STRUGGLING FOR SPACE, CREATING ETHNIC/RACIAL URBAN CULTURES

HIP HOP BEGINNINGS

By A.M.

Rap music is one of the most popular genres of music today.  When most people think of rap, they think of the funky beats and course language we as Americans have grown to love and enjoy.  However, rap is only a part of the culture of Hip-Hop.  Hip-hop culture includes rap music, but it also includes other things such as breakdancing and graffiti.  We see hip-hop culture in all races of people in America, but how and where did it originate?  The purpose of my blog post is to explain the origins of this hip-hop culture.  This will take us back to the 1970s in the South Bronx, also known as the “home of hip-hop culture”.    

   

During the 1970s there was a period of deindustrialization in which nations across the world had a growth of multinational telecommunication networks and economic competition.  Many factories in New York City were converted to real estate and luxury housing.  With this conversion, the gap between the wealthy and middle class increased, and many workers lost their jobs.  They simply couldn’t afford this luxury housing.  In addition to this, Robert Moses completed the Cross-Bronx Expressway in 1972, which made a path that required the demolition of hundreds of residential and commercial buildings.  About 170,000 people were relocated, and many blacks and Puerto Ricans were forced to move to the “slums” of the South Bronx.

South Bronx 1970s

http://georgiapoliticalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/gman-park-jam2.jpg

           

With this condemnation came the emergence of hip-hop culture in the younger residents of this area.  According to authors Ernest Morrell and Jeffrey M. R. Duncan-Andrade, hip-hop “…represents a resistant voice of urban youths through its articulation of problems that this generation and all Americans face on a daily basis.”  The culture of hip-hop was established as an identity for these urban youth, an identity which was recognized as one’s status in a local group or “posse”.  Rappers and DJ’s copied their music onto tape-dubbing equipment, and they played on portable “ghettoblasters” or boom boxes in the streets.  School budget cuts restricted the access to instruments, so the youth relied on recording sounds for the music.  In addition to rap music, graffiti and breakdancing were also part of the hip-hop “identity”.  Africana Studies Professor Tricia Rose stated that “developing a style nobody could deal with…that has the reflexivity to create counter dominant narratives against a mobile and shifting enemy- may be one of the most effective ways to fortify communities of resistance and simultaneously restore right to communal pleasure.”  With this new culture, black and Hispanic youths were able to rebel against the wealthy in New York, and with this revolution came a totally new genre of music and style that has risen to the top of American culture today.

Works Cited:

Rose, Tricia.  Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America

            Wesleyan University Press, New England (1994) Print.

Morrell, Ernest, and Jeffrey M. R. Duncan-Andrade. “Promoting Academic Literacy with

            Urban Youth Through Engaging Hip-hop Culture”. The English Journal 91.6

            (2002): 88–92. Web.

RACIALIZING CRIME AND THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE

RACIAL DISPARITY: THE PLIGHT OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

BY P.G.

In todays United States 120 years after the publication of Frederick L. Hoffman’s Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, the effects are still felt. Blacks have been systematically discriminated against and targeted in the criminal justice system. “Crime, pauperism, and sexual immortality are without question” (Muhammed 35). These words, along with his absurd statistical analysis of black criminality, helped lay the groundwork for the racialization of black crime. They would also later help dawn the age of Jim Crow. Thankfully the sun has set on that time, sort of. We are lingering in the twilight of Jim Crow, where the racialization of crime is not so blunt, and in your face. There are no strange fruits hanging from the poplar trees, but instead a discriminatory justice system that has lead to African-Americans being incarcerate at nearly six times the rate of whites. How, through all of the reform and change this country has seen, can this system successfully do this?

