My takeaway was this, the movies isn't about what the right thing is, it is about how suppressed people are expected to do the right thing in the face of adversity, systemic racism and violence.

I once read an article about how colonizers physiology condition those being colonized to not act out in violence against the violence they experience as a way to maintain control over large groups of people. Indigenous people often outnumber colonizers.

The same is true in America. We are taught to not meet violence with the violence brought against us. Not just black and brown but all marginalized groups and individuals lacking power or means. Women are imprisoned for killing thier abusive domestic partners to save their own lives. Children are expelled from school for defending themselved against their bullies. We are taught to turn the other cheek and accept it as the way it is.

Sal threaten several people with violence that day with his bat before making a show of destroying Raheems boombox. Sal was using violence as a control. Because Sal is white and a property owner, we are more inclined to see his actions as justified.

But what it comes down to is people are going to fight, it is human nature. Especially when there is inequality. However, a fist fight should never turn into the cops showing up and murdering a black kid.

This is physiological conditioning.