The Astor Place Riots / Dead Rabbits Riot were seen as the first time urban immigrants and the “Nativists” (the anti-immigrants) physically went against one another. The “Nativists” were fueled through anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment brought on by the political control the Democrats would enforce through Irish American gangs that would conduct meetings in grog shops and saloons. These “Nativists” advocated for the closings of such saloons on Sundays – which interfered with the business of urban saloons. The Irish and Germans were seen as threats to Protestant values because of their drinking habits. Liquors and taverns further fueled the hate between the anti-immigrant and immigrant groups by holding Democratic meetings against the “Nativists”.
The immigrants, however, held the barkeepers to high regards and even made them “officials in the church societies, marshals in church processions, [and] chairmen in church meetings.” One person even came as far to claim that “there is no more charitable man living on the face of the earth than the New York liquor dealer”. By condemning such important members of the community from working on Sundays, the “Nativists” greatly impacted the barkeepers’ businesses and heightened tensions between the groups.
One of the cartoons depict a barrel of whiskey and a barrel of lager-bier carrying away with the ballot box while a bunch of people fight in the background. By teaming up, the Irish and the Germans were able to contribute significant political influence and changed the way the “Nativists” had been running things at that time.
I’ve never witnessed any overt ethnic or racial violence similar to the Dead Rabbits Riot, but – having lived in one of the most ethnically diverse places in the world – I have experienced moments of racial tension / conflict. Whenever I go to the airport, I see my fellow Muslims hesitating to walk in and dryly joking of how they would be the ones to be “randomly selected”. Some of my Sikh friends have claimed to have been “randomly selected” solely because they wore clothes that made them ‘look’ Muslim. All of this only creates tension between Muslims and anti-Muslims as it makes the Muslims feel like they’re living in a place in which they do not belong.