One of the first steps in this process was America constructing black ghettos. Through denying home loans and insurance along with other key financial assistance to blacks, the foundation for ghettos was laid. African-Americans were forced into specific geographical areas, and those neighborhoods were then “redlined,” or labeled as ineligible for finance. Citizens of these neighborhoods also faced widespread job discrimination that kept them from public employment, forcing them to stay in the ghetto constructed just for them. Working low-wage and labor intensive jobs, these redlined neighborhoods were systematically impoverished. With a 93% black population Chicago’s South Side is an example of this in modern day. For decades this has created an environment that police can easily target and discriminate against. Either consciously or subconsciously, the lingering social stereotypes laid out by Hoffman that African-Americans are more susceptible to violence, drugs and alcohol, along with other criminal behavior are still there. Examples of this can be seen as recently as in December, where 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times while running away from officer Jason Van Dyke. One of the more recent cases in the long history of police brutality directed at blacks in Chicago, this agonizingly illustrates how judgement based off of a person’s skin can lead to terrible mistakes by police. Before this tragedy Officer Van Dyke had had 20 complaints for misconduct filed against him by citizens residing in Chicago’s South Side, a grand total of zero of these complaints were sustained by investigators. Most of these complaints were made by black citizens, who coincidentally have their allegations of police misconduct dismissed at four times the rate of whites.

Sometimes however it’s not just the people enforcing the laws that are being discriminatory, but the laws themselves. One particular law that seemed to target blacks was the mandatory drug-sentencing related laws regarding crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. Up until President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010, one gram of crack cocaine garnered the same sentence as 100 grams of powder cocaine. Despite 12% of adults admitting to powdered coke use and only 4% of adults admitting to crack coke use, the punishments were much more heavy on that 4%. It may be completely coincidental (doubt it), but of the 5,669 crack convictions in 2009 nearly 80% of them were blacks, while only 10% were white. Of the powdered coke convictions however only 28% were black, and 17% were white. Obama reduced the disparity in the penalties from 100:1 to 18:1 in regards to grams needed for the same conviction. The Smarter Sentencing Act, a bill that would compliment the Fair Sentencing Act, would reduce the minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. Of the 8,800 crack offenders currently in federal prison that would benefit from this bill 87% are black, and currently held under sentences handed out under the 100:1 law. These 7,656 current prisoners are examples of how one law can target a certain community. Even in todays United States law enforcement and even laws themselves discriminate against certain communities or ethnicities. There have been many steps taken to try and end this racialization of crime, and yet the black community is still very susceptible to it. The stereotypes of violence and crime have damned many since Frederick Hoffman wrote them in his book, one that “had more to do with white control than black crime” (Muhammed 35). Until the lingering racism has been diminished from our society, the plight of black’s association with crime will not end. “African Americans were inferior human beings whose predicament was three parts their own making and two parts the consequence of misguided philanthropy” (Muhammad 52). Yeah, sure.

Work Cited

Muhammad, Khalil. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Print.

Bouie, Jamelle. "How We Built the Ghettos." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.

Kulze, Elizabeth. "How Crack Vs. Coke Sentencing Unfairly Targets Poor People." Vocativ. N.p., 22 Feb. 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

Bellware, Kim. "Police Abuse Complaints by Black Chicagoans Dismissed Nearly 99 Percent of The Time." The Huffington Post. N.p., 06 May 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

RACIALIZING CRIME AND THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE

THE DISPROPORTIONATE NATURE OF BLACK IMPRISONMENT: PAST AND PRESENT

BY: W.T.      

African Americans have a history in the United States that is relatively unique in relation to other minorities. Many of the minorities who have come to live in America have immigrated here by their own free will. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for African Americans. The inhumane practice of slavery involved kidnapping people from their home and forcing them to work in an unknown place for no wages. When this custom was threatened the South seceded and the Civil War began. The Emancipation Proclamation followed. After years of oppressing “their” slaves the southern slave owners were petrified that the newly freed African Americans would go on sprees of violence and crime. However no such widespread black on white violence occurred. That wasn’t the end to the oppression though. Only after another hundred years did African Americans truly gain the rights that were being kept from them. Discrimination continued to be prevalent but that wasn’t something that could be set right by a document. Today discrimination still rears its head in many different ways, but one of the most unfair and atrocious ways is in the criminal justice system. White people in this country historically have committed far more atrocities against African Americans than they could ever reciprocate. So why on Earth is it that African Americans among all racial factions are thought to be criminals? In this blog post I intend to unearth why it is that such a disproportionate amount of black people have been imprisoned in the past and why this discrimination continues today specifically in New York City.

