The Newcomers
The first part of Reitano’s Chapter 10 details New York City as “both changeless and changing” in many ways including immigration policies. Due to the 1965 immigration reform, people from the Caribbean, East Asia, Central Asia, Latin America and Russia flocked to New York and greatly changed the population of the city. In New York alone, over 110 different languages are spoken. Although many of these newcomers self-segregate in certain neighborhoods, they are able to interact with new kinds of cultures in New York creating a multicultural “cosmopolitan identity.”
As older residents were moving out of the city to the suburbs, the new immigrants came into these city neighborhoods and revived them. For example, the Russian Jewish émigrés brought Brighton Beach, Brooklyn back from it’s decaying state by living there and creating new businesses.
The Chinese immigrants faced problems of isolation upon coming to New York City. From 1882 to 1943, many Chinese people were barred from coming to the US. If they were able to come to America, they were excluded from most occupations and were left to work in restaurants, laundries, and in underground business. The Chinese were even kept out of American politics as they were controlled by the Chinatown Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA). When the Chinese immigration quota was raised in 1965, the population of Chinatown drastically rose. Most of the new Cantonese speaking immigrants were used as cheap labor in sweatshops with exploiting bosses while others immigrating from Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taiwan who were more educated and wealthy bought real estate and developed restaurants, stores, and sweatshops. When the Chinese were granted citizenship in 1943, they began to organize politically. The Flushing community elected John C. Liu as the first Chinese American City Councilman in 2001 and the comptroller in 2009 while two other immigrants from Hong Kong were elected to the City Council as well.
Although the city’s Chinese American community has grown politically and economically, there are still internal tensions along regional and class lines. The “model minority myth” stereotypes Asians as industrious, ambitious, and smart. Many accepted this image but the working class Chinese and Korean immigrants often felt ashamed if they could not live up to the standard due to economic issues. These immigrants later pushed the model minority myth on to their children so they can live the American Dream.
Due to the given American citizenship of many Puerto Ricans in 1917, they never became fully settled in either Puerto Rico or America. The Puerto Ricans were the first dominant Latino group in New York City. They enriched the urban environment with their culture and provided a large labor force for the post World War II industrial growth. They even became a political force in the 1960s when Herman Badillo was elected as Borough President and congressman. By 2000, Dominicans outnumbered Puerto Ricans in population. Since many Dominicans had dual citizenship, they returned to the Dominican Republic frequently and even voted in the elections there. Although much of their focus was split between the two countries, Dominicans did seek local political power and elected their first city councilman in 1991. The Dominican women also raised their role in the family by earning wages in America and developing leadership skills.
Another predominant immigrant group to New York City was from the West Indies. The first large migration to New York happened during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. While many West Indians used their British ties and British accents in order to distinguish themselves from African Americans, other figures such as Marcus Garvey and Claude McKay combatted historic American racism by emphasizing racial pride. During the civil rights era, tensions between West Indians and African Americans decreased as West Indian people won elective office in African American communities and their goals started to align more. Even though West Indians fates have aligned with the fates of African Americans, they did separately create a political identity and still continue to not be absorbed in African American politics.
The Social Contract
New York City’s political agenda has drastically changed with the turn of mayors. While LaGuardia, Lindsay, and Dinkins focused on serving the public and the poor, past Mayor Rudy Giuliani focused on the middle class and greatly defunded social programs. He believed that the “lazy” should not live at the expense of the hardworking. With new qualifying standards for welfare, Giuliani eliminated over 600,000 people from the program and was highly regarded for doing so. With a sudden increase in homeless people and attendance increase to food kitchens, it was proven that leaving welfare did not mean leaving poverty. To change the program for the better, Giuliani turned welfare centers into job centers to hopefully raise the people out of poverty. In addition, his tax cuts ultimately hurt minorities and the poor while helping wealthy private institutions and big business. He fought for control over New York City’s public schools and implemented citywide testing to raise standards and bring uniformity. Together, Giuliani and Badillo advocated the “standards movement” and drastically changed the education system of NYC.
After hearing of an art exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum called “Sensation,” Giuliani stepped up his fight to censor art at any and all costs. He threatened to cut public funding to the museum due to its “offensive” nature. Giuliani continued to use his mayoral powers to threaten different groups that were criticizing him and protesting against him. It wasn’t until the tragedy of 9/11 that he was able to be seen as a figure of strength and democracy during the aftermath. Throughout his term, he immensely changed the social contract of New York City.
