of marriage have encouraged people to settle in urban neighborhoods. Young women’s participation in the professional

Viewing the complex matter of gentrification succinctly, it helps to uncover how multifaceted it is; in that gentrification involves the oppression, marginalization, displacement of vulnerable populations, particularly, the poor, and the black who are often already negatively impacted by the effects of classism, and racism. Gentrification threatens to erode the communities and livelihood maintained by these set of people because their displacement becomes a precondition for the total transformation of the area.

Spike Lee asked in his rant “why does it take an influx of [wealthy] white New Yorkers … for the facilities to get better?” Communities that have not gentrified have poor facilities and services for the resident living there, but when people with wealth move in, the city government wants to turn its attention onto the community to make it better. In San Francisco, the Fillmore district was one of the worst places in the city to be in. Crime flourished throughout this neighborhood. Now with the influx of stores and wealthy residents coming in, the city turned one of the worst neighbors into one of the best neighborhoods. Julia Wong accurately described a situation about the lasting effect gentrification had on the community. In San Francisco, it became a new hub for tech companies and many of the wealthy tech employees were moving into immigrant neighborhoods. Landlords were driving up the cost of rent because of increased incentives to evict longtime tenants. Some tech workers paid a fee to have the soccer field for an hour and got into an argument with the neighborhoods kids because they followed a different set of rules; rules that were in place for years in the community. She stated that the government was renting out parks and quoted Mark Buell who said “it’s a way of trying to provide a service to the community”. Why does it take money to provide a free

1.) In this class we have examined the sociological forces that created the social conditions from which Hip-Hop emerged in the Bronx. Drawing upon Chang, as well as videos (Bronx is Burning, Flying Cut Sleeves etc.), discuss the sociological roots of rap. Specifically, what social forces (for example: state policies, global economic trends, technological advancements, community characteristics as well as race, class, gender politics) were present and facilitated the development of Hip-Hop?

Which would you do? Ruin the friendship of a young boy and girl, or lose a chance at getting a lot of money, a cute girl, and less pain. It’s a hard choice indeed, but after reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of each, I’ve decided which decision is harder to make. I believe that the Good Guy in, “Good Guys Always Win” had the harder choice simply because of his opportunities.

Armed of Conflict and Rules of Engagement are the laws that have been approved through United Nations to be obeyed during the war in the battle zones. In fact, the producer of the movie illustrates that the rule of engagement is not obeyed in the Vietnam War. Moreover, in one of the Helicopter peak the pilot wrote “ Death from the Air” in the same scene the soldier opens fire on civilian farmers and women. In fact, this movie illustrates the collateral damages in the battle zone for no reason. When people lose their home and family in the war, it is hard to wait for peace to come back to them. In fact, the movie also focuses on the frustrations of local people being subjugated. In fact, the movie left out the pressures of the soldier that commits