1. I found Foner’s discussion of New York City’s vs Los Angeles’ welcoming level fascinating. While NYC has become an immigrant mecca, LA is still working on adjusting to newcomers. Foner explains that LA has been a majority Anglo city until more recently, when large amounts of the undocumented moved into the city. Her observations relate to the stereotypes that I have of New York vs Los Angeles. As a performer, when I think of LA I think of the film industry and how they are less enthusiastic about color blind casting, and instead strive to reach visual cohesion in terms of race. Whereas in NYC, where theater is more dominant, it is not as uncommon to see a black actor play the biological father of a white actress’ character.

2. I liked Foner’s explanation of how students of different national backgrounds are all able to communicate with each other in schools such as our very own CUNY campuses. However, she also describes how sometimes groups of students that share a language other than English will gather and speak in that tongue, thus excluding several students who are not capable of speaking in said tongue. Instead of viewing this as something negative, I think it’s amazing that the students are able to even find others like themselves, and that priding themselves in their similarities is not hurtful.