Guess Who's Coming To Dinner Discrimination Essay

In today’s world, prejudice and discrimination are words that are becoming more and more common to hear again. However, it is unlikely that the world will ever again know prejudice or discrimination like it did in the mid-1900s. Through the films, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967) and “Do the Right Thing” (1989), the audience observes prejudice and discrimination in action. Almost every character in the two films exhibits some sort of racism through their thoughts or actions, white and black characters alike.

The film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, follows an eventful evening in the Drayton household as their white daughter, Joanna, comes home early from her trip to Hawaii to inform her parents that she has met someone and plans to be

married to him sooner than later. This would not be a problem if it were not for the fact that the man, Dr. Prentice, is black. In this time period, interracial marriage was extremely frowned upon, but the two had fallen in love regardless of their knowledge of the current world view on their situation. Their parents, however, are not impressed with their proclamations of love for one another. While the mothers eventually come around, the fathers are not so easy to sway. Also not easy to sway, the maid of the Drayton’s, Tillie is openly disapproving of the relationship. Throughout the evening, conversations take place debating the appropriateness of the relationship because Dr. Prentice has stated that he will not marry Joanna without her parents’ approval. Eventually, Mr. Drayton, Joanna’s father, realizes that Dr. Prentice is feeling for his daughter what he felt for his wife so many years ago. This realization opens his eyes to the most important fact of the matter: the two are in love regardless of the consequences that will come of it. With this realization, he tells the couple that not only does he approve of them getting married, but they should get married if they feel so strongly for one another.
In the second movie, “Do the Right Thing”, the audience primarily follows a young black man named Mookie.

Mookie works for an Italian man named Sal at his famous pizzeria with his two grown sons, Pino and Vito. The pizzeria is located in a neighborhood that is primarily black and Puerto Rican, with the only two local businesses being Sal’s pizzeria and a Korean market across the street. On the hottest day of the summer, tensions in the neighborhood rise and customers flow in and out of Sal’s shop. One customer in particular really sparked a fire in the tension, Buggin’ Out. When Buggin’ Out came in to get his pizza, he noticed that on Sal’s “Wall of Fame”, he only had photos of Italian actors, which Buggin’ Out considered to be unfair and demanded that Sal hang photos of black actors as well. When Sal expressed to him that in his shop, he would hang what he wanted, Buggin’ Out took off to start a boycott of Sal’s. At first, no one was in agreeance with Buggin’ Out, until Radio Raheem, who always carried around his boom box blaring rap music, went into Sal’s for a slice and was denied service until he turned off his music. At this point, both Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem are angry with Sal and are wanting to cause trouble. They enter into Sal’s at the time of closing, with Raheem’s boom box blaring. The two begin to yell and cause a scene, driving Sal to the point of destroying the boom box with a baseball bat. At this point Radio Raheem becomes enraged and tackles Sal to

the ground. The fight grows and moves outside as the entire neighborhood comes to attention. When the police arrive, Radio Raheem was ripped off of Sal and placed in a choke hold until he was killed. The neighborhood, in an outrage, trashes and burns Sal’s pizzeria to the ground, at which point, Sal lost the business that he spent 25 years building and working in. The film ends with two quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), and Malcom X (1925-1965), which explain the dichotomy of the film’s theme.
Prejudice is seen as commonplace in most of the characters in both films.

There are only a few exceptions to the fact that all characters in both movies have their prejudices. In “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” two very obviously prejudice characters are the fathers of the two lovers, Mr. Drayton and Mr. Prentice. They show their prejudices in their reservations about the marriage of their children. Tillie also shows quite a bit of prejudice through her attitude towards Dr. Prentice and his relationship with Joanna. She does not welcome him into the home and she also tells Joanna, “I don’t care to see a member of my own race getting above himself.” The mothers in the film also have some prejudices, but seem to get over that for the good of their children for the most of the film. In “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, there is not a ton of actual discrimination like there is in “Do the Right Thing.” Tillie discriminates Dr. Prentice because she treats him a great deal differently than she would any white man that Joanna brought home. Discrimination is more discussed than seen in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” as the characters often discuss the discrimination and prejudices that the couple and any future children they may have will face if they proceed with their current

plans.
In “Do the Right Thing”, prejudice is seen in almost every single character. From Mookie, who acts as if he is neutral, to Buggin’ Out, who is very openly racist. While Mookie keeps himself neutral for the majority of the film, the viewer observes a few of his own prejudices like his demand that his son not speak English and his expression of dislike toward his son having a Hispanic name. Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem express their prejudices very openly as Buggin’ Out organizes a boycott of Sal’s pizzeria based on racial issues and Radio Raheem walks around constantly listening to a song that addresses such issues. Sal, while he treats everyone equally, also has his own prejudices in his thoughts that the people in the neighborhood can be more trouble. Pino, his oldest son, on the other hand, very openly expresses his view that he does not like black people. He expresses it privately with his family and publicly to the whole neighborhood as well. As far as active discrimination is concerned, the authorities seem to be the biggest culprit. Their murder of Radio Raheem proved their discriminatory actions. Pino also discriminates against the black people of the neighborhood, while his brother and father steer clear of such actions. Also, Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem discriminated very actively at the end of the film towards Sal and the rest of the crew at the pizzeria. They treat him differently and poorly for no other reason than his race and the prejudices that they think they have received from him.
In “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, Tillie seems to be prejudice against her own race. Through the information that she told Joanna and the way that she treated Dr. Prentice, it appears that she views white people as superior to black people. She acts as though Dr. Prentice, as a black man, is not good enough to marry a white woman and as if he is only trying to marry her for monetary reasons. Also, the rest of the world is racist according to the feelings of the fathers. They worry that their children will experience great pain due to the racism of the world. Nevertheless, the fathers are slightly racist themselves because of their reservations about the marriage of their children. Neither seems to believe that the other is good enough for their own child, which would not be the case if they were not of different races.
In “Do the Right Thing”, there are many more racist characters. One being Pino, Sal’s oldest son. Several times throughout the film, he expresses his dislike for black people, giving no reason except for the color of their skin. Buggin’ Out is also racist because he started the trouble with Sal and turned it into an issue of race.