Macaulay Honors College Seminar 2, IDC 3001H

Month: March 2017 (Page 2 of 4)

Brazilians in Astoria

Lexi and I interviewed various Brazilian immigrants in Astoria, while simultaneously visiting various Brazilian businesses in the area. Some of the places that we visited can be seen in the map attached to this post.

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Little Brazil, Astoria

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Cidadão Global: 40.755107, -73.918231
Villa Brazil Café Grill: 40.755080, -73.918082
DM Salon: 40.755161, -73.918279
Favela Grill: 40.767350, -73.917985
Chita\'s Home: 40.761871, -73.911398
Michael Iakovou and Associates, P.C.: 40.754645, -73.930731
Rio Market: 40.760781, -73.918719
US-Brazil Grocery Store: 40.756139, -73.920012
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Cidadão Global

At this non-profit organization, Brazilians are given economic and legal help. It also provides opportunities for the preservation of the Brazilian culture and has programs that teach the English language to immigrants. We talked about these programs in more detail with the organization's Executive Director, Stephanie Mulcock.                                                                                                                                         

 

43-12 34th Avenue, Queens, New York, NY, USA
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Villa Brazil Café Grill

This restaurant serves delicious Brazilian food, such as chicken heart and pao de queijo (cheese bread). At this restaurant, we talked to a waitress named Anna about her immigration from Brazil to New York City.

43-16 34th Avenue, Queens, New York, NY, USA
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DM Salon

This salon is owned by a Brazilian immigrant named Mario, who spent some time telling us his story about moving to America. This salon offers a wide variety of hair treatments, as well as the famous Brazilian Bikini Wax.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

43-10 34th Avenue, Queens, New York, NY, USA
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Favela Grill

This restaurant serves authentic Brazilian food. At night it turns into a makeshift club with live Brazilian music. It has a homey atmosphere with large tables that are connected in order to foster a welcoming environment, even amongst strangers. We interviewed Brazilian waiter Luiz here.                                                           

 

33-18 28th Avenue, Queens, New York, NY, USA
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Chita's Home

Chita, who lives with her husband and sons in Astoria, moved to the United States over twenty-five years ago. She fell in love with New York City at the age of nineteen when she visited it as a tourist.

30-08 45th Street, Queens, New York, NY, USA
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Michael Iakovou and Associates, P.C.

This is a popular Brazilian immigration law firm in Astoria. The company offers services in a multitude of languages, including Portuguese, Greek, and Spanish.

31-10 37th Avenue, Queens, New York, NY, USA
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Rio Market

This supermarket sells traditional Brazilian food and drinks.

32-15 36th Ave, Astoria, NY 11106
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US-Brazil Grocery Store

This grocery store, which sold both American and Brazilian products, used to be owned by a Brazilian family. However, it has now been taken over by a Greek owner.

41-02 34th Avenue, Queens, New York, NY, USA

 

Loving v. Virginia

In 2016 the acclaimed movie Loving, about Mildred and Richard Loving, who defied their state’s prohibition against interracial marriage, was nominated for two Golden Globes. I haven’t had the chance to watch it but it does present a similar problem to the stuff we discussed in class.

The facts of the case are that Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving got married in 1958. Mildred had black and Cherokee ancestry; Richard was white. They lived in Virginia. Virginia at that time had anti-miscegenation laws that forbade the marriage of whites and non-whites. The Lovings appealed their case all the way to the Supreme Court and the court found in their favor. The court found that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional.

But clergymen are different. Shouldn’t clergymen be able to exercise their freedom of religion and refuse to marry intersex couples? A similar question would be: shouldn’t clergymen be able to exercise their freedom of religion and refuse to marry inter-race couples?

Yes. I feel that all citizens of America have these rights. However, this should be an individual and case-by-case choice only. I don’t feel like it’s ethical to have it mandated by law to forbid intersex or interracial marriage, as affirmed by Loving v. Virginia. Similarly, I think that clergymen shouldn’t be persuaded by their constituents or hard-line religious fundamentalist groups that they must refuse to marry intersex couples.

What I’m trying to say, is that the law should protect clergymen that are bold enough to defy the religious scriptures to do what they feel is ethical. I do not think that other racist laws or narrow-minded people or lobbyists should legally be able to influence their decisions. Of course, the vast majority of clergymen would choose to stick with the teachings of their scriptures and that is their choice. But the freedom of choice must be given to those who choose to defy scripture and follow their conscience.

And on a hopeful note, I think that we are moving towards a more inclusive and tolerant society. This has been shown by Loving v. Virginia and the virtual mainstream acceptance of interracial marriages. This has also been shown by the Supreme Court ruling in 2015, legalizing gay marriage. I really hope that our nation is becoming more tolerant and in the near future intersex marriages will be accepted because no one can remember a time when it wasn’t.

