Scarlet Masque Theatre Journal New Beginnings and Fond Farewells Vol. 1 | Page 77

Maloney 14
Radio Raheem’s box, again and again and again. The music stops. ​ ]
A white audience, such as the one Corliss and Klein are part of, may not understand why
Sal seems to be racist “all of a sudden.” In fact, this confusion is what Corliss articulates when
he says that “One minute, Sal delivers a moony monologue about how much he loves his black
neighbors; the next, he is wielding a baseball bat, bound to crack skulls” (Corliss). He does not
believe that a man like Sal who can preach integration between the African and Italian
populations can transform into the much more aggressive force he becomes when a radio
playing loud music is placed in front of him. This theory that one person cannot simultaneously
be racist and not racist is false. We all hold our prejudices toward other people, other groups. It
is simply the case that some of us are either less aware of our prejudices or are less explicit in
the ways they manifest.
Spike Lee wants to help white audiences with this problem. He wants us to see a
situation like the one in “Sal’s” that evening more thoughtfully, just as Sal implores Pino to
earlier that day. He attempts this catalyzing of empathy through Sal as the “Sympathetic
Racist,” a term produced by Dan Flory in his essay titled, appropriately, “Spike Lee and the
Sympathetic Racist.” Flory defines sympathetic racists as “characters with whom mainstream
audiences readily ally themselves but who embrace racist beliefs and commit racist acts” (67).
These are personalities who are meant to establish “race allegiances,” providing white
audiences with a character with whom they can readily identify, but who later employs racist
behaviors.
The sympathetic racist is not meant to trick white audiences, however, or to make them