Herman’s idea about ethnic succession makes a lot of sense to me. Most racial tension only begins through competition for jobs or land or resources. He claims that people want to find communities where their ethnic grouping and their value systems are dominant. In the area I am studying, the succession idea is particularly appropriate – the area was originally Hispanic, but now has become more Chinese as Chinatown grows. In addition, my area has a marked influx of affluent young people of various races that are even beginning to replace the new Chinese immigrants. I think the majority of tension in my area isn’t caused by race, but by socio-economic class.
There are many reasons for the riots that occurred in the Five Points district. One major underlying factor is the political influence of a few key individuals that divided the Sixth Ward by racial and ethnic lines – as minute as different counties of Ireland. The Irish political machines and their control of the gangs in the area lead to many political battles being carried out simultaneously in the ballot boxes and in the bloody streets. For example, the Dead Rabbit Riot was only begun because of politics. The Irish viewed the new Metropolitan Police force as a Know-Nothing attack on immigrants. There was also a great deal of anti-Catholic sentiment that went into the political tension. People believed that if the Catholic Irish began to have power in the city government, the Pope would somehow conquer America.
Because Irish influence in the City had been growing, the non-Irish members of the council had moved control of the city’s police force to a nativist party in Albany. The city police was the only municipal organization that would reliably hire the Irish, the only place they had an equal chance or employment. So long as the Irish were still remaining in the lowest paying jobs, not reveling much beyond the Sixth Ward, no one really cared about them. It was only after they became a political force did the WASP’s begin to enact legislation to strip away their power.
Herman does mention the idea of political power in his piece on race relations. He points out that often, tensions come to a head when political power begins to change hands, from the existing group to the more recent immigrants. Once it is perceived that another group is assembling in large enough groups to be politically relevant, they can no longer be ignored. In addition, Herman mentions religion. He focuses, however, on the mitigating effect a common religion can have on racial tension, such as with heavily Catholic Polish people accepting very Catholic Mexicans in Chicago. If this is true, the converse must be as well. Since the majority of the nativist Americans were Protestant, the idea that there were so many Catholics in New York was highly unsettling and lead to a great deal of the tension.
Herman does touch upon many of the reasons that the riots occurred, though I think that the particular situation of the highly gang-based Five Points district is an important factor in the riots. Since the Irish were constantly held down by official systems, they learned to organize within themselves –fraternal organizations, attempts at militias, and very dedicated political groupings all had extensions that were street gangs. Had there not been a strong gang system in place, I don’t think there would have been as much violence.