***One thing I forgot to mention: marrying inter-race and intersex couples has one important difference. Intersex marriages are prohibited by Christian scripture but I don’t think that inter-race marriages are. Like I think all they need to be is Christian. The Bible condemns homosexuality however.

The Middle

On Monday Professor Rosenberg brought up a quote that appeared in Nancy Foner’s famous book From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s two great waves of immigration: New York City is increasingly becoming “hollow in the middle”. I found this quote to be quite interesting, because it clearly contradicts with what I’ve previously learned. New York City’s middle class was gradually becoming smaller and smaller as the economy was recovering.

The middle class first made its appearance during the Industrial Revolution, which was a transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, and manufacturing processes were facilitated by technology and machines. As a result of this Revolution America’s economy was increasingly expanding and becoming better. The middle class included people that had “white-collar” jobs, such as lawyers, doctors, bank clerks and shopkeepers. Some middle-class individuals even contributed to the expansion of the economy by buying and constructing factories for manufacturing goods/products.

It’s really interesting how the things are so different in the two eras. I’ve learned that during the Industrial Revolution, as the economy was improving and more and more jobs were created thanks to the advancement of technologies; the middle class was unrelentingly thriving. Yet, in the 20th century when the economy was recovering and improving, the same middle class was becoming more and more “hollow”. Many jobs were also created thanks to the advancement of technology in the 20th century. For instance, Foner claimed that many jobs that had never existed before were created, such as computer programming. Both epochs certainly share many similarities, notably the economic improvement and technological advancement, yet the middle class of the industrial era was thriving and the middle class of the contemporary era is dwindling.

Society’s Dilemma

In Monday’s class we discussed the issue of freedom of religion versus freedom of expression in the context of same-sex marriage. This is merely one of the heated debates that has divided people nationwide, so I found it worthwhile to bring up in class. As we moved from an extreme, the clergyman, to a grey area, the baker, the reactions to these situations made an impression on me.

I was surprised to hear that some people believe that a clergyman who refuses to marry a same-sex couple should be forced to do so. While I certainly think that in a business context there should be no prejudice in what customers to attend to, in such a religious setting I feel that there has to be a degree of autonomy. The entire basis of religion is the right to express one’s beliefs and share them with a community of others who believe the same. Therefore, forcing a clergyman to marry two people whose marriage he doesn’t condone would be unethical. Clergymen are supposed to be one of the most devout religious followers, and thus I think they would simply not be able to do something that goes against their religion without a guilty conscience and a poignant anger towards anyone forcing this on them against their will. On the other hand, I can sympathize with the rejection that a same-sex couple must feel in this situation as well. An aspect of one’s character that is so personal and private should not be judged by others. There definitely needs to be more understanding towards same-sex couples so that they too can thrive. I sincerely hope that our society as a whole is moving towards this by figuring out a healthy middle ground.

Mapping help today

Hi everyone,

A reminder that today is the last day I’ll hold office hours before your Neighborhood Visit projects are to be presented. I am away at a conference at the end of the week, so I won’t be around to meet with you after today. If you would like any help using our mapping software, Maps Marker Pro, please come by office hours today (12:30-2 in the honors lounge at 17 Lex) and I’ll be happy to walk you through the plugin.

The tutorial for Maps Marker Pro is here and you should feel free to go in and start creating a map to see what you are able to do and whether you run into trouble. I will, of course, be accessible via email all week.

-Jake

Artificial Perfection

We have throughout the semester and in the past few classes discussed the assimilation of immigrants into America. A common theme that was discussed was the theme of trying to change who you are to fit the group you are in. In my perspective, it is that many Americans expect perfection from others around them and in return immigrants that come to America try to fit into these norms. This is because of the growing culture of striving for perfection that grew in America. We refer this theme to people that have just immigrated but what about ourselves? For example, when we scroll through our Facebook feed, Instagram feed, or any other types of social media platforms we see pictures of friends who really don’t look the way that they appear. These pictures are of friends that have used filter after filter in this strive for perfection. I think when people think of assimilation they don’t think about this concept. Furthermore, transitioning from one area to the next we change ourselves and sometimes we don’t truly show who we are. When going from high school to college, there might be some things that we do, act, wear, or more to try our best to seem “perfect”. But, I’d argue that it is important for people especially immigrants to stick to their roots and to not be afraid to show the qualities in them that others may view as imperfect.

 

Struggles Faced by Chinese Immigrants

Immigrants have faced an innumerable amount of hardships while trying to assimilate into the United States. On Monday, we briefly discussed our trip to the Museum of Chinese in America. Before visiting that museum, I was totally unaware of how much discrimination Chinese immigrants faced. They came into this country in search of new opportunities and freedoms, and were utterly discriminated against.

