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From The Peopling of New York City
Contents |
Coming To New York
Nancy Foner’s “From Ellis Island to JFK” commences with a chapter entitled “Who They Are and Why They Have Come.” This section of the monograph is intended to answer that question regarding the immigrants of the previous generation and of our own. Foner continues her discussion on the arrivals at Ellis Island at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, stating that mainly Russian Jews and Italians immigrated to New York City, in pursuit of a generally better lifestyle.
Foner cites Thomas Archdeacon, who noted, “at the end of the nineteenth century the pressures of overpopulation, the prospects of economic mobility, and the availability of rapid transportation” were key developments leading to Italian emigration and the eventual arrival in New York (Foner, 19). Foner later explains that political and religious discrimination and persecution led to the arrival of European Jews, including such injustices as the May Laws and various violent pogroms in Russia. Both groups heard stories of a better life in the United States, and many decided to leave Europe in the hope of finding greater opportunity in America.
Foner contrasts this former generation of immigrants with the immigrants of today, who arrive not only from Europe, but also in great numbers from Asia and the Caribbean, (especially from China and the Dominican Republic). Economic hardship and political oppression are still strong motivations attracting the new immigrants, but another strong push is the safer and easier transport. Previously, many nations, such as the USSR and China, would not let citizens leave easily, but the looser restrictions enable immigrants to take a flight and land safely at JFK Airport within hours.
Foner also notes that the increase in various ethnic populations can lead to the immigration of similar groups, who come to join relatives or a particular enclave. She states, “According to one estimate…for each new immigrant admitted as a laborer…1.2 additional immigrants can be expected within ten years” (Foner, 28).
In her discussion of how the immigrants of the past came, Foner describes the horrible conditions facing travelers aboard boats. There were sickening odors, close living quarters, and no proper nutrition or sanitation for the passengers. Often the immigrants were sick, or became sick out of unfamiliarity with long voyages aboard a boat in such conditions. Foner contrasts the experience of today’s immigrants, who no longer land at Ellis Island and face health inspections and literary tests. She describes the process as being easier, but notes that still some illegal immigrants, desperate for entry, will subject themselves to atrocious conditions on ships much like those in the early 1900s.
Foner concludes her first chapter discussing the misrepresentation of old immigrants in film and stories, which often depict that of “noble sufferers and heroes” and the concept of the “model immigrant” (Foner, 34-35). In contrast, she argues that today’s ‘illegal immigrants’ are represented as being of lower quality. She states that this is untrue, as both legal and illegal immigrants often have skills far above their perceived level of work, frequently due to the language barrier. She concludes by stating that through the generations, immigrants always possess diverse cultural, educational, and economical reasons for why they settle in New York, explaining why their lives tend to differ from those of a generation before them.
Nancy Foner’s book “New Immigrants in New York” discusses trends in recent immigration of various different ethnic communities. The monograph is divided into chapters on the immigration patterns of a particular country, each written from the perspective of various scholars. Foner wrote the introduction, and follows it up with two chapters which provide a theoretical discussion of generalized material, before delving into the specifics of groups such as the Koreans, the Soviet Jews, or the Mexicans.
Foner’s introductory chapter “New Immigrants in a New New York” outlines what is to follow in the later chapters, providing background information on the authors and previewing the textual evidence they will present. This introductory chapter is followed by “Immigration to New York: Policy, Population, and Patterns,” co-written by Ellen Percy Kraly and Ines Miyares. They commence their essay by defining key terms that occur throughout the chapter, including ‘immigrant,’ ‘naturalization,’ ‘admission,’ ‘nonimmigrant,’ ‘refugee,’ and ‘asylee,’ a term defined as “aliens who enter the United States either on temporary visas or as undocumented entrants and who request and receive political asylum after arrival” (Foner, 36).
