David R Cobbins.
For many years America was considered to be a melting pot, a mixture of different ethnicities, races, and cultures. Recently, as in the last twenty years, America is now considered to be one of the most “multicultural” countries in the world. What does multicultural mean exactly? According to the dictionary it means “of, pertaining to, or representing several different cultures or cultural elements: a multicultural society.” The late twentieth and early twenty first century America is a country of 'multiculturalism”. Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese do not exist outside of the country they were born and raised in, and neither do their films. As the country evolved, changed, developed new ideas, and threw out old ones, the two filmmakers changed concepts, and racial representations in their films to reflect the new multicultural America. Both directors films changed to either explore different ethnicities inside their enclave or move outside of their enclave. In Spike Lee's “ Do The Right Thing” we see what's been traditionally a Black neighborhood, and Lee telling stories only involving Black people, expand to include a multiple ethnicities and their stories, and with Scorsese's “ Gangs of New York” we see him take on the plight of not Italian Americans, which he traditionally does, but Irish immigrants.
“Do The Right Thing” is a 1989 film written, directed, and produced by Spike Lee.
The film tells a tale of racial conflict and anger in a Brooklyn neighborhood called Bedford-Stuyvesant.It's set on a single street. That street is populated mostly by African-Americans and Puerto Ricans. At the end of the street is a pizzeria run by a white American Italian family and a Korean owned corner store. In short, the plot revolves around the tensions between the primarily African American community and the American Italian owners of the pizzeria. Mookie, played by Lee works as delivery guy for the Pizzeria. He's constantly clashing, in a not so serious manner, with Sal, and in a more serious manner with Pino. Pino hates Bed-Stuy and no longer wants to work their. Sal enjoys owning the pizzeria and “Feeding” the community, as he puts it. The internal tensions come from these three, and the external tension is provided by 'Buggin out', who's choosing to protest the fact that they're no Black people on Sal's wall of fame. In the end Sal causes the death of Radio Raheem, who had joined Buggin's protest. This causes an explosion of anger in the community. Outside the mass critical acclaim this film received, there was a personal exploration the Lee was experiencing, as well as an exploration of changing consciousness in America. 1989 was a turning point for race, in that the civil rights era was over, and Black Power movements were winding down. For one of the first times people
were starting to embrace the idea that this wasn't just a country of black and white. America was becoming less content with being segregated between black and white and more open to the idea of being multicultural. Spike expresses this throughout “Do The Right Thing”. The first glimpse of this expression is in one of the opening scenes of the film when we get a shot of an outside building wall. Painted on it's wall are three flags, an American flag, a Puerto Rican flag, and African American Flag. The flags exist in the background with people painted in front of them. 
This is a representations of the changing times, no longer a melting pot of mixed cultures under one flag, but a multicultural country under multiple flags, in one nation. This scene is also a foreshadowing to a concept that has never taken place before in any of Lee's previous films. That concepts is a main cast characters who are not just black. Lee's prior movies included all black casts before, this one was different. In this film we have American Italians, Puerto Ricans, Koreans, and whites of no known ethnicity. What we also get is an interaction between the different races which shows that racial tension is no longer a problem between just black and white, but a problem for all people. These tensions range from lite, when Radio Raheem goes into a stereo “boom box” battle with a group of Puerto Ricans, to intense, when Raheem is killed by the police which starts a riot. Another noteworthy scene is when the Korean store owner states that he's the same as the other black inhabitants, being that he himself is black. This statement can be taken in multiple ways, one being that we're all the same and share the same problems in the end. The other being that “black” is social creation that has more to do with economics and class, then with skin color. Spike Lee doesn't abandon his enclave, but his enclaves gets a modern day makeover. Spike Lee's cinematographer paints a picture of vibrant colors. This leads us visually to a transition of a multicultural society. Everything stands out, and none of the colors seem out of place, except the pictures on Sal's wall of fame.
Gangs of New York is a 2002 film directed by Martin Scorsese. Although Scorsese has a very diversified film career, many of his movies typically involve people of Italian ethnic background, and Italian American enclaves. Gangs of New York is an extreme contradiction to this tradition and a nod towards a national identity that has now moved from a solely secular country, to a multicultural one. The story revolves around the “Five Points” neighborhood in New York city, which in actuality, 100 years later will be an Italian American enclave, but at the time when the story takes place (1800's) is quite multicultural. The movie is slightly based on Herbert Asbury's 1928 nonfiction book The Gangs of New York. The film deals with the two biggest issues of the era, those being Irish immigration to the city and the drafting of men into the Civil War. With this film Scorsese forces us to look at race and ethnic relations through another viewpoint. Throughout the film the battle is between the "Nativist", those who are born in the United States, led by Bill Cutting, and the Irish Catholic immigrants, who come to be led by Amsterdam. The most interesting aspect of this film is that the tension isn't between racial groups, unless you take into account that the Irish at this time were considered non-white, but it's between immigrants and naturally born Americans. This marks a significant change in Scorsese
narratives. This change is made possible only by the idea of multiculturalism. If our differences in culture and ethnic background are starting to be embraced, then there has to be something new to separate us and create conflict. Scorsese is choosing the idea of “American” vs. “Immigrant”, instead of “Black vs. White” or “Italian vs. Etc.”, again as Spike Lee ushered in a new era, Scorsese continues it. Bill Cutting doesn't actually have much against the Irish, as long as their natives, and anyone can be a native citizen if they're born in America. His biggest issue is Irish Catholic immigrants, even then we see him break his own rules by allowing former Dead Rabbits into his gang. By doing this Bill Cutting has created a multicultural gang, one made up of different ethnicities. The Dead Rabbits, an Irish immigrant gang, even features a Black American member. A reoccurring theme, as with “Do The Right Thing”, is the flag. The American flag is
everywhere in this film. It seems to be a uniting factor for all native people despite their ethnic background. It's usually in the background of important scenes, but one instance where it stands out in the foreground is when Cutting has himself wrapped it in as he talks to Amsterdam. After Amsterdam saves him from an attempted assassination, which is ironic because he does want Cutting dead, Cutting sits in a rocking chair draped in tattered flag and talks about the downfall of civilization and how he has maintained his power over the years through violence and the "spectacle of fearsome acts."Maybe this is an allusion to what white society has done to ethnic minorities for years in America. Film making wise, Scorsese uses new technology to put us right in the middle of the Five Points area. CGI technology and extensive set pieces help us as an audience to understand the world in which these people lived in. It helped us to understand the poverty and decay of the city, and how closely these people lived together, regardless of race or ethnicity.
Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese had previously, almost solely made films that dealt with their particular race and ethnic background. These two filmmakers have worked for decades, and as the times changed, so did they. As American became more prevalent in pushing the idea of multiculturalism and celebrating the differences and similarities all of it's inhabitants shared, both directors were at the forefront of translating that expression into deep and content rich films. Gangs of New York and Do The Right Thing don't necessary move out of the inter city enclave mentality, but they transform it from a ethnic enclave into an American enclave.
Works cited:
Shohat & Stam. Unthink Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media.
Roediger, David. The Wages of Whiteness. 1991. New York: Verso.
Stam, Robert. Bakhtin,Polyhony, and Ethnic/Racial Representation. 1991. Illinois: University of Illinois.
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