Costumes and Props in Do the Right Thing
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	As in most films, costumes or dress in Do the Right Thing identify and distinguish characters. For example, Da Mayor sports a crumpled suit that suggests the kind of beaten-down dignity of an elderly alcoholic, while Pino's white sleeveless T-shirt identifies him with a white working-class background. But costume in Do the Right Thing expresses more than an individual's sense
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	of self. It can speak to larger themes. Mookie's Brooklyn Dodgers shirt features Jackie Robinson's name, a significant reference to an African American baseball player who broke through the color barrier. In a similar way, props can be extremely meaningful. Look, for instance, at Radio Raheem's boom box and at the photograph that Smiley always carries and displays. The boom box is not only a way for Radio Raheem to assert his identity. It represents the power
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	of sound to cross borders and barriers, a power that Mister Senor Love Daddy's radio voice also demonstrates. And Smiley's photo of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X not only encapsulates the central dialog in the film between racial love and hate, but it also acts as a counterpoint to Sal's photos of Italian celebrities on the wall of fame in his pizzeria. This is key. Both Smiley's photo of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and Sal's wall of fame represent their
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	respective claims to a particular racial identity.