Annelise Orleck’s chapter focuses entirely on Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union. These immigrants, she notes, settled mainly in neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn with heavy populations of eastern European Jews who had come in the last waves before them. These immigrants, according to Orleck, “reinforced the Jewish character” of the neighborhoods, which had diminished as prior immigrants had virtually been assimilated into society (Foner, 112). These new immigrants, she explains, lived similarly to those of generations past, as it is hardly necessary for them to learn English; their communities seldom require it. Instead, enclaves such as “Little Odessa” in Brighton Beach formed to continue the cultural way of life familiar to the inhabitants.
Many of the Soviet Jews came to New York to escape the strong anti-Semitism that raged through Russia for decades. The Soviet Union, in its history, was prone to tremendous food shortages, placing hardships on inhabitants who were already heavily discriminated against. Limitations were placed on education and professional developments Jewish families could undergo, and they were not permitted exit visas to pursue opportunities in other nations, such as Israel. When the USSR finally opened their doors in the 1970s and 80s, thousands of Jews fled to the United States for family reunification and even to avoid the aftermath of the infamous Chernobyl nuclear crisis in 1986.
Gilbert Osofsky tells the tale of the African American immigrants in his book “Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto.” The second chapter is divided into five different sections, each detailing a part of the history involving African American immigration northward and various experiences in the south. The first section notes, “The most important factor underlying the establishment of Harlem… was the substantial increase in [African American] population in New York City” (Osofsky, 17). Osofsky further states that most of the increase was due to large numbers of arrivals from the south.
The second section of Osofsky’s chapter outlines early trends of African American migration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He cited W. E. B. DuBois, who stated that the everyday African American in a northern city (such as New York or Philadelphia) would likely be from 20 to 40 years of age and from the south. The section mentions some notable names who migrated north during this time period, including politicians P. B. S. Pinchback and Ross Stewart.
The middle section describes in great detail various reasons for the migration, and delves heavily into stereotypes and racial slurs used against the African Americans. Some reasons Osofsky gives for the northward expansion include being “tired of the south” or wanting “higher wages,” which were potentially available in the north (Osofsky, 21). These people, Osofsly argues, simply wanted a more fulfilling life, escaping the prejudices of the south while taking part in an industrial revolution.
The south remained opposed to the success of the African Americans, spreading rumors that spread north about their worthlessness. The south’s Jim Crow laws extended the racist attitudes, but the south certainly did not want their economy to suffer on account of this. The south wanted to be extremely racist yet enjoy the cheap labor of the former slaves and their descendents, a topic further examined in the fourth section.
The younger generation of African Americans did not have as strong ties to the south and the land as their parents had had. They were described by critics as having “a migratory disposition” (Osofsky, 25). The media joined forces with the racist groups, encouraging the beliefs that African Americans were useless and worthless, comparing them to the chimpanzee more than to other humans. But despite the supposed uselessness of African Americans, southerners knew that the economy would flounder without them since there would be no other source of labor on the farms and plantations. Therefore, African Americans were “encouraged to remain in the South,” sometimes even forcibly (Osofsky, 28).
The final section of Osofsky’s chapter describes various methods of transportation from the south to the more northern states, including the heavily preferred boat. One way many paid their trips north was through the Justice’s Tickets, where the African American would sign away their property and rights for a limited time until they served an individual and paid their debts, much like the days of the indentured servant in colonial times. Mainly these jobs required domestic work, which later became a field many of the migrants chose to enter into.
Osofsky chose to mention a rare few success stories of African Americans who made it big, including “Pig Foot Mary,” who became famous throughout Harlem for her traveling restaurant, and William Mack Felton, who opened repair shops to fix cars, watches, and clocks. Despite the success stories, there were many more failures who Osofsky neglected to mention, and life up north was often just as hard for the migrant as in the south.
Nancy Foner’s book “From Ellis Island to JFK” concluded with a chapter entitled “Looking Backward – and Forward.” This chapter included detailed information on the morphing of races over the past few decades, and predicted that the definition of race will continue to change unpredictably over the next century. She noted that as “the past…illuminates the future,” the issue of race, as well as occupational mobility and transnational connections, will echo that of the past generation (224).
