The Voices
Peopling of New York City, the name of the seminar itself tells a lot about the focus of this class. New York City is representative of diversity as it houses people of a vast range of ethnicities and cultures. One can nearly experience the world in NYC alone, as countless languages, traditions, foods and other such cultural elements flourish in the city. With the advantage of being so eclectic in nature however, New York City faces the inevitable clashes of cultures as well. With so many ethnicities living together, cultural differences and the fears of the unknown begin to divide people apart. Prejudice thoughts strangle the brain, wretched stereotypes gain momentum, and racism sprouts. New York no longer stands united because it has numerous little countries and races fighting against each other.
It is only unfortunate that NYC faces this conflict, and thus we decided to focus our media text on bringing together people of different cultures. These people confront the city and try to destruct stereotypes just by their voices. Each person speaks in their own language because it represents who they truly are, and despite their language barrier and despite all the differences that can divide them, each person manages to show how similar they end up being in this city. The people explain the conflicts that they face as part of an ethnic group and rectify the cultural mislabeling. Each and every culture supports peace and unity, and stereotyping any one is merely an act of obliviousness and ignorance.
My partner and I found this kind of media text very important because it directly addresses a conflict in NYC that needs attention. On a much smaller scale, the media text even tries to resolve the issue. One’s voice is a very powerful tool, and the people use this very tool to address their concern.
Seminar assignments and discussions helped us construct the poem. The concept of gentrification being associated with white people was evident in The Landlord (1970). We read about racial inequality and black criminalization in Bruce Western’s introduction of Punishment and Inequality in America and discussed the injustice as we saw a particular episode of the TV show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996). Although homosexuality is not an ethnic group, we decided to include it in our media text as well because it is a dominant group in NYC and it does face inequality. As we discussed the people of New York, we discussed homosexuals and watched Saving Face (2004). Being New Yorkers ourselves, we knew of stereotypes against East-Asian and Middle-Eastern cultures. Thus, we chose to incorporate those people in our video as well. We began our video by discussing the color differences that unfortunately matter in this city, and ended our video on the important note that although we are different, we must stand together because only then can unity be guaranteed. This message, along with the necessity to destroy stereotypes, is imperative to New York City’s ethnic imaginary.
-Aisha Ali
Diversity is one unique aspect of New York City that sets it apart from any other city in the world. The varieties of people that live in NYC have left behind their countries, but not their culture and language. The multitude of languages allows people to assimilate and define their identify in terms of the people they interact with on a daily basis. Despite different cultures melting into one to bring everybody together, conflicts do rise. One of the main reasons conflicts divide the people of this city into groups is racism. Stereotypes force people to assume things about others and judge them accordingly, which leads to tension and misunderstandings.
The goal of this video was to express the diversity of New York City by putting a face to all the different languages we hear everyday and having them challenge the stereotypes that revolve around their ethnic community. We wrote a poem that emphasizes an ethnic group’s stereotype but refutes it by explaining how they’re just trying to fit in or make a difference for the better. People may label individuals based on ethnic stereotypes but they don’t know the reason behind their actions. The poem is supposed to be a message to people everywhere to not judge based on an individual’s skin color. The reason we chose to have people speak in their native languages was to stress that though people differ in one way, they are similar in many others. Regardless of the fact that people speak different languages, we’re pretty similar in our ways. Language may divide people but they still come together for the sake of humanity. Our voices are what will unite people as we speak up for what we believe in.
The inspiration for the poem came from the various films and episodes we watched throughout the course based on the stereotypes of different ethnicities and groups living in New York City today. The Landlord (1970) focused on the white man attempting to gentrify a neighborhood. Gentrifying neighborhoods is usually associated with rich, white residents and it tends to have a negative connotation associated with it. The stereotype about black people is one that is common and we hear often, but it had a stronger impact after watching an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996). The episode was based on racism and how two of the characters were targeted because they were driving a lavish car and assumed to be criminals based on their skin color. Some of the stereotypes included in our poem are based on personal experience along with interactions with people of different ethnicities that are significant to the city. As a South Asian, I’ve heard many stereotypes about terrorism because somebody looks a certain way or has a specific name. Though Saving Face (2004) didn’t focus on East Asian stereotypes, we chose to include them because they make up a large population of New York City. We focused on homosexuality in the poem because it’s become an important issue in today’s society. Also, Saving Face revealed how taboo it is in different societies and so we thought it should be included because they suffer discrimination and are looked down upon. Immigration has been the main focus of our seminar and how immigrants attempt to assimilate into a different city. They struggle to fit in and to be a New Yorker, something that most people take for granted. Despite the differences between ethnicities and groups of people, everybody has the right to be treated with equality. Equality will allow the city of New York to stand together, but in order for that to happen, stereotypes and racism have to be eliminated.
-Mehreen Ahmed
