The “Impenetrable” Refuge

Ellick failed to truly immerse himself within the ethnic enclave of Jackson Heights. Nonetheless, he could have been more successful if he had visited the city with friends who possessed well-grounded connections within the city to act as his guide. Individuals of the same ethnic or racial group seem to naturally carry an affinity and shared sense of identity with one another. An Indian woman walking into a Korean bar would probably fall short of having meaningful interactions with fellow Koreans just as Ellick had. Moreover, the culture of Jackson Heights, the pulsing center of a burgeoning yet enervated working-class immigrant population, does not truly evoke images of the serene, affluent neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Ellick seems to portray the immigrant populations of Jackson Heights as aloof and ill-mannered, but the cultures which immigrants come from do not foster such insular attitudes. It is moreso a typical aspect of many urban middle-class communities where the populations are frankly fatigued and seek to find solace in retreating into their familiar cultural communities. Ellick particularly describes immigrant waitresses who shunned him out of fear of their undocumented status. The downturned eyebrows and scorn that Ellick was met with is a result of the lack of support not only from governmental programs but also from the more affluent members of the NYC community. This deeply-entrenched culture is certainly not one which Ellick would be able to deconstruct alone. Nonetheless, as a visitor to Jackson Heights, acquaintances of his own who at the very least identified with a particular ethnic group (Pakistani, Korean, Irish, etc.) may have helped facilitate more noteworthy interactions between Ellick and the neighborhood’s residents.
Mehta’s article “The Meltingest Pot” provided a much better representation of the integrated culture which NYC fosters. Rather than establishing his own relationships with residents at the Calloway Chateau, Mehta offers his own perspective as an outside investigating the relationships between residents which have developed over years of shared experience. Unfortunately, Ellick also describes an African-American resident who is “excluded” from the everyday interactions of the immigrants in the building; in fact, his inability to form friendships with the immigrant residents of the residential building is comparable to Ellick’s own experiences. Identity serves as a dynamic architect in establishing bonds between people. Immigrant populations seem to find and cherish their common grounding, still aching for their homelands yet earnestly striving for a promising future which would have been all but out-of-reach within the heavily stratified regions they originate from.