Foner’s first point in this chapter was the analysis of the past generation of Italian and Jewish immigrants, who seemed to undergo a “whitening” process. Possible causes for this, she explains, lay within the foundations of the American economy, as these groups tended to climb the ladder of success faster than other groups at their time. More likely, she suggests, that these groups managed to blend into whiteness simply by not being viewed as black. Racial stereotypes and prejudices forced a ‘with us’ or ‘against us’ attitude, and Jews and Italians were quick to separate themselves from black enclaves and avoid association with them.
Foner does not believe that the same kind of blur in the racial lines will occur this generation, but predicted that perhaps the increasing number of interracial marriage will help bring various groups closer to one ethnicity, likely along the lines of ‘black’ and ‘non-black,’ rather than along today’s views of ‘white’ and ‘non-white.’ This possible outcome for the future would succeed in bringing whites, Asians, and light skinned Hispanics into one category, separate from the darker Hispanics and African Americans.
She also examined the prospects of occupational mobility, in which she discussed the opinion that many second-generation immigrants will be less successful than in the past, partly due to higher academic degrees necessary to find jobs, and also partly due to gender, as “women stay in the labor force so much longer today” than they did previously (237). Foner also brings up the idea of transnationalism failing to continue for the second-generation Americans. The claim is that the ties to their country of origin will decrease with every generation, and therefore it will be less likely that Americans travel ‘home’ to visit their roots or even consider themselves part of that culture. This is entirely backed up with statistics from previous generations, who increasingly distance themselves from their cultures every year.
Ellen Percy Kraly and Ines Miyares outlined the history of United States immigration policies over various decades through the present, detailing legislation such as the McCarran-Walter Act (known as the Immigration and Nationality Act) of 1952 in the second chapter of Foner’s “New Immigrants in New York.” This act set annual quotas for European countries and Asian nationalities, but did not provide any restrictions for nations in the Western Hemisphere (following in the footsteps of President Roosevelt’s “good neighbor policy”). They also explored various restrictions on Asian immigration, such as the “gentleman’s agreement” with Japan (and later Korea), in which the Japanese government did not issue passports to those wishing to work in the United States. The Asiatic Barred Zone, in 1917, prevented immigration from all other Asian countries as well. Most of these acts were repealed following World War II to allow Chinese (who fought against the Japanese) and Indian immigrants to enter the United States.
Richard Wright and Mark Ellis, in their chapter on the division of labor in New York City, divide up sections based on an ethnic group’s experiences in connection with their location of birth. These sections include: native-born and foreign-born whites, native-born and foreign-born Blacks, native-born and foreign-born Hispanics, and foreign-born Asians. Both groups of white New Yorkers experienced a decline in manufacturing job percentage since the early 1970s, according to Wright and Ellis, although they still continue to dominate the markets in general. In particular, foreign-born whites thrived in the services industries.
African Americans have had increasing general employment since the 1970s, even with losses in services, manufacturing, and construction industries. Foreign-born Blacks emigrating from Jamaica, Trinidad, and Haiti sometimes even come with advanced professional degrees, therefore earning them positions higher in the market than their native-born counterparts. The Hispanic population had a major shift in the groups entering New York City, no longer consisting solely of Puerto Ricans, but including Mexicans and other Central American groups. Similar to foreign-born Black and Hispanic groups, the Asian population has grown significantly in the workforce after emigrants from China and Korea arrived with greater education and more skills than those from the past.
Racism
Nancy Foner discussed “The Sting of Prejudice” in her monograph “From Ellis Island to JFK,” detailing the classifications of various ethnicities. She introduced the topic with the past episodes of racism against the Jewish and Italian immigrants of the previous century. Although these groups are today considered entirely ‘white,’ they were deemed to have a lesser racial status at the beginning of the 20th century. They were classified as an “inferior mongrel race…polluting the country’s Anglo-Saxon…stock” (Foner, 143).
