MARTIN LUTHER KING
JR AND MALCOM X
DUMP KOCH MOVEMENT
Koch was the mayor of New York at the time of
this film. The 'Dump Koch' movement was a Hip
Hop based movement as Koch was stamping
down on Graffiti , one of the 4 main areas of Hip
Hop (MCing, DJing, Breakdancing, Graffiti). This
was regarded as an attack on the black
community whilst he was in power. Koch's
militant approach also made him unpopular
among the black community.
Martin Luther King Jr and Malcom X were both civil
rights activists who were both unfortunately
assassinated in the 1960's.Despite the similarities in
their fighting causes, they had different methods in
obtaining the overall outcome they desired. Martin
Luther King Jr was a passivists meaning that his way
of getting a point across would be to engage in
practise such as peaceful protest and such. Similar
to DeMaio in the film as they both want to fight for
what's right and bring together communities in a
safe and just way. Malcom X however was more
violent and aggressive in his approach to obtaining
racial equality stating that he promotes "Violence for
good". Two character demonstrate similar views,
these being Bugging Out and Radio Raheem as they
orchestrate the major plot device of the boycott of
'Sal's famous pizzeria' Leading to violent retaliation
from the police. Spike never makes it obvious where
he sits on the debate into which is more effective, as
Mookie is passive throughout the majority of the film
despite his more violent change toward the end as
he begins the riot on Sal's.
TAWANA BRAWLEY
Tawana was a woman who
claimed to have been sexually
abused in a wooded area for four HOWARD BEACH
days by a group of unnamed white
Howard beach was an incident
men. Tawana was given back after
involving a group of young white
the incident in a a bin bag. After
males beating up 3 Black males. One of
the ordeal, the grand court
them was killed, young Michael Griffith,
concluded that she was lying and
Cedric Sandiford was seriously beaten
let the alleged rapists get away
with baseball bats and tree branches
with their crimes. Mookie is talking
and Timothy Grimes, escaped with
to his sister about avoiding Sal's
minor injuries. The attackers were
advances on her possibly sowing
arrested which charges on
his distrust of Sal.
manslaughter.

 MICHAEL STEWART

Michael Stewart was the travesty that inspired Radio

Raheem's death as he was similarly strangled with riot
batons. Michael was a black graffiti artist in 1983. He
had an extremely small build so he would have been
easy to overpower. The police handcuffed his hands
and legs behind him and proceeded to kick, punch
and physically attack him. The police officers choked
him with a nightstick until his screams turned to
silence. They were discharged from the police force for
racial injustice.
JACKIE ROBINSON

Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player and

he left his mark on sport, breaking boundaries and
racial stereotypes. He was the first coloured player in
the sport which allowed him to get young people to be
integrated with a significant black figure from young
ages, this was before Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat and Martin Luther King Jr was still in college.

SPECTATORSHIP
My views on the film are represented by these 3 men. They
highlights all of the different perspectives within the 3 of them and
allows the audience to grasp an understanding of the different
personal views and approaches to life, negative, positive and neutral.
The film Distances the audience by not having a coherent story,
adding unnecessary sections into the film to jar the plot and
constantly having many plates spinning at once.
The representation of women as more sexual objects rather than
women is a bit controvetial however, it shows the time in many
respects.
Overall, the messages the film shows are still topical today, it makes
us, the audience, question the current state of the representation of
black people.