Fredrick L. Hoffman’s publication of Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro was the first work to compile vast statistics on black criminality. He was “shaping racial statistics into a powerful, full-blown narrative of black self-destruction”. (Muhammed). Hoffman’s work inspired others to also keep track of such stats. A mix of discrimination and experimenter bias ensued and the numbers got out of hand. The police force which was comprised of exclusively whites in those days started arresting blacks in the street. Many such arrests were made either off suspicion or minor infractions. The statisticians saw what they wanted in the numbers of blacks imprisoned and didn’t stop to contemplate the validity of the figures. In Alabama in 1894 roughly eighty five percent of prisoners were black. According to R.M. Cunningham, a prison physician, these stats had nothing to do with discrimination. This discrimination in the prison system has been shown to no other minority to this extent. Such racism is inexcusable, but for the time period somewhat understandable. What is really ridiculous is how this discrimination hasn’t gone away.

Riker’s Island is New York City’s main jail complex. Its average population is roughly ten thousand inmates, six thousand and six of which are black. That’s over fifty five percent of inmates. The largest contributor to this disproportionate imprisonment is the racism and discrimination of law enforcement. In New York the policy of “stop-and-frisk” was used as a viable policing method. This practice gave police officers the power to search anyone on the street who possessed suspicious qualities. The police then got to decide what or rather who is considered suspicious, and what they considered a suspicious quality was shown when Jeffrey Fagan showed that blacks and Hispanics were stopped far more than whites. Force was used fourteen percent more on blacks than whites, even though that weapons were found more frequently on whites than blacks. (Coates) This racial profiling has been used since the late 1800s for discriminating against blacks and there is no excuse for it. The most prevailing reason keeps on returning to discrimination. It is time for the United States justice system to take responsibility for what is happening instead of just blaming the victims of the system. If they don’t then I fear that Coates was right when he said maybe nothing is broken at all.

Riker’s Island

http://nyc.pediacities.com/Resource/CommunityStats/Rikers_Island







Works Cited

Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2010. Print.

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2016

Community Stats for Rikers Island." Community Stats for Rikers Island. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.

RACIALIZING CRIME AND THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE

RACIAL SEGREGATION, THEN AND NOW: HOW IDEAS FORMED CENTURIES AGO IMPACT THE PRESENT DAY

BY R.D.

African Americans have a long history in the United States. Yet, for so many centuries of that time, they were viciously persecuted, and seen as inferior. They were taken from their homes in Africa, slapped on a boat and shipped across the Atlantic. If they were lucky enough to survive the months crammed onboard, they would be sold in the United States, where the worst was yet to come. Then came the civil war and the thirteenth amendment in 1865 and, just like that, all those years of unspeakable hardships were finally over… right? Not even close. Jim Crow laws prevented African Americans from becoming fully integrated into the country. Then came the civil rights movement in the 1960’s, that helped end segregation and propel the U.S. into a new world of liberal thinking. With all these movements, changes, progress, why does our society today still feel the effects of discrimination against a race considered to be one of the most disadvantaged in all of the U.S. (Mohammed 90)? When did this prejudice start, and why, and what were the effects? This is what I hope to answer. I will be assessing why we continue to fight against discrimination to this day. I will discuss how this racist sentiment stemmed from the South in the late 1800’s, and early 1900s, and continued in the supposedly liberal North. I will be focusing on Chicago in particular, and will uncover the criminalization of an entire racial group, and where it has led us to today.

By the late 1800’s, African Americans had gained the rights every civilian should; however, there was still a great deal of discrimination towards them, particularly, in the South. Many people believed that blacks were the inferior race, and refused to accept them as equal citizens. This idea of inferiority was only propelled further in 1896, when statistician Frederick L. Hoffman published Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro (Muhammad 35). A German immigrant, Hoffman traveled throughout the South, to places such as Georgia, New Orleans, and Tennessee. It is there that he became immersed in what was then known as “the Negro Problem.” His research maintained the idea that blacks were lesser than their white counterparts. While the numbers he used were true, the conclusion he drew from the data was completely incorrect. What Hoffman discovered was that, African Americans lived a shorter life, were far more likely to go to prison, and carried more diseases than any white native (Muhammed 37). The grounds for his absurd assertions were met with both acceptance in the South and protest in the North by fellow race relations writers. And yet, try as racial liberals might to debunk Hoffman’s false claims, the seeds had been planted.  Racial Darwinists had, “inscribed criminality onto nearly every aspect of black people’s existence” (Muhammad, 93). What is more, these ideologies were generally accepted by the whole of America. This resulted in several changes in mindsets, the main being that African Americans were viewed as lesser. Another outcome, however, was the creation of a white identity that encompassed various ethnic backgrounds. Nowhere was this more prevalent than in Chicago. What stemmed from the exclusion of blacks also led to the inclusion and acceptance of European immigrants as white Americans. An example of this unification came with Jane Addams and the Hull House. These settlement houses aided countless immigrant groups, predominantly women, as their open door policy called for the acceptance of everyone: everyone but African Americans that is. The Hull house came to accept all other races, though they still complied with Jim Crow laws, and practiced segregation or complete exclusion of blacks (Roediger). It was no different in the workplace, as the fear of being associated with the African American community prevented them from acquiring jobs and homes, further solidifying discrimination and racist sentiments.