Foner described a shocking book, The Passing of the Great Race, by Madison Grant, which examined the declining American image due to the Jewish and Italian immigrants bringing dirtiness to the previously pure and superior whites. Today, a book like that seems crazy, as the assimilation of Italians and Jews into American white culture occurred decades ago.
Foner continued her discussion of race, describing more modern points of view about African and West Indian Americans. Although culturally distinct, they are often lumped together into the category of ‘black,’ a race toward the bottom of the ethnic ladder in New York City. These groups often experience a great deal of racial injustice, according to Foner, who cited the Howard Beach murder incidents in 1986. She revealed that even today, “well-dressed black professionals often find that taxis are unwilling to stop for them in Manhattan” (Foner, 151).
Jamaicans have an interesting depiction of the term ‘black,’ contrasting with the typical white American classification. To Jamaican and other West Indian groups, blacks are impoverished members of the community, often of African descent, whereas ‘brown’ or ‘colored’ are the terms used to describe the upper classes, often with some European or Asian blood within them. Racial status can also be changed, according to Foner, by simply having wealth or education to ‘whiten’ you.
Foner continued her examination of race with the group known today as the Hispanics, a relatively new term that was created “by census takers as a statistical term of convenience to deal with counting the Latin American population” (Foner, 155). In other words, it served in the interests of the government to categorically label all people from Latin America as one. Foner argued that this term in inaccurate, as ‘Hispanics’ prefer to be known by their country of origin, as their ties are stronger to those communities.
According to Foner, the lighter skinned Hispanics are often better off, as there are lower poverty levels amongst the light-skinned, in contrast with the darker Hispanics joining the blacks at the bottom on the racial hierarchy. This itself is a contradiction with the four-race system accepted by politicians, which holds that whites are the majority over blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, and that each racial group is separate and distinct from the others, but strictly homogenous internally.
The Asians seem to be a more well received group than various other ethnicities, due to their ‘model minority’ appearance. Different Asian groups seem to blend better with the white communities, although still many cultural differences separate the two. According to Foner, scholars are predicting that like the Jews and Italians of the past century, the Asians are the next to assimilate completely into white America. She claims that many already consider themselves white, especially amongst East Indians who wish to escape the label of black. Her statements are partially true, as Indians do tend to distance themselves from the black status, but they do not necessarily consider themselves white either, as they often continue their own cultural practices, much like other Asian communities in New York.
Peter Kwong furthered the idea of the Chinese as the ‘model minority’ in The New Chinatown. In Chinatown, this often applied to the stereotypical “docile, law-abiding, hardworking” individuals of Uptown Chinatown. Clearly living in the better off side of the community, the uptown Chinese live in greater wealth and living conditions than do the downtown Chinese, who compete for low paying jobs in dirty conditions.
Kwong notes that the uptown Chinese were often members of China’s elite, who achieved educational strides in a competitive world to gain acceptance into graduate programs in the United States. The requirements for these individuals were very detailed for those in Taiwan, who needed to pass an exam, serve in the military, have financial resources, and fulfill an age requirement before being allowed to go abroad.
Those in downtown Chinatown had a dramatically different experience than their compatriots, as they were exploited by the wealthy as a source of cheap labor, the main economic resource which Chinatown has. These Chinese workers work in abominable conditions, often for less than minimum wage, and in order to escape the lack of mobility, many are required to look outside the safety of their ethnic enclave for work and stability. Other options to advance in Chinatown are to start a business of your own, a common practice. But this is often risky, as most businesses fail, and those that do not fall into a vicious cycle including the exploiting of other Chinese workers.
