When Adam Ellick moved to Queens—the neighborhood of Jackson Heights, specifically—he was looking for “discreet ethnic underworlds.” In the first sentence of his New York Times article, he notes that “New York’s most impenetrable night spot is not a chic Manhattan lounge but an unmarked Korean bar tucked under the el.” However, he describes that during his tenure in Queens failed to find those underground lairs of ethnic nightlife for which he’d been searching. Only after months of trying was he able to finesse himself into the aforementioned Korean bar, he was mocked by Irishmen, he had to listen to a bartender complaining about the ethnicity that in fact had brought Ellick himself to Queens, and when on the street he was ignored, feared, and sunned. Why does Ellick fail, overall? When trying to “penetrate” Jackson Heights’s various ethnic worlds, it seems that Ellick brought to the table only what he had already known: his own hobbies, his own preferences at bars and at restaurants, and his own habits in regards to going out. It seems that he never made an attempt to learn about the cultures of those around him first and then try to join their circles. Obviously, a big part of learning about others’ cultures is by going to various restaurants and eating various types of foods, going to the local bar, walking the streets, and simply being around other people. Ellick, however, only did what he already knew. It doesn’t appear that he first tried to see how most people act, where most people go, etc. Sure, he wasn’t an anthropologist conducting a subjective ethnography, but some of the skills that a field anthropologist might use in a foreign country could have come in handy for Ellick. If he had used some of those skills, for example, maybe he would have known not to take photographs in the way he did and then he wouldn’t have been shunned for doing so. I was surprised by the fact that he just tried to implant himself in the neighborhood with little expectation of the necessity of a getting-accustomed period, especially considering his time in foreign, developing nations. While I found Ellick’s article very interesting and enjoyable to read and his experiences fascinating, I believe that if he tried to accustom himself to his surroundings first, rather than assuming he could implant himself in the neighborhood, he would have been better received and would have been more successful in his journey.
–Jonathan Eckman