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3879.html

So, what now? African Americans seemed to be excluded from all areas in the country. Shunned in every factory, every neighborhood, every city, so where does this leave them? Well, according to recent studies, not in a very good spot at all. Based on census figures, about one-third of blacks (33.6%) in Chicago live in poverty, compared to the 14.7% of whites. Many of these impoverished people live in the same struggling neighborhoods, further maintaining separation of different people and backgrounds.  Additionally, the Bureau Labor of Statistics determined that, in 2014, the white unemployment rate in Chicago was 5.7%, while black unemployment rate was 14.7%. This figure was higher, and the disparity greater in Chicago than the national average (Luhby). All of these statistics answer my question of what the criminalization and segregation of a race has done. Centuries after slavery was abolished, decades after the civil rights movements in the 60’s, we still experience racism in our lives. Hoffman’s assertions of African Americans being inferior have taken their toll; for these beliefs, an entire race has paid the price.

Works Cited

Luhby, Tami. "Chicago: America's Most Segregated City." CNN Money. Cable News Network, 05 Jan.      2016. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern      Urban America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2010. Print.

Roediger, David R. "Racism, Ethnicity, and White Identity." Racism, Ethnicity, and White Identity.           Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2005. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.

RACIALIZING CRIME AND THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE

THE CYCLE OF INCARCERATION AND DISCRIMINATION TOWARDS BLACK CITIZENS 

BY J.F.

One of the most pressing yet virtually undiscussed issues (in terms of media coverage and general cultural awareness) in the United States is the Prison-Industrial Complex. The United States has the highest per capita incarceration rate of any industrialized nation, incorporating 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners (Criminal Justice). But the importance of this issue rises not solely from the sheer number of imprisoned citizens, but rather from the way our law enforcement system is so inextricably linked to a larger pattern of racial discrimination, profiling, and obstruction of socioeconomic mobility. The over one million currently incarcerated African Americans (who are imprisoned at almost six times the rate of white people) demonstrate on a national scale that there are disparities within this system that need to be addressed (Criminal Justice).

Why is this happening? When living in a society which prides itself on freedom and cultural sensitivity, the reality of a persevering discrimination rooted in the foundation of our nation’s history seems irreconcilable with such a generally progressive outlook. While social work has existed for as long as there have been organized societies, the modern ideas of equality and multiculturalism that we currently hold are frighteningly young. The institution of slavery as well as the post emancipation Jim Crow Era are the foundation for the corrosive racial stereotypes that continue to affect black Americans. In The Condemnation of Blackness, author Khalil Muhammad discusses the beginnings of the idea that black people somehow have a propensity for criminal activity, stating (in quotation of historian David Levering Lewis) “’The national white consensus emerging at the turn of the century’ … ‘was that African Americans were inferior human beings whose predicament was three parts their own making and two parts the consequence of misguided philanthropy” (Muhammad 52). Stereotypes and racial generalizations have a way about sticking in people’s heads, and are passed on more easily than one would think through generations. In a society where the prison systems are swelling and law enforcement institutions are systematically discriminatory in their construction, these beliefs, compounded with the socioeconomic stagnation that blacks have been facing for years, have resulted in a cycle of poverty, incarceration, distrust and disillusionment with police forces, and ultimately recidivistic behavior. As long as racial generalizations remain in our collective consciousness, such cycles are inevitable, unless a conscious, prolonged effort is made in order to dispel these beliefs and explain their historical cultural context.