Gilbert Osofsky described the alienation of African Americans after their migration northward, and how they chose to deal with the segregation and racist attitudes of their fellow New Yorkers. He introduced his text stating that at no period in the history of New York City did blacks ever feel “accepted as full American citizens,” a statement he would contradict further into his chapter (Osofsky, 35). However, he did mention that higher degrees of acceptance occurred with national trends of what he called ‘racial adjustment.’ For instance, although many laws were passed in the 1870s extending rights to African Americans, many southerners disobeyed the laws in whatever ways they could, to ensure that blacks knew they would never be equal to the supposedly superior race.
Strides were made in favor of desegregation, however, when black schools and white schools joined in Manhattan. Osofsky quotes various politicians and important figures within the African American community in New York, who seem to imply that conditions are so improved that they feel a sense of equality and of being accepted into the community, contradicting Osofsky’s original statement. This paragraph is followed immediately by a statement explaining that “very little (if any) change in the stereotyped conception of [African Americans]” held by whites occurred during this time (Osofsky, 37).
In order to be accepted as a group in New York City, many blacks attempted to make the stereotypical black into a comedic art. They took the stereotypical traits of loyalty and emotion and formed a vaudeville entertainment, which was “a reflection of the generally accepted attitudes of white America toward [African American] life” (Osofsky, 38). These shows were written entirely for the white prejudices, and each show was apparently carefully examined to make sure they did not disappoint the audiences.
African Americans in then north continued to face hardships. Many blacks attended segregated Christian churches and all-black organizations, for they did feel welcome among the whites, and there were still a number of lawsuits filed against white hotels, theatres, and restaurants for denying access to the blacks. The blacks were called upon to be strikebreakers, putting them at odds with white workers during the years between 1895 and 1920.
Milton Vickerman’s chapter of Nancy Foner’s “New Immigrants in New York” discusses the hardships facing Jamaican immigrants, and noted all the accomplishments they made in face of adversity. He detailed that race and ethnicity were keys issues surrounding the identity of the Jamaican immigrant, as they are often categorized as ‘black,’ strongly impacting their social relations with other New Yorkers. Vickerman believes, however, that these ‘cross-pressures,’ as he terms them, helped the Jamaicans identify themselves, examining ancestry, education, social class, wealth, and jobs as ways to categorize someone, not simply by the color of their skin.
Vickerman notes that Jamaicans came heavily into New York, specifically Harlem, starting around the late 19th century, but stopping abruptly during the Great Depression. The immigration later resumed, and Jamaicans make up a large percentage of New York’s population. They came from the West Indies, according to Vickerman, to escape from high levels of unemployment, unequal distribution of wealth, a resource-poor economy, and to simply “search for a better life” (Foner, 202).
Politics
Nancy Foner’s chapter “Going To School” outlined the experiences of attending school for the older generation of immigrants. She explained the stereotypical view that the Jews were an almost superhuman race who sucked in knowledge as they moved up the educational ladder, and refutes this theory. She gives percentages of Jewish immigrants who actually attended high school and college, and the results are completely the opposite of the traditional belief. Foner explains this by suggesting that the hardships of simply earning enough money for a family to survive at first prevented these immigrants from pursuing education. She also noted that it was not as necessary to have a high degree at that time, for an eight-grade education level was all that was required for most jobs in the market. A basic understanding of math and the English language was enough for one to become a businessman or a form of entrepreneur, and it was only an exceptional few immigrants who attended City University, and made their way up in education and in politics.
According to William L. Riordon’s account of George Washington Plunkitt, this was certainly not the case. Plunkitt seemed entirely against the idea of education as a means to excel in politics, for it brought nothing useful to the party. He noted, “One who has gone through a college course is handicapped at the outset” (Riordon, 8). Plunkitt lists education on a list of ‘don’ts’ if one has any intention of becoming a successful politician. Another quality that he deems a hindrance to a political career is skill as an orator, for he explains that this brings no aid to a political candidate’s election.
