New York City is an enormous entity. Between its five boroughs and countless communities, each segment of the City is infused with a personality all of its own. There is both an anonymity and an intimacy. You could walk the streets of Manhattan or Queens and never pass a familiar face. But then there is the barista at your corner Starbucks who works the morning shift and knows you by name and flavor.
Crown Heights, as discussed in Henry Goldschmidt’s Race and Religion Among the Chosen People of Crown Heights, is defined by its unique personality as a neighborhood of neighborhoods. There is a divide between Jews and Blacks, each of these communities having unique characteristics. Such differences distinctly shape relations among residents of Crown Heights and largely contributed to the violence that often broke out in this neighborhood.
The division of peoples in Crown Heights is so distinct that Jews do not even know their Black neighbors, or consider them to be neighbors at all for that matter. Reading about these sentiments was fascinating, and somewhat disgusting, to me. I can certainly understand that differences in belief and culture can shape with whom you associate, but I think it terrible that Jews and Blacks of Crown Heights cannot even seem to accept that they share some similarities, even if it be solely based on their shared location of residence.
It is these sort of feelings of isolationism and disconnect which heighten feelings of animosity and resentment and contribute to incidents like the riots of Crown Heights. If people are unable to overcome their differences, at least enough to live comfortably side by side, our world will forever be wrecked by prejudice and violence.
