Afro-Latino in New York City
Growing up in New York City is a very unique experience. You grow up surrounded by a diverse population of people packed tightly into one city. But with this kind of diversity come the questions of self-identification and how others view you. I was born and raised in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights which is known for its mostly Dominican population. Moreover, growing up in the public school system and everyday New York living has exposed me to many different Latino and Black communities and culture. I have experienced racism; I have experienced the implementation of hegemonic ideals and I have been exposed to poverty. Even after all the civil rights movements and activism that have
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This has always made me debate race because in the eyes of others race is skin color, hair, eyes. Race is what people see and becomes less and less about what your background is. Living in New York City you would think people would be more open-minded. Recently, I was walking into a downtown nightclub with about four other Spanish females when we over hear a, I’m assuming, White female telling the security we just walked passed “How dare you let in these minorities before me?!” It was just a reminder that even though we’ve progressed in terms of racial equality there still exists an ignorant population.
Another link that I find interesting among the Afro-Latino communities of New York City is that racially discriminated races are pushed into poverty. Philippe Bourgois writes about New York City during the crack epidemic of the 1980s. He explains through cultural reproduction theory that although it may seem that inner-city residents appeared to live in a community astray from the mainstream ideals they actually held similar values such as the drive to achieve the “American dream.” He describes the inner-city as a culture of resistance that intends to accomplish its goal of success through the refusal of being stepped on by the “white man.” The form of upward mobility that this culture seeks is usually achieved by
In the end, large scale immigration is nothing new for New York City and there has been a tradition of ethnic diversity. Far from being the center of conflict and drama, many West Indian people tend to be ignored- swelled and partly sheltered by the large native population among whom they live. Jamaicans feel as if being Jamaican in New York is very different than being American black. Jamaicans claim to see themselves as superior, more ambitious, harder workers and greater achievers than American
What I found to be most striking is the belief of some affluent Black people who lay claim that in order to evade poverty and inequality, poor and working class Black people need to “pull themselves up by the bootstraps”. It peddles the proverbial reductionist rhetoric that is rooted in the belief that class status can transcend race, and that mobility exists within stringent stratified hierarchies. A condition of neoliberal capitalist society allows wealthy people of color to believe that class oppression can somehow be steered clear of, if one labors to the likening of the bourgeoisie elite, of course. That is to say, classism and elitism are both valuable currencies in gaining proximity to whiteness, as ideological conflations of class and race have muddled the debates about the configurations of structural inequality and
Upon thinking about segregation, Jim Crow laws come to mind. It is commonly mistaken that it is abolished, but there are ways that segregation continues to exist. It continues to exist in L.A, just not in the way of laws segregating them, it exists through marginalization. African Americans and Latinos are pushed into certain areas to live amongst each other while Anglos stay among specific areas, as well. There are several factors that contribute to this form of segregation such as: the amount of damaged properties, isolation of the "underclass", poverty rising in these areas, the conditions of the city, the lack of retail stores, and employment. Always Running, a memoir by Luis J. Rodriguez, shows different aspects of marginalization through the school 's Luis attended, the jobs he sustained, and the neighborhoods he resided
The theoretical conversation Ralph explores in the book is isolation. He draws ideas from Wacqaunt and Wilson’s The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City. In the article, the central argument is there is an interrelated set of characteristics that corresponds to social-structural problems in the inner city and the process has triggered “hyper-ghettoization.” The evidences Wacquant and Wilson present are mainly statistical and anthropology data. The article explains many of the residents are isolated due to the social-structural, economic, and political issues that surround them. The residents being moved by
Understanding that the poverty of black Americans did not just stay within the home is a big step in understanding urban poverty. Urban poverty reached outside the home, into the parks, schools and playgrounds. With poverties reach being that extensive, there was something other than adversity causing this. Louis Gates wrote an article about this called “Black America and The Class Divide.” (Jr.)
East Harlem is usually known for being a poor neighborhood. “In much social science literature on the neighborhood, Spanish Harlem is defined primarily by its poverty.” (Martinez).
However, Wacquant brings the term “inner city” to light, breaking down its meaning: “black and poor.” Living in Chicago gives one an exemplary example of the term “inner city” meaning “poor, black ghettos.” The references to “inner city” schools being synonymous with “poor quality” and “mostly African American” are damaging to urban terminology and creating a predetermined perspective of those who call the “inner city” home. The “hypersegregation” of the city of Chicago is a topic within itself, but the institution of segregation is, without question, existent here. In addition, “inner city” is becoming a label which implies unavoidable incarceration.
