Author: joeydawesomest

Joseph Dwan

5/7/18

Reflection 5/5: The Man in the Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado

 

“The Man in the White Sharkskin suit” by Lucette Lagnado tells of a daughter’s observations of her father’s struggles in a new country to make a living and provide for his family. Lagnado’s family fled in the aftermath of the Suez Canal crisis. Her father loved the city and had a comfortable life, both him and his family, but the antisemitism pushed him away. This occurrence of fleeing from conflict has become quite common in the past couple of decades. The comfort and the success her father had in Cairo had to be abandoned as he fled to make sure his family would be safe. Places like New York are safe havens for families like these as there are already pre existing social enclaves they can take refuge and integrate. The immigrants can have access to an area that share their same interests, the same music and the same tastes they can feel at home in.The Lagnado family struggled in the new conditions in America. Their life of luxury behind them, her father had to go so far to make ends meet by even selling ties out of a suitcase on the subway. Through the struggles the family took comfort in their own cultural section of the city. They felt comfortable around the familiarity of the music food and culture, Legando’s father spent a lot of time in the synagogue finding solace in his religion and taking advantage of the religious freedom of America. This story is one of many similar ones, but one overarching theme is hope. The hope that there is a better tomorrow, and in America, the one thing that is certain is that they have a shot at that better tomorrow.

 

Questions

1. How strenuous must the circumstances be for someone to have so much flee to someplace where they have nothing? Have your family ever experienced something similar?
2. Why do so many people choose to move to a place like America leaving everything for a small chance to achieve the American Dream?

Joseph Dwan

Response 4 of 5

George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture and the Making of the Gay Male World.

 

Chauncy’s Book, Gay New York, strives to reveal a hidden layer, a hidden group in a time when it was the agreed upon sentiment at the time, homosexuality was not something to be proud of.

Gay men were on the defensive and for the majority of the 1890s to 1940s, they were pretty much off the radar. Anti- gay laws allowed prosecutors to oppress the the gay community as freely as they wished. The oppression was so severe that the gay community even developed their own systems of code to identify each other and keep the general public in the dark. Many myths eventually arouse of this underground community. One of which was that because this gay community was so secretive, isolated gay men couldn’t join because they simply couldn’t find the underground movement. This was proven untrue as gay men loudly proclaimed their uniqueness with bright red ties and bleaching their hair. The city was an easy place for the gay community to hide, the massive amounts of people meant they could blend in and change society’s view of the gay community from the inside. This eventually lead to New York city to be one of the central hubs of the gay community. This isolation of the gay community today is less severe than in the past, however the gay community will always have an opponent to fight against. New York city stands by the community with its annual Gay Pride parade. The community no longer have to hide behind secret codes and dress, and can express themselves as freely as they want.

 

Questions

• There is much coverage on the gay male struggle, however, where is the coverage on the lesbian community struggle?
• Were the cities the only such “safe havens” for the gay community?

 

 

Joseph Dwan

Reflection 3 of 5

 

The subway is one of the more common things of New York city. Something that most new yorkers use to get around. It can normally be described as dirty, somewhat unreliable and oh god I really hope that puddle is water. But there is another fact that the subway hides from all but the most careful of viewers. In this article Larry Buchanan actively shows the income inequality of New York through an interactive infographic and short article with highlights on how extreme some of the income gaps are. The article quotes an almost 143,000 dollar median household income difference. That is a pretty extreme difference almost unnoticeable, unsurprising as most commuters are too busy trying to get some shuteye on their way to work. The interactive infographic is also very useful as it gives a very in depth look into the income differences over a large area like a subway overall route. The routes show mostly downtown brooklyn and manhattan as the more wealthier with the more lower earning income classes on the ends of the spectrum in queens and lower brooklyn.

 

This article is quite interesting as a lot of people don’t notice the income differences while riding and focusing from stop to stop, the graph and article really brings these things to light. The article could be improved a bit by including who lives where(demographic) to really highlight income disparity instead of just putting numbers, a face to go with the numbers would really be helpful. The article should be blasted out to some mainstream site where this article would be consumed by more people as this income difference is very low key and something people would rather not address. This article is something everyone in the city should check out, you could really find out a lot about people living just a few stops away.

 

Questions

Is there a difference in service quality the MTA provides to these areas or does everyone get the same “crappy service”?

 

How can the MTA assist in leveling out the income desparity?

The City Museum of New York

Joseph Dwan

Reflection 2 of 5

 

The City Museum was one that I had not heard of nor went to before the Class trip. However upon hearing about it, my interest was immediately piqued as I knew a bit about the city, but there was so much more history to explore. Upon arrival, I was struck by how pretty the exterior looked and upon entering, I couldn’t help but notice the opposites the inside and outside of the museum looked. It seemed old school and classical on the outside but modern and “hip” as the kids say on the inside. The exhibits were very well put together and broke everything down to the basics into easy to understand panel boards to read.

 

The parts of the museum that particularly connects with the class was the diversity and density parts of the exhibits. I really liked the maps that showed how the city’s specific sectors were continuously changing in their ethnic makeups. I know it seemed silly, but as a kid I had always thought that each ethnic group claimed their little piece and stuck with it, I had no idea that they moved around this much. I also liked how much emphasis was placed on the money part. It shows the wealth disparity and how it was distributed around one of the most prosperous cities in America. The museum is something every New Yorker should see and I would recommend any tourists to drop by to see that New York is so much more than an apple and Fuggedaboutit.

 

Questions

Do you have any suggestions to make to the museum to better represent the time periods?

 

Has New York City been accurately represented in the Museum, did it go in depth enough?