Scarlet Masque Theatre Journal New Beginnings and Fond Farewells Vol. 1 | Page 78
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feel like they are the “bad guys.” According to Flory, a character like Sal helps them “consider a
far more complex view of what it means to think of one’s self as ‘white’ and how that may
affect one’s overall sense of humanity” (67). When they identify with Sal because he is white
and because he offers idealistic opinions (initially, anyway), they see him as a comfortable
representation of them, of their “people.” Therefore, when he starts to behave in racially
insensitive ways, due in no small part to circumstances changing drastically from the serene
afternoon to the fatigued, stressful, antagonizing nighttime, they may see none of those
factors. They see themselves on screen, acting in ways they would never act. Unless, of course,
they accept Spike Lee’s challenge.
Flory demonstrates this challenge for us, saying that “by offering a critical perspective
on their investment in race, Lee issues his viewers a philosophical challenge, both within their
narrative understanding and their lives generally” (67-68). If a white audience can separate
themselves from their race, they can learn to see situation from the African American
perspective. They no longer cling to the words and deeds of the member of their own race,
because they realize he is behaving immorally. They realize that Sal, in being both a proponent
of integration with his son Pino and saying and behaving in racist ways, is meant to help white
audiences realize that having racist tendencies does not mean they can only have racist
tendencies. But he also throws them off kilter in challenging their belief that their integrational
beliefs mean they only have integrational beliefs.
The hope, then, and it may be a long shot, would be that they learn to separate
themselves from their race in real-life situations. If a black teenager is shot and killed by a white
police officer, for example, the white audience could be less pressured to automatically side