I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into for this project. I’ve never been to Astoria and wasn’t familiar with the neighborhood at all coming into this project. However, I feel I actually learned a lot from the visits to Astoria, researching about Astoria, and completing the project as a whole by analyzing our […]
This project forced me to be more aware of my surroundings. I am easily distractable by the constant sensory input of the urban environment; this project required filtering through all the stimuli around me to discern individual events. This was quite painstaking for me as my notes were a jumble of various observations. The outside […]
As soon as I finished reading Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” I emailed the article to my two roommates. Both of them are intelligent, liberal-minded…and white. I knew this article would intrigue them. McIntosh states that “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not […]
There was a time when I took comments like “your English is so good” as a compliment. English took some time for me to learn and was a source of great stress when I first moved to this country. I would say I was completely fluent two years after I moved to the country, since […]
It’s no surprise to me that fare evasion arrests are “among [the] city’s top offenses leading to jail.” Everyone always hears about how the NYPD arrests people for the most minor offenses and for not having their priorities on point in terms of the crimes to focus on. However, some of the stories that were […]
In Robert G. Lee’s article, the author brings up the point that people of certain ethnicities show better performance and economic standing than others. In modern day society, Asian Americans are often thought of as having high levels of educational attainment, as well as enjoying economic success and stability. The reason behind these achievements are […]
It is absolutely absurd and mind boggling that people can be arrested based on fare evasion charges. The various cases described in the reading are such miniscule offences that anyone could have done if they were in difficult circumstances, moreover why resort to such extreme measures when a simple fine would be enough— just like […]
As much as I respect the NYPD and their authority, it always bewilders me why non-violent crimes seem to get more attention than the more serious and violent ones. For example, why are their always two or three police cars on the highway on Saturday nights trying to catch someone speeding? Why are their so […]
I started off liking the idea of the Broken Windows theory. It made perfect context in regards to my downstairs neighbors, boys who are now moving out in favor of Manhattan or Park Slope because they think Flatbush is grimy. They have always complained about their dump of an apartment, and thus always abused it. With […]
Here’s a trivia question for you… Which country has the largest prison population in the world? Take a guess. Answer: The United States Are you surprised? I was, at first, but now I understand. In the past few decades, the United States has been very “tough-on-crime,” adopting laws and policies that places millions of offenders, […]
Gentrification has evidently been transforming countless aspects of society that we need to consider and reevaluate in order to ensure we are living the way we desire as well as awarding others that same privilege. I found the New York Post article “When Brooklyn juries gentrify defendants lose,” a perfect example of that. It highlighted an aspect of our judicial system […]
I should start by saying that I do believe that some symptoms of gentrification are not intentional, a belief presented in Recent Trends: Gentrification and Globalization. As an amateur artist, I can confirm that there is a need for low-cost workspaces. Art supplies are quite expensive, yet as art projects can pile up, affordable places […]
I always hear about gentrification, but I never really understood the catastrophic impact it has aside from people being forced to move. The fact that low-income citizens are forced out of their homes, whether explicitly or implicitly, is awful. Gentrification is chaotic and destructive when low-income families are forced to move because their landlords increase the rent […]
This is a couple of hours late for the extra credit, but I got really engaged with it so I figured I’d share anyway. Link to the original: Earrings One of these earrings comes from a pair that my great-grandmother owned, the only jewelry she ever had. The second earring was made to match the first, […]
My grandmother was a victim of the horrors that the Holocaust wreaked on the Jews of the 20th century. She was deported to Siberia on a cattle car. She and her father caught malaria and she watched her father perish. She was starving, freezing and suffering through awful conditions. Through it all, she held on […]
Since I was 12, the ring that I wear on the fourth finger of my right hand has been an integral fashion accessory. There has hardly been a day that I haven’t worn it in the six years since my mom gave it to me in honor of my bat mitzvah. At 12, a girl […]
My family originates from Sri Lanka, a tropical island country that is dutifully coined “the teardrop of India”. This ordinate statue represents my late paternal grandfather’s documentarist works. Throughout the majority of his life, my grandfather recorded video of the predominantly arborous landscape of the rural city of Paradenia. These recordings were a means of capturing […]
Arresting a criminal for breaking a law is just, given that the law itself is morally sturdy. Is jumping a turnstile truly immoral? On the one hand, it deleteriously affects the MTA workers whose salary depends on the meager $2.50. On the other hand, many people, who live “in poverty,” may rely on the subway […]
In my hands are grains of Jasmine rice: bought from the supermarket, imported from Thailand, grown by Thai farmers. Just like the bags of Jasmine rice, my grandparents and parents originated in Thailand and moved to the United States. With them, they brought over their food. The food I eat today is the food my […]
Over Passover, I was in my grandmother’s room looking for an object that represented my family’s story. In her jewelry box, I saw a ring that I’ve never seen her wear. I lifted the gold ring with a puzzled look on my face. My grandma took my hand and put the ring on my left […]
Robert G. Lee’s article, “Making the Model Minority Myth” resonated with me since I can relate to the article as an Asian-American. The article mainly discusses how Asian-Americans are very successful because of traditional values and their hardworking nature. I can relate to most of Lee’s argument, but not all of it. Lee argues that […]
Cheburashka is a popular Russian cartoon character that was created by Eduard Uspensky in 1966. When my parents were children, this oddball of a character was one of their major sources of entertainment, which was rather scarce in the Soviet Union. Kids would wait patiently for the cartoon program appearing twice a week and lasting […]
http://yourstory.tenement.org/artifacts/rice Rice. All day everyday. When I asked my parents why I had to eat at least one meal of rice everyday, the answer was simply “It’s our culture.” With its mundane and repetitive taste, rice seemed to be everywhere in my house. Whenever I looked for a snack, my mom’s automated reply was “perhaps […]
The name Pearl River may not sound like much among big brand names like Steinway & Sons and Bosendorfer, but it was the first piano that I played. In 1999 when my grandfather decided to purchase a piano for me and my cousin, I was one year old and he was just born. I started […]
