Category Archives: Week 4: Sweatshop Assimilation in the Jewish Lower East Side

Immigrants have definitely been pressured to assimilate to the American culture. They are foreigners seen as social outcasts if they refuse to do so in some instances. This assimilation dictates how they might dress, speak, or even what they watch on … Continue reading →

     Growing up in a diverse area such as NYC has allowed me to never really worry about trying to conform to become more “American”. Growing up I never really felt as if I stood out from everyone else. … Continue reading →

I think assimilation is something that is bound to happen if you come from another country into America. As a second generation New Yorker, I have lost many of my ethnic traditions and values. My Colombian and Ecuadorean grandparents were … Continue reading →

I would prefer the term ‘cultural mosaic’ or ‘salad bowl’ to describe our flourishing diversity over the term ‘melting pot’ any day. A term like ‘melting pot’ implies that every unique ore of metal gets melted down into a new … Continue reading →

Gordon says that “the problems of proper housing and living, moral and sanitary conditions, honest and decent government, and proper education have everywhere been made more difficult by their presence. Everywhere these people tend to settle in groups or settlements, … Continue reading →

As a seventh-grade student, I went to school with students who were predominantly like me: children of immigrants. Thus, following celebrating the Islamic holiday Eid, I went to school indifferent to the curved, colorful henna design decorating my hands; in … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

The ideas involved in “Americanization” and “Anglo-conformity” that are thoroughly discussed in Milton Gordon’s book, Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins, are all too familiar. From as early as elementary school, I clearly remember the feeling … Continue reading →

Donald Trump has made immigration a hot-button issue in the two years that he has been politically relevant. From starting off his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers to enacting a travel ban that functions to discriminate … Continue reading →

While music and film frequently reappropriate and repackage ethnic culture into a more mainstream or “Anglo” accessible form, oftentimes it is fashion that most explicitly packages these cultures into a commercially viable product and a safe way of presenting trends … Continue reading →