How can this be seen on an approachable level? New York City has been the center of multicultural research in the United States since the European immigration of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. What makes this area such an interesting case when thinking about this particular issue is the density and variety of other minority populations alongside African Americans. Since 2000, the Asian and Hispanic populations of New York have increased by 34% and 10% respectively. Despite this, we can still observe the disproportionally high rates of poverty and crime with respect to African Americans, who number about 1.9 million throughout the five boroughs in contrast to the collective 3.4 million Hispanic and Asian populations (US Census Bureau). We can better understand the racial disparity in crime rates, even within the same communities, through a historical perspective. In the mid-20^th century, during the “Puerto Rican Problem,” there was a developing anti-Latino sentiment in New York. During this time, Puerto Rican people living in the city tried to distance themselves from being classified as black. This was because at the time, it was clear that the lack of social mobility due to discrimination was a serious issue for African American citizens, and others wanted to avoid the oppressive “classification.” This is what is meant by the term “The Condemnation of Blackness,” a persistent cultural division brought upon by the historical consequences of racial oppression. W.E.B. Dubois wrote of a “veil,” the idea that blacks are separated from the rest of society by a “double consciousness,” observing their own actions through racial implications. Even today, through the divide between African American incarceration and that of other racial backgrounds in New York, we can see the consequences of past oppression.

Works Cited

Muhammad, Khalil. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern    Urban America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Print.

"Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. NAACP, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.        <http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet>.

"2015 - Stats and the City | Crain's New York Business." Latest from Crains New York Business.            US Census Bureau, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2016. <http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/stats-   and-the-city/2013/demographics/racial-breakdown-1>.

RACIALIZING CRIME AND THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE

RACIAL DISPARITY: CONTINUAL CRIMINALIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS

BY J.V.S

For years African Americans have been discriminated against based on the color of their skin. The color of an individual’s skin has been a determinate factor in the opportunities available to that individual and the way the individual is treated. On a historical timeline, African Americans have been oppressed since the day they set foot in the New World. African Americans were forced to migrate the United States as slaves, where they were recognized as property rather than human beings. After the abolishment of slavery, the United States was swept with the Civil Rights Movements in the mid-1900s, where African Americans earned their own rights and abolished segregation. Or did they? According to Khalil Muhammad’s book, The Condemnation of Blackness, the racial criminalization of African Americans occurred as early as the Jim Crow Laws era. However, when one looks deeply into a black minority-majority place such as Missouri today, one can find there is great discrepancy of whether or not our nation has truly ended the vicious cycle of racism. While Missouri is majority white, there are certain cities in Missouri, such as Ferguson, where it is primarily a black community. Does there continue to be a racial divide when it comes to the criminal justice system? Does our society and law enforcement racialize crime and what race(s) do we tend to criminalize? In this blog post, I will argue that African Americans are a largely targeted population that has been and continues to be racially criminalized in today’s society and criminal justice system.

First, let’s begin with a historical perspective. Racial criminalization became a popular issue after Frederick L. Hoffman published his book titled Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, in 1896, where he provided statistical evidence on black criminality (Muhammad, 35). This gained the attention of many citizens in the United States, who were then convinced and perceived the notion that being black meant you were most likely a criminal. This book offers insight on how African Americans were criminalized based on their race after gathering prison statistics, which proceeds to hold true in today’s society. In Hoffman’s research, he found that out of 82,329 prisoners, 24,277 were black, and 6 in 10 female prisoners were black (Muhammad, 50). These statistics only further support how African Americans are criminalized. For years the United States has had the largest incarceration rate in comparison to any other nation (Coates). Mass incarceration has swept our nation, and African American community is being extremely overrepresented. According to the Center for American Progress, the black population makes up 60% of imprisoned inmates, and every one in three black men can be expected to go to prison in their lifetime (Kerby). It is evident that in today’s society, the criminal justice system shows that we still racialize crime and target mostly African Americans.

