Author: rachelswed

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Migration to NYC

Rachel Swed

Reflection 5 of 5

The man in the White Sharkskin Suit by: Lucette Lagnado                           

In her book The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, Lucette Lagnado begins talking about her father’s life as a successful businessman always dressed in fine attire. Living in Cairo, her father, Leon had a very busy schedule that included waking up to pray at the crack of dawn, going to work, and staying up late gambling way past midnight which he would finally go to bed and start his day all over again. Leon’s lifestyle ended shortly when he met his wife Edith and she was expecting her first child. However, when Leon discovered it was a girl, his lifestyle quickly continued to Edith’s dismay. Edith and Leon had three more kids including our author Lucette known as Loulou in her book. In Cario, everything was very family oriented, Leon lived with his mother Zairfa and cousin Salamone. The family lived a lavish life with expensive clothes, maids who did all the housework, and a spacious house on Malka Nazli street. Everyone loved living in Egypt. But this took a huge turn when Nassar took control and there was a lot of anti-semitism in the area. Many relatives already moved to Israel or America. Nevertheless, Leon was reluctant to leave his life in Egypt. However, one night Suzette was arrested and this made the decision for Leon and the family to leave. The new government of Egypt pronounced that people could not take a lot of money with them only clothes. So, the family bought a lot of fancy new clothes and left Egypt with twenty-six suitcases. They stopped at Paris where they stayed in a dingy old hotel until the family knew where they wanted to go. They were torn whether they wanted to reunite with family in Israel or America. When they were sure they wanted to go to Israel, Edith’s mother, Alexandria died. This discouraged them from going to Israel so they then decided to go to America. When they arrived, they were situated in another hotel. This time, they were pressured to find an apartment right away and get settled on their own. Leon, already an old man, had a hard time finding a job. The older kids went to work right away. Leon settled for selling ties and cloths to strangers on the street with Loulou. They found a four-room apartment in Bensonhurst and settled down. Even in America, Leon still longed for Cairo. However, Loulou wanted to be more Americanized like having a sofa with a plastic slipcover. In America, they still move a few times when their circumstances change such as, landlords kicking them out or when Suzette and Caesar left they found a smaller two-room apartment. Moving to America was a very hard change for the Lagnado family but they managed and found their way eventually. Continue reading “Migration to NYC”

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Inequality in New York

Rachel Swed

Reflection 4 of 5

Inequality and New York’s Subway

A huge problem in New York is inequality and huge income gaps between citizens. In the article, Inequality and New York’s Subway, Larry Buchanan brings up very valid points about the injustice in New York by simply looking at the subway system. He provides an interactive infographic that shifts for different subway lines. The infographic shows the income of people who live around those stops. Through this interactive, you can see that there is a great inequality between these boroughs. Majority of this information shows that Manhattan has the highest median income out of the five boroughs in New York. There are huge gaps in income between not only boroughs but also between stops on the subway lines! Continue reading “Inequality in New York”

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Jewish Immigration

Rachel Swed

Reflection 3 of 5

Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community by: Jenna Weissman Joselit

(written in winter 1983)

In her book Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, Jenna Weissman Joselit thoroughly discusses Jewish immigration. Throughout history, Jews were known for being law-abiding citizens. They were the most peaceful, and there was only a record of two murders that were committed by those who identified with the notoriously untroubling group in the past 250 years (1). However, as the number of immigrants kept increasing, Americans grew highly fearful that their country would soon be corrupted by criminals, pickpockets, and thieves. Nativist believed that the government was too lenient with their immigration policies, claiming there were more immigrants than Americans. In addition, there were a lot of disorders such as, an increase in crime, and the economy’s plummeting wealth. In the eyes of an anti-immigrant partisan, these deficiencies were held at the responsibility of immigrants because prior to the surge of incomers, Americans weren’t familiar with facing such issues. As a result, a coalition formed towards pushing legislative actions to establish quotas to limit the number of immigrants coming, more specifically Jewish people. However, even after they established the quota there was no proof that immigrants were the reason for the increase in crime. Nevertheless, the book goes on to describe how the Lexow Committee uncovered the criminal element of the Jewish community that ranged from different crimes of pickpocketing to prostitution (with or without the consent of the women) and gambling. The revelations of Jewish criminality startled many of the community, and this cast a horrible light on Jewish people. Once viewed as a group of high moral standing, the Jewish community was now seen as a corrupted group and were targets of discrimination and hatred. Continue reading “Jewish Immigration”

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Street Vendors Vs. Anti Immigrant Bias

Rachel Swed

Reflection 2 of 5

Hot Dogs, Hipsters, and Xenophobia: Immigrant Street Food Vendors in New York by Sean Basinski

(Written in summer 2014)

In his research paper “Hot Dogs, Hipsters, and Xenophobia: Immigrant Street Food Vendors in New York,” Sean Basinski talks about xenophobia and laws directed toward street food vendors. In 1925, a whopping 90 percent of 31,000 vendors were foreign born (1). An easy job for immigrants who had no skill or formal job was to become a street vendor. However, these immigrants were quickly a target for anti-immigrant bias. For example, there were many laws put in place to limit the number of foreign vendors such as, “the Board of Alderman required “foreigners” to declare their intention for US citizenship in order to receive peddling licenses” (2). In addition to this, foreign vendors received many tickets for pointless refractions like not having all their items in or under their pushcart or not “‘conspicuously display’ their vending licenses” (7). Because of the cultural and language barrier established by city law enforcement, street food vendors struggle to avoid costly consequences from regulation. Enacting more laws that limit licenses or locations to sell creates a system of disadvantage because a majority of street food vendors are immigrants who use vending as their sole source of income and employment. As a result, Basinski founded The Street Vendor Project. This center, “provides legal and small business services to our members while organizing vendors to amplify their voices so as to increase their collective power in our city” (4). Ultimately, SVP will help immigrant vendors get their voices back and help against any refractions they receive by providing them with an attorney. Continue reading “Street Vendors Vs. Anti Immigrant Bias”

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The Relationship Between Food and Culture

Rachel Swed

Reflection 1

Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures by: Fred L. Gardaphé and Wenying Xu

(Written in Winter, 2007)

The Relationship Between Food and Culture

In the article, “Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literature,”  Fred L. Gardaphé and Wenying Xu write about the relationships between food, ethnic literatures, and cultures. They also centralize the multiple meanings of food in many ethnic traditions. The authors discuss these topics by reviewing a range of scholarship on the connection between food and culture. For example, one text that was cited from the article gave great insight in how food was an indicator of ethnic inferiority and superiority. Donna Gabaccia noted America’s efforts in assimilating immigrants to American diet as “the Home Economics Section of New York’s Department of Welfare recommended that immigrants should eat the old colonial creoles: for breakfast, hominy grits with milk and sugar, bread with butter, and milk and coffee” (9). This particular article also integrates ideas about how in the past, people from different cultures or places would not eat or even touch the food of another country. They would refer to it as “poison” and even throw out perfectly edible food. However, as the authors stated, “food [is] a cultural sign that participates in the representations of race, ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, and exile” (10). Food plays a significant role in shaping individual identities because it’s able to shape one’s cultural background and personal beliefs. It retains an immense amount of ethnic history and roots and serves as an important reminder of tradition and identity formation. Continue reading “The Relationship Between Food and Culture”