#2: Multiculturalism and Racial Formation in the Eyes of Scorsese and Lee

America is a melting pot of cultures and races from all around the world. Many immigrants have traveled many miles away from their homeland in search for a better life in the northern cities of the United States. One city in particular stands out when dealing with multiculturalism, and that city is New York. This essay will discuss Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee’s vision of multi-ethnic New York City in their films Gangs of New York (Scorsese) and Do the Right Thing. (Lee) Also, this essay will go over the process of racial formation, which was undergone by the Irish, Italian, and African American communities. There are many similarities and dissimilarities within these three groups when dealing with racial formation and this essay will bring light to these. Lastly, this paper will discuss the ways Scorsese visits the street/church dichotomy in his films Gangs of New York and Mean Streets.


According to Wikipedia.org, the term multiculturalism refers to a state of racial, cultural, and ethnic diversity within the demographics of a specified place. Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee show us an accurate depiction of what life was like, as a minority, in certain locations in New York City. More importantly, they show us the struggles that these immigrants faced when living in a multicultural neighborhood. In the film Do the Right Thing, Lee gives us, as the viewer, the outside perspective of a neighborhood that is constantly having racial conflicts. This neighborhood in Brooklyn, called Bedford-Stuyvesant, is a predominantly black neighborhood, but as time goes by more and more other ethnic groups are moving into the neighborhood, like Italian-Americans, Latinos, and people of Asian decent. The main struggle in this film is between Sal, who is an Italian-American that owns a pizza parlor in the middle of Bed Stuy, and a majority of the African American community that lives in Bed Stuy. The problem is that Sal doesn’t want to assimilate his pizza joint to fit with the culture of Bed Stuy, which eventually causes a problem with two African American men who want his pizzeria to contain some aspects of the black culture in Bed Stuy. The conflict eventually turns into a fight between Sal and his two Italian sons and the African American community of Bed Stuy. The fight ends when Radio Rahim, an African American character in the film who carries around a boom box that repeatedly plays the song “Fight the Power,” is killed by a white cop who used excessive force to break up the fight. This conflict between ethnic groups objectifies a bigger problem that we face in the United States because of multiculturalism. Robert Stam and Ella Shohat state in their essay titled “The Politics of Multiculturalism in the Postmodern Age” that “Central to multiculturalism is the notion of mutual and reciprocal relativization, the idea that the diverse cultures placed in play should come to perceive the limitations of their own social and cultural perspective.” (359) They later state that “The point is not to embrace the other perspective completely but at lease to recognize it, acknowledge it, take it into account, be ready to be transformed by it.” These statements provide a solution to the problems that the Bed Stuy community faced, when dealing with the conflicts between the different races. The idea of reciprocal relativization is all about taking in the lifestyles of other cultures and realizing that just because their values and beliefs are different than our own we should still accept it, or at least take it into account. When diverse cultures are placed together, like in Bed Stuy, they should realize the limitations of their own social perspective and accept the other perspectives in other cultures. I believe that if the people of Bed Stuy would have just stopped and “chilled,” as the radio announcer would have said, then they wouldn’t have had the mindset of theme song, which was to “fight the power.”


When dealing with the film Gangs of New York by Martin Scorsese the viewer is shown the famous Five Points area of New York City in the mid 1800’s. More importantly, the viewer is shown the conflict between the White population and the Irish immigrants of Five Points. Before understanding the conflict that Scorsese is trying to portray in Gangs of New York we must first understand the history of the immigration of the Irish to the United States and how they were viewed in New York City at the time.


