In the articles “In Queens: A Melting Pot, and a Closed Book” by Adam Ellick and “The Meltingest Pot” by Suketu Mehta, authors write about the diversity of Queens. Although both journalist talk about the same topic using similar narrating styles, their ideas could not have been more different. In fact, I notice that their ideas of the Queens diversity experience seems to the be the exact opposite of each others’ perspective. Mehta describes how people of all kinds of religious and ethnic backgrounds are able to socialize, coexist, and look out for each other in Calloway Chateau, while Ellick takes note that Queens is extremely ethnic exclusive, meaning that each neighborhood is dominated by a certain ethnicity and the people of that ethnicity like to keep their services and products to themselves, often blatantly ignoring outsiders and refusing to let them join.
My experience in Queens is more similar to Ellick’s experience in that I feel the extremely clearcut borders of ethnic neighborhoods in Queens. At the same time, I was able to relate to Ellick when he described the feeling of being excluded when he walk through each neighborhood. since I feel exactly the same way when I go to Queens. All local hangout spots cater to the dominant ethnic group in that community which makes me feel like there is nothing for me to do in Queens because most fun places are private enclaves that are foreign-phobic. But due to this my lack of a more inviting and outsider-friendly experience, I was truly delighted when I read Mehta’s narration about all the cute instances of neighbors helping each other and exchanging foods and services. Mehta’s experience was definitely a very unique one, because there is no denying that Queens has many tiny exclusive neighborhoods that cater to different immigrant waves. Even my friends and I used to joke that walking around in Queens, the difference of one block can completely change your surrounding and your experience; one moment you will feel like you are in one country, the next second, you feel like you flew halfway across the world to another, but Calloway Chateau seems to be an exception to the super clear-cut ethnic neighborhoods that both Ellick and I experience. I think it is fantastic that she is able to record in such great detail, the small happenings of this diverse mini-metropolis, it shows that she genuinely appreciates the cultural tolerance of the people living in Calloway Chateau. However, I do notice that Ellick speaks in a more macro level, meaning he talks about his experience of Queens in a neighborhood or even as a collective borough, while Mehta focuses on the more micro aspect by looking into one specific apartment building. Maybe both sides of the story is true, but I just haven’t been able to see the micro-experience. Since I grew up in Manhattan, going to Queens makes me feel like an alien already, but my lack of local knowledge of Queens makes me judge Queens only for it’s overall attitude. Perhaps I only saw one side of the story and I was too quick to judge (especially with my snobby Manhattan pride). Perhaps Queens in the microlevel really is well mixed in terms to ethnicity, but I just haven’t been able to experience that since I do not come from Queens. In any case, I hope to learn more about Queens this semester and really get to know it in a perspective other than from the lens of an outsider.
Alice Liu