Plunkitt advises that anyone who wished to make it big in politics needs to simply gain any following, whether it be one person or sixty. He uses himself as an example, stating that it was not his education but possession of a support group that got him noticed by the heads of Tammany Hall’s political machines. A person in charge of a group, he explained, controlled a percentage of the votes, which were necessary to the success of these machines. Therefore, each potential candidate needed to win his support in order to capture multiple votes. As his importance increased, Plunkitt found himself with even more followers. Therefore he experienced the rise up the political ladder.
Plunkitt seemed to talk disdainfully of formal education. Not only did he describe it as a hindrance to politics, but to those who wish to serve their country as well. This began a tirade against the Civil Service examination process, where those who are ambitious and patriotic find themselves out of work due to ludicrous knowledge necessary for the exams, such as the quality of sand in Africa or the size of the oceans. To Plunkitt these exams achieved nothing for the party, for those useless enough to know the answers received the positions, rather than those who were loyal to the group and the nation. Plunkitt announced that due to the horrible experiences many patriots have with civil service exams, the anarchist party expanded, encompassing those who failed to serve the democracy they had once believed in. One example he gave was of a man who went so far as to fight the United States on Cuba’s side due to his rejection and newfound belief in socialism.
Plunkitt’s view of the political structure of his day was interesting in that he did not find it corrupt, but only opportunistic. Early on he described the process of buying swampland when you know that land will soon be worth more to someone else. He also described that need for trust among the leaders of the party, and how honesty is a well-respected characteristic for a politician. He used Richard Croker and Charles F. Murphy as examples of honest leaders, who earned the trust of all those around them. This trust allowed them to stay in power for many years, according to Plunkitt, who also described the fate of the political traitor.
Plunkitt notes that the Irish hold a strong power in the elections, and they despise traitors to such an extent that they will turn on them. Riordon recounts Plunkitt’s personal experience with “The” McManus, whom he compares with classic figures Brutus and Lear’s daughters Goneril and Regan (therefore comparing himself to Caesar and Lear). McManus was not trusted by many, but Plunkitt chose to help him advance politically, only to be brushed aside by his former ally, who attempted to rob him of his senate seat. He predicts a grim end to “The” McManus’s political career, for his reputation as a traitor and backstabber will kill his support from the voters. Plunkitt ends his comparisons with the historic and literary figures there, noting, “So you see that Caesar and Leary and me’s in the same boat, only I’ll come out on top while Caesar and Leary went under” (Riordon, 33).
Plunkitt further explains yet another rule in order to be successful in the political world: that politicians never drink. He describes the process of consuming alcohol to be wasteful (not to mention expensive), as time could be spent furthering the party’s control. He himself swore off whiskey and beer, and looks down upon any politician who touches beverages more than occasionally. He again cites model examples of Richard Croker and Charles F. Murphy, whom he claims would less successful if they drank. He does explain, of course, that it is key to the party to maintain a connection to the saloon owners, though. He feels that doing favors for them can only benefit one’s self and the party, for votes of the saloonkeepers can influence those who enter their saloons as well.
It was noted in Riordon’s text that Plunkitt believed that reform movements would always die out, for they would never fully accomplish the goals of improving life, and the party would regain power after their failures. Years later, the same beliefs are circulating through Chinatown. Peter Kwong described reactions to the Chinatown Planning Council, known as the CPC, in his chapter “The Community And Government Institutions.” Kwong seems to praise the idea of a social welfare reform, which is put in place by the CPC, which “provides job training, employment, legal aid, and mental-health services, as well as…facilities for the youth and senior citizens…[and] sponsors low-income housing projects” (Kwong, 130). However, this project is viewed as a threat to the functioning of Chinatown, whose people view the outside influence as invasive, unwanted, and unnecessary.
