Gentrification, ‘Do the Right Thing,’ and Bloomingdale

Plenty of people have pointed out Bloomingdale’s striking gentrification. But last week, neighborhood resident Natalie Hopkinson again analyzed the yoga studio/public housing dynamic in an article for The Root about ‘Do the Right Thing.’

The movie, directed by Spike Lee, is now 20 years old. In its pivotal moment, a black man throws a trashcan through the window of his employer’s shop—a white-owned pizzeria—after a black man dies at the hands of white policemen (see a ‘Do the Right Thing’ summary here).  Although it is set in Brooklyn, Hopkinson looks at the themes of black nationalism and racial strife through the context of her own neighborhood, which she describes as “in the throes of gentrification.”

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