Spring 2018: The People of New York City
a macaulay honors seminar taught by tamar rabinowitz, ph.d
Rebecca Kreiser
Reflection 5/5
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit – by: Lucette Lagnado
In The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, Lucette Lagnado captures her Jewish- Egyptian father’s inability to embrace the coldness of NYC. By focusing on the ways her father clung to fellow Jewish-Egyptians living in Brooklyn, Lagnado essentially shows her readers how ethnic enclaves form and function in New York.
Rebecca Kreiser
Reflection 4/5
(Un)documented Immigrant Media Makers and the Search for Online Connection- Sarah C. Bishop
The anonymity of NYC can be viewed as an extraordinarily contradictory social construct. For those who want to escape their past, the City offers a fresh start where nobody cares where an individual comes from. On the other hand, for those looking to connect with others like themselves, NYC can be a place of total isolation. Here, it is only the openness of the internet that enables the possibility of connection.
Rebecca Kreiser
Reflection 3 of 5
Inequality and New York’s Subways. New
Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/sandbox/business/subway.html
“Take the A train to Little Guyana: Immigrant Enclaves in NYC” – Kirk Semple
Graphing the relationship between income brackets and subway stops is an interesting idea that demonstrates how people with great income disparities interact on a daily basis. This phenomenon shapes our city because it means that unlike in other places, the rich and poor of NYC interact with each other all the time. And exposure to people from various backgrounds and tax brackets can broaden an individual’s world view.
Rebecca Kreiser
Reflection 2 of 5
Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community by: Jenna Weissman Joselit
Ramiro Martinez, Aabel Valenzuela, Jr ed., Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity, and Violence
After reading the beginning of Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community and the first chapter of Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity, and Violence, I realized that the anti-immigration rhetoric that we hear today is essentially recycled material. Additionally, I realized that throughout history, anti-immigrant sentiments have almost always been irrational. With this understanding, I posit that many of NYC’s ethnic enclaves strengthened, instead of shrinking, as a natural response to illogical nativist attitudes and treatment.
Rebecca Kreiser
Reflection 1 of 5
Trump May Have America, But the City is Still Ours
Author: David Wallace-Wells
In his article Trump May Have America, But the City is Still Ours, David Wallace-Wells chooses to focus on the shock New Yorkers experienced upon hearing of Trump’s victory to demonstrate that we (New Yorkers) live in a bubble. Furthermore, Wallace-Wells poses a question to his readers: Is the NYC bubble a “sanctuary or madhouse?”
