Howdy again from NYC – good and bad, delicious and bitter, my padre came by on his way to Vermont for a gallery ceremony where some of his photography was displayed, and then Evan came up for our 10 month anniversary with the surprise of Bernadette Peters in “A Little Night Music” (and we totally got to see her naked (I don’t think the mirror was supposed to be placed that way)) and all in all it made for a wonderful and much more adventurous past handful of days, but now I’m sadly in withdrawal again. I’ll cope, I know, but I’m still counting down the days until I get to be home and then at SU again.
I’ve now managed to navigate my way around through Central Park, the American Museum of Natural History (the Hall of Origins is breathtaking), and the Metropolitan Museum (Picasso is something…special). I’ve also been spending a good deal of time in Little India, tried some Turkish food, some Turkish coffee (stronger than espresso, thick and gritty, delicious but it made my hands shake), and tried generally to reconsider the neighborhood through the scope of my current coursework: cultural assimilation, residential segregation, environmental racism, etc. I haven’t noticed much thus far in Little India by way of environmental racism, but the first two issues are absolutely prevalent. The restaurants may be Indian, the owners and cooks may be American Indian, but the styles of things seem to be assimilating into the general “Americana” culture. I stepped out of my Turkish joint to find across the street a place literally called “Curry in a Hurry”. And while the Turkish place is called Ay Kitchen, which is also, arguably, by virtue of its English alone, culturally assimilated, it didn’t seem to advertise itself or its food to the stereotypical busy white New Yorker the same way that “Curry in a Hurry” seemed to do.
It was also interesting to notice that the places seeming most frequented by the neighborhood Indian population were basement restaurants that I barely realized were restaurants at first, so well tucked under as they were. This reminded me of, though not quite so blatantly, the Mexican restaurants back home with signs up in the windows that say: No English – apparently meaning that they don’t speak English, coded meaning that they don’t intend to serve white English speakers, coded meaning that they serve “actual” Mexican food.
I would also say that New York seems to be one of the most unashamed examples of rampant residential segregation since the very existence of a cultural enclave such as Little India (or Chinatown or Little Italy) functions as a form of residential segregation. Especially since, though there were other non-Indian people eating and passing through, it’s definitely apparent that they aren’t living in the neighborhood as the American Indians working there are. This begs the question of why – why is it that the capitalist class may commodify cultures (as well as their own) and in doing so force people into ghettos or slums or cultural enclaves in order to preserve traditions? It’s also interesting to see how parts of town become encoded as either good or bad, safe or dirty, because I was actually surprised to find Little India in the part of town (upper part of Gramercy and lower part of Murray Hill) I did. The quality of streets seems to change at random, moving from the “nice” and more predominantly Jewish part of town that I’m staying in (surrounded by Baruch College and Yeshiva University) to the less reputable (not necessarily a “bad” part of town, but definitely a shift) into the predominantly Indian and noticeably poorer neighborhood.
I’m now excited to go with Sye Yuet (my classmate from Singapore and university in London) to Chinatown seeing as she can speak Chinese and thus, I’m hoping, will be able to give us access to the figurative basement or “No English” type of experience. However, I have to say, that I’m really finding it easier to recognize and appreciate the diversity and intercultural aspects of my classmates than of my pioneering into these various enclaves. These enclaves seem to have cookie cut themselves out in order to cater to and mask their cultural origins from the typical white capitalist class patrons, whereas my classmates (Jasmine (Japanese): Tokyo, Sye Yuet (Singaporean): Singapore/London, Chris (white): Pittsburgh (I’m pretty sure), Palik (Indian): Chicago, Todd (white): NY, Rebecca (Hawaiian, I believe): Hawaii, Prof Ariana (Hispanic): NY (parents, I’m pretty sure, from the Dominican Republic), and Moi (white): NC/TX ) offer their intercultural perspectives openly and excitedly.
For instance, I’m constantly surprised by Sye Yuet’s perspective on capitalism and our freedoms (especially of speech – actually just the other day we were discussing the protesting in Brooklyn against the construction of a Mosque and she looked at me with mild confusion and said: They are protesting the Mosque? In Singapore they would be arrested for saying those things.) as well as Jasmine’s perspective. Jasmine openly admitted that her move to America has shocked her because growing up in Japan she’d believed that we were a land where people happily tolerated and accepted people of all colors, religions, and backgrounds, and so many things I take for granted as cultural givens, she has fascinating new insights on. Then even the rest of us state-side colleagues have a variety of cultural perspectives (for instance, I was rather laughed at in yesterday’s class after revealing that I’d never seen or met a black hipster before, which they simply dismissed as a “Texas thing” and hey, maybe it is – maybe I need to be more observant in Austin, but definitely back home, I’ve never seen anyone not pigment-free dressed as a hipster) from Todd’s urban environmental concerns versus Chris’s entertainment POV, etc etc etc.
I would also like to take this opportunity to say: Go See Tilda Swinton in “I Am Love” – yes, it is in Italian and Russian and yes, it is rather old school, but that’s part of what makes it so delicious. I have to say, this is one of the very best films I’ve seen in a very long time dealing with both homo and hetero-sexual tensions as well as with cultural tensions and assimilations and the identity crises that inevitably ensue from the tangle – which, I think, ties in beautifully with everything I’m learning and, less directly, with some of what I’m experiencing out here – the dramatic (and widening) gap between affluence and impoverishment, the assimilation of certain ethnicities versus the utter exclusion or fetishsizing of others, etc. In short, it’s romantic, it’s painful, it’s sumptuous, it’s intercultural, and it’s fantastic – definitely Tilda at her best.
Anyhoo, definitely keep an eye on Politico (http://www.politico.com/) – one of the best and most renown political newspapers online because they are keeping a very impressive eye on Obama’s progress as we approach the first noodlings of the 2012 election. (Plus I got to have lunch with Alice, the Editor – she’s just fantastic :))
Ciao for now, neighborinos
Oh! And P.S. – maybe send up a prayer or at least a kind vibe pour moi because it looks like I have some serious publisher interest in my honor thesis :] rock on, intellecticos!
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