In Herman’s piece, the concept of ethnic succession, defined as, “the process by which one racial/ethnic group displaces another ethnic/racial group from an established residential, occupational, or political niche,” is explored in its many factors. Herman concludes that the main factors that drive ethnic succession are the need for residential space, the need for an occupational niche, and the need to hold political office so that one group may provide for the advancement of the rights of said group. I would say that Herman is convincing in his arguments as well as useful in providing evidence of specific instances of each factor. We have witnessed this type of succession in the Lower East Side on our walking tour; the Jews succeeded groups before them by occupying the powerful textile niche.
Anbinder’s reading offers a more contextual look at the factors briefly described by Herman. For example, the underlying tensions of the anti-abolitionist riot consisted of an air of threat from the encroaching of African Americans on the physical and institutional space of the Five Points. Anti-abolitionists vehemently opposed integration of blacks into communities or the church, perhaps out of fear of ethnic succession.
Gangs of New York, the film by Martin Scorsese, was phenomenally entertaining, bloody and well acted. That being said, the film was riddled with historical inaccuracies. The conditions of Five Points, in reality, were not so deplorable as depicted, and probably had as much crime as any other neighborhood in the city. Furthermore, fights between rival gangs were never so reckless and without provocation as in the film; rather, fights tended to occur at polls and were rarely if ever accompanied by axes.