Figure 1 (above): Shows racial break down of Ferguson population 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/ferguson-missouri-town-under-siege-after-police-shooting.html

Looking past the historical lens, it is apparent that there continues to be a racial divide in our criminal justice system. African Americans living in Missouri only make up a mere twelve percent of the state’s total population (“Missouri QuickFacts from the U.S.”). While the majority of the state is white, a city such as Ferguson is a predominantly black community. As seen in the Figure 1, Ferguson has become a heavily black populated area after white families relocated to the suburbs (“What Happened in Ferguson?”) In wake of the shooting that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri, we only find more evidence to support that crime is still racialized. Racial tensions have peaked after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. (“What Happened in Ferguson?”). Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot dead by officer Darren Wilson. Wilson, who is Caucasian, stopped Brown after realizing he fit the description of the suspect that had just stolen from a convenience store. Wilson claims that he fired his weapon in self-defense, fearing for his life, while Brown charged at him. Because Brown was unarmed and because Wilson was not indicted, it seems that there is a racial divide. African Americans are a criminalized race. Law enforcement and society alike racialize crime. Police officers are four times as likely to use some type of force when they have encounters with African Americans (Kerby). Unfortunately in Brown’s case, this statistic was held to be true. While we would like to believe our culture has ended the vicious cycle of racism, it only continues. African Americans are not equated to other minority groups who are no longer discriminated against and criminalized. Rather, African American community is still frequently targeted by law enforcement.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that while this blog uses the term blacks and African Americans interchangeably, blacks can encompass different ethnicities. For example, there are black Latinos, who are dark skinned but do not identify as African American.

Works Cited

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration." The Atlantic. N.p., Oct. 2015. Web. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/>.

Kerby, Sophia. "The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States." Center for American Progress. N.p., 13 Mar. 2012. Web. <https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/>.

"Missouri QuickFacts from the U.S. Census Bureau." United States Census Bureau. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/29000.html>.

Muhammad, Khalil. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Print.

"What Happened in Ferguson?" The New York Times. N.p., 10 Aug. 2015. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/ferguson-missouri-town-under-siege-after-police-shooting.html>.

URBAN MIGRATIONS AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY BARRIOS, GHETTOS, AND CHINATOWNS

THE ECONOMIC CONDITIONS LEADING TO THE MIGRATION OF PUERTO RICANS TO NEW YORK CITY

BY S.S.

Economics is a key factor in determining the migration patterns in ethnic groups and it can serve as both a push and pull factor for their migration. This is the case for the Puerto Rican migrants of the early twentieth century. Although as always, there were political and social reasons, economic opportunity was a driving force. Excess population, the US domination of Puerto Rican businesses, and two World Wars, are just a few reasons. The question I wish to answer is: What were the main economic factors in Puerto Rican migration to New York City? Did the United States take advantage of economic conditions in Puerto Rico to import cheaper labor?

In 1898 the United States signed the Treaty of Paris with Spain, which ceded the territory of Puerto Rico to the US. New economic issues faced Puerto Ricans after the country became a US commonwealth. The United States dominated the Puerto Rican economy by investing capital, forcing Puerto Rico into a one-crop economy based off the production of sugar, and owning fifty percent of the sugar produced in Puerto Rico. Production increased however, employment remained constant. Puerto Ricans flocked to the United States in hopes of finding a job. Another push factor was a claimed excess population. Because of the greater population, there was more competition for jobs, which led many Puerto Ricans to America. In fact, C.  Wright Mills concluded that at least 90 percent of Puerto Rican migrants came to the United States, specifically, to New York City, because of a need for a job. The Jones Act of 1917 made this process far easier for Puerto Ricans.  The Act granted them the right to move freely among the fifty states although they have no votes in Congress. That year, approximately 10, 800 Puerto Ricans emigrated from the island. While this benefitted the Puerto Ricans on their job hunt, it also benefitted the United States, which I will discuss in the next paragraph. The onslaught of World War I in 1917 meant two things for Puerto Ricans; there would be a need for soldiers and a need for unskilled laborers to cover jobs in factories. This led to another influx of Puerto Ricans to New York City, as that was the location of many factories in the United States. The Johnson Act of 1921 restricted European immigrants from entering the country, but led to a rise in employment for unskilled workers, such as many Puerto Ricans. By 1940, approximately 85 percent of the Puerto Rican population living in the US lived in New York City, though it has been argued that this percent should be even greater. Perhaps the largest migration of Puerto Ricans came during the time surrounding World War II. As the American economy boomed, many Puerto Ricans wanted a piece of the action. World War II ends the early part of the twentieth century, but of course many more Puerto Ricans came after this time.