According the article “Irish-American Workers and White Racial Formation in the Antebellum United States” by David Roediger , the great potato famine broke out in Ireland between the years 1845 and 1855 which forced roughly three in four Catholic Irish famine-era migrants from their homes in Ireland to the United States. These migrants came to the United States desperate, without savings, and just a will to survive. They settled in the slums in U.S cities and worked mostly as laborers and servants. They were viewed on the same level, or lower, as the African-American community at the time. The article by Roediger points out that there are good reasons that the Irish were compared to African-Americans. The two groups both lived together in the slums, they both did America’s hard work, they were both poor, and both had experienced a great amount of oppression. Another group that can be compared when thinking about the Irish is the Italian-American community. Although the Italians arrived to the States later than the Irish did, they both were forced to leave their homelands in search for a better life. When looking back at the film Italianamerican by Martin Scorsese, Scorsese’s father discusses how his father worked very hard working on ships in the boatyard. Italians were viewed as very hard workers, like the Irish. Although the Irish and the Italians have much in common, they have one major difference that set them apart the most, which is the perception of their race by the white natives in America. Thomas A. Guglielmo states in his article “No Color Barrier” that Italians were “accepted as whites by the widest variety of people and institutions.” (30) This belief was related to the jobs they worked, the neighborhoods they lived in, and the unions they joined. Guglielmo states that even if Italians were “racially undesirable in the eyes of many American’s, they were white just the same.” So like the Irish, Italians were undesirable, but the Irish were viewed on the same level as the African Americans, and the Italians were accepted as whites, which gave them advantages over the Irish in housing, jobs, schools, politics, and many other aspects of life that one values.

Now that we understand the history we can understand how Scorsese portrays the battle between the Irish and the White natives of Five Points, New York. The main conflict in the film Gangs of New York is between the main character Amsterdam Vallon, who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and a character by the name of Bill “The Butcher” Cutting. Amsterdam, who is Irish, comes to Five Points seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, who is a White native, and is also his father’s killer. The battle between Amsterdam and Bill turns into something much more epic when Amsterdam see’s how unaccepted the Irish are and how poorly they are being treated in the community of Five Points. Scorsese does a good job of showing the movie audience the conditions that these people lived in. For the film, Scorsese constructs a life size replica of the Five Points area, thus creating a realistic set for the characters to interact in. Also, he uses a continuous shot camera technique where he follows Amsterdam through the town, giving the audience a good idea of the housing and lifestyle of these people in the 1800’s. The most powerful scene in the movie is when the white natives form a gang, march down the street of Five Points, and find the Irish community, as a whole, standing in front and inside the church. According the Roediger’s article the Catholic Church didn’t question the Irish people as white, and served as one of the few institutions that accepted them. They sent out a statement to the oncoming gang of White natives that they are accepted there, and they aren’t going anywhere without a fight. This street/church dichotomy is carried throughout many of Scorsese’s films, like Mean Streets, where the main character uses religion to balance himself out with all the wrongdoings in his life.

Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee have shown the viewers of their movies more than just entertaining films. Their films show us exactly how the ethnic identity of minorities was portrayed in the history of the United States. Lee deals mostly with the struggles of the African American community in terms of acceptance in a society dominated by the White man, and Scorsese focuses on mostly Italian Americans (Although he uses Irish immigrants in Gangs of New York) and the struggles, and advantages to other races, they faced when assimilating into American society. Both directors give the viewers a great view into the culture and everyday lives of these minorities. For me, as a white male, the films of Scorsese and Lee heightened my knowledge of America’s past and how far we’ve gotten, in terms of acceptance, since these immigrants have arrived in the northern states. Also, their movies gave me a better-rounded outlook on the stereotypes and beliefs of the popular culture today when looking at minorities.


Work Cited
Stam, Robert and Shohat, Ella. "The Politics of Multiculturalism in the Postmodern Age
Roediger, David. "Irish-American Workers and White Racial Formation in the Antebellum United States."
Guglielmo, Thomas A. "No Color Barrier: Italians, Race, and Power in the United States."

American Culture Through the Eyes of Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese

The history of immigration and migration of both Southern Italians and African Americans into the northern, urban cities of the U.S have influenced American culture significantly. Each of them brought their own ways of life into a foreign land and adapted to the lifestyle of the north to achieve a common dream of a better life. Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese show the culture of these two ethnicities and the battles that they had to face in the films Joe’s Bed Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads by Lee and Mean Streets by Scorsese. This essay will briefly discuss the migrant histories of their communities, how their group is represented in U.S film, and the challenges they faced in assimilating into American society.

