Tag: student post

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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 New Yorker Spirit

Abhayvir Singh

Reflection 2 of 5

“Trump May Have America, But the City Is Still Ours”

by: David Wallace-Wells

This article, in its beginning, captures the mournful spirit of New York City following the Election night of 2016. Yet, it wasn’t every New Yorker that was mourning. There was Staten Island, Rockaway, about a quarter of Brooklyn and scattered neighborhoods all across the city that had voted for Donald Trump. For them, it was a good day. The rest, since that day, had to buckle up and become members of the resistance. Continue reading “The New Yorker Spirit”

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Diversity through Food

Allison Wu

Reflection 1 of 5

97 Orchard Street: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement

Diversity through Food

Jane Zeigelman’s book, 97 Orchard Street: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement, tells the story of how different families from different cultures use food from their origins to shape their lives in NYC. Their use of native food in their new environment ultimately forms the diversity that NYC has today. Continue reading “Diversity through Food”

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Food as Culture: Assimilation or Pride?

(Response 1 of 5) Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures

by Anna

In the introduction of Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures, authors Fred L. Gardaphe and Wenying Xu establish the concept of “…food as a cultural sign that participates in the representations of race, ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, and exile.” (10) They note that throughout the history of the United States, food has been used as a tool to encourage and enforce assimilation, and that foods from immigrant cultures signified “ethnic inferiority.” (9) However, they also cite writers who view food as a way of expressing pride in their culture and identity.

Continue reading “Food as Culture: Assimilation or Pride?”

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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”