A Discussion of Paternalism Through Cinema

I recently rewatched Spike Lee’s film Do The Right Thing (1989) with the context of paternalism that we have bee discussing with Soul by Soul. For me, it was an eye opening experience to the many social commentaries present in the film. Specifically though, I was picking up on the paternalistic relationship of Sal (Danny Aiello) and Mookie (Spike Lee). The film uses the relationship of boss and employee within a racially tense neighborhood to discuss how the plantation ideal affects many interactions to this day. 

The aspiration of Antebellum Southerners to lives of leisure were all tied to the idea of owning slaves. Everyone who did not have slaves was dreaming of the day they could buy a slave and everyone who had slaves was thinking ahead to the day where they could buy more slaves. This was all part of the plantation fascination that grew in the Antebellum period. However, this aspiration to a life of leisure was predicated on the work of black slaves. There was no plantation ideal without the slaves to hold it up. Being an idealistic view of life, the aspiration to gentility instilled many like John Knight with the idea that as they reached their goal of legitimacy through owning slaves, they would be a fair and caring owner. [1] Thus, paternalism is inseparable from the dream of a plantation. The dream of owning a plantation was inextricable from the idea that it would reaffirm the owner’s masculinity.

Displaced in time, this paternalistic relationship is seen in the interactions of Sal, Mookie, and Pino (John Turturo) as they navigate life in the pizza shop. While he is no enslaved person, Mookie cannot afford to lose his job without harming his family. Thus he is reliant on Sal as a boss. This reaffirms Sal’s view of himself as a good boss and father figure to the community. Sal’s paternalistic role is tied to his dreams of success for his business and his desire to be a father figure guiding the community. Sal places himself, a white man, as the father figure for a black community because the paternalistic plantation ideal affects and infects every aspect of American society. Sal is no slave owner, but he is using this community to reach his aspirations of success and masculinity.

As Sal represents the aspirational paternalism, the benevolent father figure providing for the people he profits from, Pino represents the harsh reality of a paternalistic dream. Frustrated with his station in life and facing the harsh reality that a paternalistic relationship always involves resistance, he devolves into rage. The plantation ideal suffered for the same reason as it was not and is not possible to benevolently own another person. Though the paternal atmosphere reaffirmed the master’s masculinity, there was no plantation without resistance to the system. Do the Right Thing uses Sal and Pino’s interactions with Mookie to discuss how the idealized, paternalistic system of the Antebellum south became ingrained into American society, but so did the resistance to it. Sal and Pino represent the way in which paternalism affects American society because they are white men using their relationship to a black community to reaffirm their own versions of masculinity.

WC: 533
Pledged: Phillips Hutchison

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[1] Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life inside the Antebellum Slave Market (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), 112.