In 1989, an inner city Virgil guided film audiences through the inferno of race relations in America. Most left theaters shocked and surprised after viewing the film—and few were without a strong opinion about it.

In this regard, my first experience viewing Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing was no different than most. The moment of first viewing this masterpiece of American cinema has remained vivid with me for now over 40 years. The shock of the film has never left me. It was like a lightening bolt to the tree of my being. Nevertheless, many of the surprises of the film (e.g., the murder of Radio Raheem and Mookie throwing the trash can through the window) have long since faded over a lifetime of repeated viewing.

A good description of the first experience of viewing this film was given by Barry Michael Cooper, who says that it left him completely disoriented:

Released in the United States on June 30 of 1989, the film had this effect on many people. It depicted a single day in Brooklyn where racial tensions between its African American residents and the Italian American owner of a neighborhood pizzeria culminated in violence so shocking that for many it forever changed their view of the world.

Unfortunately, the responses to Cooper's questions are both affirmative. The world is as mean and mixed-up as director Lee depicts it, and the recent unchallenged rise of the alt-right has shown how we have let it go from bad to worse. It seems as though every week another person-of-color is being murdered through a hate crime in America.