Joseph Berger, Suketu Mehta and Adam B. Ellick all describe their experiences with extremely diverse parts of the neighborhood. They all provide a unique perspective on these areas.
There were several quotes that struck out to me from the readings. Using quotes from the people who live in these neighborhoods can often be more revealing than an outsider’s analysis.
”They don’t eat each other.”
Many other nations would love to have the tolerance that exists in an apartment building in Queens. To have so many people, often from countries or ethnicities that hate each other, live next to each other and befriend each other is valuable and unique. A lot can be learned about peaceful coexistence from this neighborhood and hopefully applied to other areas.
“As an Uzbek man explains to me, ”You can have love affairs with people from other cultures, but when it comes to marriage, you have to come home.”
This quote struck me as very convincing and capturing the essence of Calloway Chateau. All of the different cultures live in peace and tolerance of each other. But to go beyond that and say that they are melting together in the pot called America is misleading. While they live together and interact with each other on a regular basis, they are not one mixed entity. The fact that intermarrying is stigmatized to such a degree that it reflects a fear of allowing strangers to become part of your society or vice versa. True, part of the exclusion is meant to preserve a unique identity but it is a barrier to integration of the many different groups.
It is this fierce desire to preserve the ethnic community that makes it difficult for Ellick to penetrate the ethnic underground of Jackson Heights. A cohesive community and identity is maintained to the exclusion of outsiders. As a well off white man, it is obvious to all the ethnics that he is not one of them. Ellick could have had an easier time penetrating the ethnic underground if he knew a language of one of the ethnic groups and had a greater awareness of their social norms. Having a friend from the ethnic underground which he wishes to experience can also help. But by virtue of not being from that ethnic group, he will experience linguistic and social barriers to experiencing it. However many times in the future he gets a glimpse of the ethnic underground, his understanding will essentially be a love affair, fleeting and superficial.
These texts are invaluable in attempting to glimpse a picture of extremely diverse neighborhoods. But they are incomplete in that they attempt to view these places from an outsider’s perspective. While Berger and Mehta describe tolerance and peace, it is difficult for them to understand the underlying tensions between the different groups since they are outsiders.
In high school, I was friends with many Russians. Many lived in enclaves in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay. I did get a glimpse of the ethnic underground whenever they took me to Russian restaurants and parks dominated by Russians. I felt comfortable in that neighborhood. I realize now that I was only a guest of my Russian friends. If I were to go alone, I would have experienced the same thing Ellick did, suspicion and a sense of foreignness.
This is terrific how you turned the Ellick article (and its obvious shortcomings) back onto Berger and Mehta, suggesting that, as outsiders, the ethnic harmony they found may have been as superficial as Ellick’s forays into Jackson Heights. Your point about your Russian friends is also well taken. Ultimately the best understanding of a place may come from experiencing it as an insider and as an outsider: outsiders don’t see the whole picture and insiders are too subjective.