The 'Right' Thing to Do

This week I viewed the 1989 film Do The Right Thing. An intriguing film about an African American named Mookie and his relationship with his boss, an Italian American, and the rest of a Brooklyn neighborhood. The films main points center around the movement for racial equality and racial justice. The title, Do The Right Thing, refers to the choices the characters must make to obtain the racial justice they desire.
But what is "the right thing?" When the film ends two quotes appear. One from Martin Luther King Jr. and the other from Malcolm X. The two quotes make up the ongoing conflict in the film itself.

"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral..." -Martin Luther King Jr. 

"...I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence." -Malcolm X

Dr. King believes that violence is wrong and that people should be passive in their attempts to receive equality. Malcolm X believes that violence can be used in self-defense. He says earlier in the quote that if someone in power has what you need and is acting oppressively than you must do what it takes to establish equality. These two quotes make up Mookie's story.

In the end, Mookie throws a trash can through Sal's window. He is using Malcolm X's quote and doing what he thinks is necessary to receive equality from his Italian American boss. I believe that Mookie did not do the right thing. However, I do think violence would eventually be the answer but Mookie's act is wrong. Mookie vandalized and ended up destroying Sal's property. Sal never really destroyed Mookie's property.
In my opinion, doing the right thing means doing what you need to do to achieve achieve this equal relationship with others. Smashing in a window isn't one of these things. Like I said, violence would probably be needed eventually because acting passively wasn't getting things done in Mookie's situation. An interesting point to think about however is this: were white American's doing the right thing as well? Depending on the perspective, white Americans weren't necessarily doing the right thing either. So how is Mookie supposed to do the right thing to those who aren't doing the right thing.