There are other agencies in Chinatown that Kwong described, many of which attempted to end poverty in the enclave. To do this, the agencies are sent to “identify problems, then look for available funding” (Kwong, 131). Unfortunately, problems are not always extremely simple, and funding is rare and often unhelpful. The people in favor of these policies, including police officials, blame the Chinese for the failing structure of their neighborhood. The Chinese are criticized for letting gangs roam freely among the streets, failing to ever cooperate or speak as witnesses after crimes are reported or occur. The Chinese people, however, blame these occurrences on the police, who they mistrust entirely. They fail to step forward, believing that it would do them no good, for members of the gangs probably bribed the officials. Their fears also extended to possibility of failures for the organizations or schemes against the gangs, a likely occurrence in Chinatown. Examples were presented by Kwong in which gambling rings (a main source of money financing the Chinese gang activities) were raided for a period of weeks, or even months, but the groups always restructured and the cycle of gang violence always rose up again, threatening the lives of those in the enclave.
In Foner’s “New Immigrants in New York,” Patricia R. Pessar and Pamela M. Graham outline Dominican immigration, a large source of immigration since the 1960s. Dominicans, they claim, were the greatest source of immigrantion to New York from the Caribbean and Central America. Early immigration came due to the interdependency between the new republic and the United States. Immigration came to a stop, however, when dictators Rafael Trujillo and anti-America Juan Bosch came to power, and eventually U.S. intervention led to more “politically volatile years” in the Dominican Republic, leading to a mass immigration to the States (Foner, 253). The change in visa policies around this time by the United States allowed for greater Dominican immigrants, and Pessar and Graham note that this served “American foreign policy interests” (253).
Ghettos And Enclaves
Peter Kwong discussed the impact of organized crime on Chinatown’s development, comparing its similarities to the growth of other ethnic enclaves. He began the chapter noting that the CCBA, or the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, was losing power over the masses of Chinese immigrants, who deemed the CCBA too traditional. This was a massive change in Chinatown politics, as the CCBA president was often viewed as “the unofficial mayor of Chinatown” (Kwong, 109). Due the weakness of the CCBA, tongs were able to rise to power, each supporting illegal actions, such as gambling, the drug trade, and even homicidal acts. Each of these tongs created specific gang groups, made up of poor youth, who were employed to protect the illegal acts and establishments in all ways possible.
Kwong detailed examples of the violent gang wars, often between groups such as An Leung and Hip Sing, the former interestingly having a motto of “peaceful and virtuous” (Kwong, 109). Various murders and crimes occurred due to these ‘wars,’ resulting in almost no legal punishment for either group. During the massive immigration waves of the 1960s, the violence picked up once again (after a decline in the 1940s), clearly the result of the poor lifestyles the immigrants were forced to endure. The violent acts of the tongs continued into the 1990s; however these groups wished to distance themselves from the gangs to protect their images.
The residents of Chinatown often fail to expose any of the illegal actions for fear of what could become of their lives, already full of hardships in what many consider a ghetto. But, often overlooked is that many Chinese settlers have no way to prove any actual accusations due to the structure of these tongs. In order to avoid exposure of the entire group, the tongs limited knowledge of the gangs to the dai low, who leads the gang in their crime wave, and one other contact (typically a middle-level representative of the tong). Due to the political power these tongs and gangs have, they are able to almost own an entire section of Chinatown, ‘borrowing’ and extorting from any cashier they choose, and doing whatever pleases them.
The description of two major leaders of tongs and crimes are included in Kwong’s chapter. The first he deals with is a very godfather-like figure, Benny Eng, also known as Uncle Seven. As cruel and vicious as Uncle Seven could be when things did not go according to plan, he could be equally kind and understanding, solving disputes between his people that could not be settled by any other peaceable means. He was both a person to be respected and a person to be feared, much like Eddie Chan, Kwong’s next subject. Chan was present in American politics on a larger front than other Chinese leaders, which may have also contributed to the scandals surrounding his alleged gang involvements. However, Chinese media did not give any attention to the scandals surrounding a member of their own community, both out of fear and apathy.