On August 20th, 2016, The New York Times published an article titled “Affluent and Black, and Still Trapped by Segregation” written by John Eligon and Robert Gebeloff. The article discusses why wealthy African Americans choose to live in poverty-stricken areas as opposed to wealthier areas (Eligon and Gebeloff). The writers John Eligon and Robert Gebeloff clarify issues that most Americans would not see, such as children losing their sense of culture in more upscale communities (Eligon and Gebeloff). Culture is what separates different backgrounds of people around the world, and it is vital for everyone to have their own culture that we can learn from. When African Americans culture becomes infringed upon, they take the necessary precautions
This time in the post World War II era, many African Americans had began to become a more urbanized center of population, around 1970. (Inmotionaame, pg. 1) The regular population included about 70 percent of just the natural population to live in more urbanized cities. (Inmotionaame, pg. 1) Soon African Americans dominated, having 80 percent of their community to live and take the same benefits in more urbanized centers of the Unites States. (Inmotionaame, pg. 2) Only about 53 percent of African Americans and others who seemed to migrate stayed in the same area around the South. (Inmotionaame, pg. 2)
Race in America - Why it still Matters Race is a socially constructed phenomena defined as each of the major divisions of humankind. Looking back in time, America has always been a country of racial inequality that benefited Whites. Examples of racial inequality in our history consist of the American-Indian war, slavery, Jim Crow laws, and general discrimination. Thus the term “White Privilege,” meaning Whites have special rights or advantages, came about. “White Privilege” personally resonates with me immensely for the following reasons:
On 7 June 1969, hundreds of Puerto Ricans gathered in Spanish Harlem, New York City to protest the arrest of Juan" Fi" Ortiz for a series of falsified crimes.[2] As a crowd gathered outside the People 's Church in El Barrio, Felipe Luciano addressed those assembled asserting that, " We will not allow the brutalization of our community to go on without a response. For every Puerto Rican that is brutalized, there will be retaliation."[3]Luciano 's statements were not ignored, and as the crowd filtered into the streets their shouts of Despierta, Boricua. Defiende lo tuyo filled the air.
It is evident that no matter how hard we try to avoid it race plays a major role in today’s society. Your race and/or nationality and skin color plays a lot in how you are seen and perceived by the world. The first thing you see when you look at a person is their skin color, which just
Black immigrants are a small but growing minority in the United States (U.S.) and in many ways a group to contend with. The majority of these immigrants come from the Caribbean; however, the African population has soared since 2000. As a whole, the black immigrant population has more than quadrupled since 1980 and has become over 10% of the black population of some large metropolitan areas such as New York (28%), Miami (34%), and Washington DC (15%). One factor that makes this group particularly interesting is their general success in this country despite their immigrant status and race. In many ways, they have been shown to outpace African Americans in areas such as economics and academics (Anderson, 2015).
They not only get used as descriptors, but also as markers of broader concepts and relationships. Race and ethnicity can classify you as belonging to a group or as an outsider, as different. These classifications not only designate one’s skin color or cultural background, but also function in a larger system and in relation to other racial and ethnic identities. In this system, certain groups have more power and privileges than others. In order to understand the cultural meanings attributed to specific races and ethnicities, we must examine the historical origins of these systems and ideologies. Many of our Western or American ideas about race and ethnicity come from specific moments in history marked by colonialism, immigration and other tides that shifted populations and demographics. With such changes and the intermixing of different races and ethnicities, dominant groups rose to power and exerted influence over others by occupying and controlling the landscape, language, culture, and rituals. The act of Racism is still active to this day. This is one if the big problems that lead people astray as to why they cannot fathom the central point of ethnicity and diversity in general. In the United States, a long history of segregation impacted access to public services including education, transportation, even drinking fountains as well as private sector businesses such as hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues. These discriminatory views also have impacted the voting rights, employment opportunities, and wages of other people of color. I don’t think that race or cultural background should have a play in describing a person or a group of people, rather, I think that who the person on the inside is what really matters. People today can be really quick to accuse and judge people before they personally get the chance to get to know them
Ever since I was little, I have had a great patriotism towards my native country, Colombia. I was born in Colombia. Being born in an magnificent culture was a great motivator to strive for a desire to represent my country. This sociological perspective of motivation to represent my culture was destroyed once I stepped in New York City. Adapting to a new form of patriotism was hard. I was called up named because I was from Colombia. I did not liked the ongoing bullying. However, the conflict perspective of specially NewYorkers made me feel embarrassed about being Colombian. NewYorkers would call off names such as “the Colombian” or “the drug dealer” simply because I was born in a country where the image of drugs has been perpetrated around