There were certainly many images that had stuck with me throughout the trip, especially the propaganda image, titled “The Coming Man”, which was created in the year of 1881. This shows a cartoon of an evil looking Chinese man with long nails taking over and monopolizing all of the different work industries at the time. When white laborers began to organize for higher wages, American capitalists turned to Chinese workers to fill the need for human labor to open the frontier, fuel the industrial revolution, and support a new middle-class lifestyle. The Chinese were caught in between big industry and labor. Labor organizers used ideas of white supremacy to rally the working class. Prevented from joining labor unions, Chinese demands for better working condition fell into obscurity. White workers labeled the Chinese as the enemy. Americans accused Chinese workers of stealing their jobs, as well as being unfit for citizenship.

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Even though this happened in the late 19th century,  this issue is still relevant today. Many people in this country claim that immigrants are stealing jobs from American citizens. During Monday’s discussion, we touched upon how racism can still exist through different mediums, like putting up a rent flyer that says “Chinese only” or “Whites Only”. This makes us reflect on the fact that history does repeat itself in a strange and scary way. It makes me ponder on what the future holds for America.

Misrepresentation and Underrepresentation- The Lesser of Two Evils

On Monday in class, we were debriefing the class visit to the Museum of Chinese in America.  Our discussion of the Museum led to many topics relating to Chinese Americans as well as Asian Americans in the US.  The topic of discussion that I found particularly contentious and worthwhile examining was Asian people in Hollywood movies.  The problem with these movies is that there aren’t a lot of Asian actors acting in them.  To make matters even worse, there aren’t even Asian actors or actresses playing the parts of Asian characters in the movies.  As it was mentioned in class, Katherine Hepburn played an Asian character in a movie and wore makeup to look the part, something called “yellow face.”  Katherine Hepburn wasn’t the only actress of her time that wore a yellow face to portray these specific characters.  Professor Rosenberg mentioned how this wouldn’t very well pass by people today because it’s very demeaning and derogatory.  But, I find it funny how even though yellow face doesn’t occur as frequently today as it did before, there are still non-Asian actors and actresses who play Asian parts in Hollywood movies.  To some, it might seem trivial that this still happens today and that it doesn’t have to mean anything in the greater scheme of things.  But to think that would be ignorant to the fact that Asians are not only underrepresented in these movies, but misrepresented.  Why does this happen?  The only parts that Asian Americans are able to get are usually the stereotypical roles such as kung-fu or martial arts characters, especially with Chinese Americans.  I’m not necessarily saying that this is a bad thing since several Chinese actors, such as Jackie Chan, were able to take advantage of this gap that Hollywood badly wanted in their movies to be viewed as worthy in the movie industry.  But I think that in a nation with so much diversity, why don’t we see this diversity in the movies we watch?  Minority characters are so rarely seen in these films and usually they’re never the main lead as they’re usually the supporting characters at the most.  Personally, I don’t think that’s as bad as the idea that Asians are misrepresented.  I think once we fix the misrepresentation of Asian characters in Hollywood movies, we can focus on fixing the underrepresentation.

Modern American Stereotyping

One of the things we saw at the Museum of Chinese in America, as well as something we discussed in class on Monday and throughout the semester, was how certain groups of people became stereotyped in America. In the museum, we saw some of the stereotypes against the Chinese people, especially cartoons reminiscent of Nazi propaganda against the Jews. Today everyone agrees that such stereotyping about a person, or group of people, is evil and wrong. Despite this, our nation, as well as our politics, is littered with this injustice of stereotyping. On one side of the political spectrum, a religion is assumed to be filled with terrorists. While on the other side, someone who supports the President of the United States is deemed a racist deplorable. In modern America stereotyping has not only turned into something about race but also became our media and politics. In the 2016 election, we got a view of this. Our presidential candidates made our politics more about name calling and less about the issues. This problem is also further incited by the American media. I am not saying the media is evil. The press is what makes this country great by keeping our government in check. The problem with the modern media is it promotes this stereotypical culture. This is in part due to the way we intake information. On our phones, we can access stories from thousands of news outlets. The only way a news outlet can attract views is by having a catchy provocative title despite only having shaky supporting facts. All news media on both sides are guilty of this. In turn, our political arguments started to be along the same lines because that is what would make it to the front page. In order to make progress, we need the media to talk about the issues and stop stereotyping in order to sell papers. I believe this to be one of the main causes of the deep divide in modern America. There is no way to have a meaningful discussion if the argument is “I don’t like Trump because he is a racist” or “I don’t like Hillary because she is a crook”. We as Americans should be better than that. We should look at the issues and the facts and not merely make assumptions because it says it on Facebook. We should also look at the people who disagree with us and not assume their viewpoint as automatically stupid but should try and understand their point of view and where they are coming from. This is the only we can make progress and make America great again.

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