Toward the end of Kwong’s chapter, he stated that the tongs are still somewhat responsible for the crime rates in Chinatown, and the inhabitants are still enabling them to control all aspects of life. Instead of working together and with the government to crack down on the gangs, they turned the blame on each other, also “blaming the school and the corrupting influence of American culture” (Kwong, 120). They fail to realize (or more likely choose not to see) that a 14-year old supplied with weapons, an apartment, and a personal defense attorney comes from within their own enclave, and not any outside force. Kwong concludes his chapter with a list of current tong operations, citing that gambling houses, stores, movie theatres, nightclubs, and bars are either directly or indirectly contributing to the support of the gang violence in the enclave. Many of these gangs are directly related to the drug trade circulating throughout Chinatown, and Kwong proposes that the banks are possibly in support of the trafficking as well.
A recent New York Times article addressing the problem of gang violence and tong control in Chinatown revealed that the reported crime level has been deceasing since the government formed law enforcement groups to expose the situation. Kwong is quoted stating that many problems noted in his monograph have nearly been solved, although this vague statement is not backed up with an explanation of how the problem went away. As seen before (even through explanations in Kwong’s text), it is not rare that the problems fade temporarily as the government pays attention, however, gangs will soon regroup when the government turns its back, or will devise other ways to extort and encourage violence. Therefore, it may only be a matter of time before others just as bad or worse come to power in Chinatown (or even Flushing or Sunset Park, if Chinatown is effectively protected).
Kwong’s chapter “Economic Boom In New York’s Chinatown” discussed Chinatown’s rise from an economic disaster to a functioning community that has expanded both its market and its size, as well as relating expansion to the growing internal problems. In the 1906s, the neighborhood consisted of solely six blocks, and the population has since grown sevenfold. The enclave started expanding with the garment and restaurant industries, two important and unlikely industries to expand side-by-side. The growth of these industries also helped expand other Chinese businesses around the world, as necessity called for Chinese wholesale vegetables, supplies from Chinese farms in Florida and New Jersey, foods such as bamboo imported directly from China, and even signs created and shipped from Hong Kong. But the self-containment attitude of the Chinese in Chinatown could only get them so far on their own.
What the Chinese required was a market for the food and garment industries outside of their own community, and the location near Wall Street played perfectly into the building economy. Businessmen went to exotic restaurants on their lunch breaks, attempting to show their friends and coworkers their sophisticated tastes and interests. This budded interest in Chinese cuisine around New York and even the rest of the United States, where items such as dim sum and Americanized egg foo young became almost American cultural terms.
Women in the workforce became another important part of Chinatown’s economy. They often worked within the garment factories, earning low wages over long hours. Wages continued to fall as more entered the workforce, as supply and demand would predict, for the more people interested in work, the less the employers feel necessary to provide. The women also had smaller amounts of time to spend in their traditional role of taking care of their families, and this further fed into to the popularity of the restaurants, which sold meals that were relatively cheap and simple to prepare for a family dinner after a long day’s work.
Still the Chinese economy attempted to isolate itself from the other neighborhoods comprising Manhattan. In the 1970s, studies showed that over 50 percent of residents spoke English poorly, if at all. They were able to function well within their own communities, which provided Chinese movies, soap operas, signs, and everything else available to them back in the old country. And still the Chinese felt threatened that American culture would cause their culture to fade, and the result was the founding of organizations to teach youths their culture and language, often spending two hours after school teaching a language the students already spoke at home, when English classes were rarer. When English was offered, the lack of use around the enclave caused many to forget anything they had actually learned in class, leaving them exactly where they started.
The weaknesses in assimilation enabled tongs and gangs to dominate the society, for their fellow Chinese were cut off from the rest of New York City. They were confined to a relatively small area, with little money, and only those around them to support them. Instead they were taken advantage of. Had the Chinese fought to break free of their traditional ties earlier on, they would have been better off within the mainstream American society. Now it is up to the later generations to part with the traditional ties, a challenge when their parents and relatives are encouraging them to remain loyal to their culture and a world they barely know.