To better understand the films of Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese we must first understand the history of the immigration of their parents and grandparents to the northern cities of the United States. In her article Two Great Migrations: American and Italian Southerners in Comparative Perspective, Donna Gabaccia states that in between the years of 1870 and 1930 3.5 million southern Italians, which were called “meziggianos,” migrated to the United States, most to the industrialized cities of the north and north-east. She also says that after 1915, like the Italians, 1.5 million African-Americans also migrated to the North. The reasoning for these two groups to leave their homes and start a new life in a totally different culture is because life in this new place promised a better life than the life they had before. These industrialized cities in the north were labeled as the promise land for these Southern Italians, who were seen as lower class outsiders in Italy, and African Americans, who just wanted freedom and independence from the sharecroppers of the south. Scorsese’s grandparents were part of this great migration, and resided in lower Manhattan of New York City, where Charles Scorsese grew up. Like Scorsese, Spike Lee also grew up in New York, except his part of town was a predominantly black area called Brooklyn. The interesting thing about the time period that they grew up in is that both directors got to see the culture from the past generations in their parents and grandparents, which were carried over from their homelands of Southern Italy and the southern United States. They got to mix that culture with the culture of their generations to make films that reflect their experiences growing up.

The representation of Italians in U.S film can be described as violent “mobsters” who are very family oriented, religious, and are always seeking respect in their own world. This representation is supported by the characters in the film Mean Streets by Martin Scorsese. The main character Charlie, who is played by Harvey Keitel, can be argued as a symbol of Jesus Christ in the film because he is always looking out for his best friend Johnny Boy, and always encouraging him to do the right thing. The religious aspect of Charlie is carried throughout by the symbol of fire. Charlie would repeatedly touch a flame whenever he felt like he needed to be punished for something. The self-punishment that Charlie induced on himself by the flame helped Charlie deal with all the sins he was committing, whether it be drinking, cursing, or violence. Johnny Boy, who is played by Robert DeNiro, is the opposite of Charlie. He is someone who does things without thinking about the consequences. Charlie always has to do favors for Johnny Boy and look after him because of the situations Johnny gets himself into. I think the image of the violent Italian gangster is best represented through Johnny Boy because of his high sense of pride, his willingness to snap at any second, and his violent personality. Although his character seemed to act like a child sometimes, I think if Johnny boy was forced to be on his own he would find his sense of self and develop leadership within the group.

Assimilation into the American culture wasn’t easy for both Southern Italians and African Americans. Although, if I had to pick which race had an easier time doing it I would have to say that the Italians did. Robyn Wiegman, in his article titled Race, ethnicity, and film says, when talking about Italian American identity, “…their representation throughout the twentieth century has been part of an expanding whiteness.” One of the biggest reasons, in my opinion, that Italians had an easier time than African Americans when assimilating into white society is because their skin color is white. In Richard Dyer’s essay titled The Matter of Whiteness, he points that people make racial judgments largely on what people look like, so in the case of Italians, they appear more “white” than African Americans do solely because of skin color. I think that another reason why African American’s didn’t assimilate as well into American society as Italians did was because they chose not to. In Spike Lee’s film Joe’s Bed Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, the main character is named Zacharias Homer, who is a struggling black barber who resists assimilation into the American economy. In Spike Lee and the Commerce of Culture, Houston Baker analyzes the main character by writing “Zach, in a similarly culturally separatist reading of American economics, aspires to the status of independent small businessman, rendering a service that both relies upon and preserves a non-assimilationist look for black America.” Zach’s stubbornness to keep the barber shop going, even though he wasn’t bringing in much money, (if any at all) shows that he strongly believes in being an individual in American society and keeping the small business going. This individualistic example of Zach refusing to conform represents the entire race of African American’s and their refusal to conform, and I think that Spike Lee was going for that image in We Cut Heads.

In conclusion, Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese can both be labeled as innovators in the modern film industry. In the film Mean Streets, Scorsese shows the American culture what it’s like to be an Italian-American in an unfamiliar culture and how they have become what they are today, as an ethnic group. Spike Lee gives the American culture a look at the difficulties in assimilating into the American society in the film Joe’s Bed Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. These two films show us a great deal of what it’s like to be 3rd generation immigrants in the United States and more importantly, help us understand their culture and learn from it.















Works Cited



Two Great Migrations: American and Italian Southerners in Comparative Perspective, Donna Gabaccia



Race, ethnicity, and film, Robyn Wiegman



The Matter of Whiteness, Richard Dyer



Spike Lee and the Commerce of Culture, Houston Baker