This week’s readings dealt a lot with conflicts within communities. Throughout history we see whole communities turning inward towards themselves, separating themselves in order to support conflict. As many classmates have mentioned before me, no community can exist without conflict. I think Jessica said it well when she said, “Somebody is always unhappy with something.”
In Anbinder’s book, Five Points, the community’s main conflict in the mid 19th century was over politics. The existance of political separation and different loyalties caused a rift and in turn led to gang violence and riots. In Five Points, it seems that race played a small, if any role in the existance of gangs and riots. The riots took place between groups such as the Dead Rabbits, the Bowery Boys, and the Mulberry Boys, between the Democrats and the Know Nothings. But the riots didn’t only involve those who supported the parties, they involved the political leaders as well! The problem was that the majority of the political leaders had been involved in the military in the past, and had histories of being involved with gangs and violence. What kind of community can exist when the leaders can’t even get along. That’s not a community…it’s a dis-unity.
Pritchett’s book, Brownsville, on the other hand focused on the racial factors. In the mid 20th century in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the riots that took place were caused by the desire to be ther “better” group. In the case of Brownsville, there were other contributing causes that led to riots. These included: the disagreement about the political and economic situations, poor conditions, and lack of sanitation. The rioting in Brownsville led to the introduction of political parties and political involvement in society in order to ameliorate the discomfort and resolve all problems. The political leaders in Brownsville, unlike those in Five Points wanted to improve the community. Local activists created the BCC, the Brownsville Community Council, which was meant to fight the war against poverty by bringing better education, jobs and business to the community.
Both Sciorra and Reider’s articles provided more personal examples of the racial and political problems in Brooklyn in the mid 20th century. These articles show the pattern of cultural clashes –> anger –> violence/riots/etc. This is a result of the constant fear, as we’ve mentioned numerous times throughout this course, and as William mentioned, of the “other.” Every race or political party wants to be the best, to be number one. But this of course, is a hard feat to accomplish, when you’re only one of many. So, in order to prove superiority, groups have found it necessary, throughout history to resort to violence and rioting to “win” this title and become the “best.”
Over time, hopefully this will change. We see that, in the case of Brownsville, political leaders rose to the surface in order to battle the poor conditions and racial problems of the community. This example, since it is more recent than the example of Five Points, gives hope that things are becoming better, and society’s are finally working towards the right cause rather than working backwards against themselves. As time goes on, maybe we will be able to see and end to this desire to be superior.
