The problem with the idea of a melting pot is that the ingredients don’t always mix well together. It has been obvious in our readings all semester that people just can not seem to get along. More often than not it is race that is behind the tension but this week’s readings also showed political loyalty to be the cause of brutal gang violence and riots. In Anbinder’s Five Points we saw the conflict between the Dead Rabbits, the Bowery Boys, and other Five Points politically backed gangs. They fought over neighborhoods and “turf” to push as many votes for their political candidates as they could. One of my favorite quotes from Scorsese’s “Gangs Of New York” is when an assistant tells Boss Tweed that Tammany hall’s candidate for sheriff has already won the election by 3,000 more votes than there are voters, to which Tweed responds “Only three? Make it twenty, thirty. We don’t need a victory. We need a Roman triumph.”. I know this movie had a lot of fiction weaved into the story, but the idea of corruption in the government was too true. These political leaders would use gangs, like the Dead Rabbits, as almost a violent campaign tool to ensure votes. Out of loyalty to these politicians these gangs would act as they were told, often rioting and duking it out over political turf. While I agree that these political loyalties seemed to be the largest and most explosive motivating factor behind the turf struggles, it seems unlikely that racial tension was also an important factor, especially noting the statement Marinna made about the difference between the government interference in Brownsville and the interference in the Five Points. Whether the government tries to help the community or (in the case of Five Points) exploit it, the political situation more or less takes a back seat to racial tension. In Brownsville, the government worked to improve living and economic situation, meanwhile street gangs still fought in the streets and in other public places and violence was not avoided. People’s connection to their ethnicity seems to always overshadow other loyalties they could have. And as races come together and grow apart from other races there is an unavoidable sense of fear bred from a lack of understanding. It seems that every new immigrant group is treated poorly by those who are in New York before them and yet the cycle doesn’t break. Every new group looks to the time when it will be their turn to bother the next group and tensions continue to grow. While in many cases this strong bond of community can be a good thing it also hinders the ability of groups to understand each other and this is what creates the fear of the “other” that William mentioned. Like Ashley I’m skeptical to believe these problems have ceased to exist but I can only hope that tensions ease in the future.
