Similar to what Aislinn said at the end of her response, the content in these articles were really revealing of what now seems to be an obvious part of the New York City demographic. For instance, my town neighbors Ozone Park and is relatively close to South Ozone Park and I have undoubtedly realized the large number of people of West Indian descent living there. Yet without the proper knowledge of the topic and the social context, I have never been able to put one and one together and see it for what it really is: an enclave. Aside from this revelation, if you can call it one, I was able to extract negatives and positives from the societal conditions many immigrants/minority groups/second-generation residents find themselves in from both articles.
The tendency of these groups of people to live amongst each other within the greater walls of this city whether voluntarily or involuntarily definitely has its pros and cons. Marcuse highlighted a major flaw in the pattern in his detailed explanation of the outcast ghetto. Not only is this a spatially excluded area for minority groups, it is an economic one as well. Although today’s ghettos do not come close to his full definition of an outcast ghetto, it is clear that ghetto residents are a strain on society as a whole and are generally not productive to the economy. The frightening aspect of this is that residents of today’s ghettos have little to no opportunity of escaping into greater society if you will, and the pattern of downward social mobility continues. The example Marcuse used with Harlem proved this point sufficiently. What was once more of an enclave for African-Americans has now become more of an outcast ghetto and possible solutions to the descent are slim and unlikely.
Marcuse explained an enclave to be an area that promotes upward social mobility for a person by living with people they can identify with whether culturally or ethnically. Although this may be true, he later goes on to mention integration as the desirable goal in the United States as a means of positive interaction between cultures, races, and religion. Complete integration seems a bit far-fetched and unlikely, but Kasinitz points out that New York despite being segregated in some areas is reaping the rewards of integration in the creation of ‘hybrid minority cultures.’ He posits that second generation immigrants residing in New York are gaining their own identity apart from their immigrant parents and the typical idea of an American as ‘New Yorkers.’ This unique identity is a direct result of the constant interaction between other second-generation cultures and native minorities that has created a new type of multiculturalism within the city.
