The description of “Jewtown” in the Lower East Side by Jacob Riis’ in How the Other Half Lives is noteworthy in that it both movingly captures the plight of impoverished immigrants and uses racial slurs and stereotypes to get points across. Riis buys into stereotypes of Jews – he describes them as hard-working (the entire family works from dawn to dusk) and spiritual (the children do not go to school on Jewish holidays) but claims that “Money is their God” and that most of them are “unintelligent.” He essentially argues that Jews are intrinsically industrious and religious but that they lack in intellect and cleanliness. He almost seems to take pity on them for their lot in life – which is especially interesting when one considers that Riis himself lived in the slums when he first moved to New York. These racial stereotypes and prejudices that Riis held seem to be, in large part, informed by scientific racism, which is the idea that some racial groups have some inborn natural flaws because they are genetically inferior to the Anglo-Saxon race. Riis by no means should be exalted for holding this view and his works should be read with a healthy dose of skepticism.
However, it would be unfair to claim that Riis’ intentions were malevolent. I do not doubt that Riis was sincere in his desire to promote social reform on behalf of the destitute Jewish immigrants of New York. By virtue of the intricate level of detail of life in “Jewtown,” I assume that Riis spent a considerable amount of time in the Lower East Side and entered many homes and spoke to many residents. Riis seemed to be genuinely concerned about the living conditions of the neighborhood’s residents – he disappointingly notes that disease and poverty are rampant and that families live in horribly cramped conditions and he calls for action. Riis is even able to beautifully appeal to his presumed target audience, the middle and upper classes, by discussing the potential repercussions of not addressing these issues. For instance, he writes that “It has happened more than once that a typhus fever patient has been discovered in a room whence perhaps a hundred coats had been sent home that week, each with the wearer’s death warrant.” Who on Earth wouldn’t be terrified by the prospect of getting typhus or some other infectious disease from their new coat!? Riis thus appeals to the middle and upper classes by essentially arguing that it is in their best interest to help improve the lot of those who reside in the slums, which is an incredibly effective argument. Moral persuasion and an appeal to empathy is usually not enough to sway people into doing something against their self-interest – encouraging them to act in a way that furthers their own health and safety sounds like a much more promising persuasive argument.