My following question was whether or not the United States manipulated the Puerto Ricans in order to increase their labor force and at cheaper price than many European immigrants. This question was brought to mind while researching the Jones Act of 1917. That same year, the United States entered the First World War. The government understood that a war would mean a need for increased labor and more men to fight in the army. It was a prudent decision on the government’s part to grant American citizenship to the Puerto Ricans, as this could fulfill both of their needs: for labor and soldiers. However, Puerto Ricans did not have many of the rights as other US citizens, specifically, they do not have a voice in congress. By the late 1940s many factories in New York City had begun searching for workers in Puerto Rico, enticing them with the promise of free transportation and other such subsidies. Once again, this was a mutually beneficial relationship, as Puerto Ricans were finding jobs and settling in to enclaves in New York City, whereas the American economy was getting their much-needed cheap labor in return. However it was unfair that companies and factories were exploiting the Puerto Ricans for cheap labor. It is easy for me to say, given the provided evidence, that is more likely than not that the US had manipulated the Puerto Ricans in order to benefit from their cheap labor.

References:

Sanchez Korrol, Virgina E. From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans

 in New York City. Berkley, California: University of California Press, 1983.

URBAN MIGRATIONS AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY BARRIOS, GHETTOS, AND CHINATOWNS

SAN FRANCISCO'S CHINATOWN URBANIZATION: UNDESIRABLE SLUM TO ICONIC TOURISM DESTINATION

BY STUDENT

        If you glance quickly at the photos above, what do you see? Clearly they are in different time periods. One is a black and white and has a horse drawn carriage and the other is in color with modern cars on the street. These photos may have been taken at different times, but they are the same place. Chinatown has transformed from a segregated slum to a must see tourist destination in only a matter of years. San Francisco’s Chinatown is home to the largest concentration of Chinese people outside of Asia and was the first segregated neighborhood in America. The white population’s opinion of the immigrants was clear through their discrimination, segregation, and overall poor treatment of the Chinese people. The white population in San Francisco segregated the Chinese population from the rest of the city’s population to about 24 square blocks. In the mid to late 1800s, Chinatown was a stereotypical slum: crowded, diseased, and extremely poor. The crowding and overall poor quality of the area was noticed by the white population and they started leading slumming tours through Chinatown. Chinese merchants and individuals in Chinatown, noticed the influx of tourists and saw it as an economic opportunity. The Chinese in San Francisco transformed Chinatown from a slum to an iconic tourist destination which is now known worldwide (Brooks). I think Chinatown today would not be what it is without the white treatment for Chinese and I will explore my ideas and how they relate to the history of Chinatown in this blog. But, do you think the Chinatown we know today would have been created without the Chinese experience with severe segregation and discrimination by the white population of San Francisco?  

The creation of the modern day Chinatown can be connected to how the white population saw the immigrants as foreigners and not a good as the white population in San Francisco. They initiated forced segregation on many Chinese and those who were not forced, flocked to Chinatown for safety and to be around people like themselves. If the Chinese were not pushed so forcefully to live together in such a small area, they would have never been as concentrated and Chinatown may not exist as we know it today. So from at least some perspectives, the segregation for the Chinese was a good thing, the Chinese concentrated themselves and formed Chinatown. But was it really good? The conditions in Chinatown were horrendous and many of the people lived in constant fear and poverty, there are reasons people called it a slum. The white population found Chinatown fascinating and they started giving the slumming tours to tourists. Although the tours were negative, merchants and other Chinese in Chinatown saw the tours as an opportunity for income. Chinese began creating modern day Chinatown, and after many years and a fire where everything had to be rebuilt, Chinatown turned it into the major tourist destination it is today. As Chinatown’s popularity exploded stores, restaurants, and tours began in the area and Chinatown became a must visit location in San Francisco. Local businesses and tourism became a major part of life in Chinatown, but the neighborhoods around Chinatown were still segregated, forcing Chinese to still live in Chinatown (Brooks).

So I bring up my question again, would the emergence of Chinatown have occurred if there was not so much segregation and discrimination against the Chinese? Would the picture on the left have turned into the picture on the right? Would people’s lives be different? If there was not segregation and such a hate towards the Chinese, the group would not have been so concentrated. Then the slumming tours would have never occurred and Chinese living in San Francisco would have never felt the need to make a positive change for their community and their population. It would not have become the iconic tourist destination it is today and such an epicenter for Chinese culture. Of course, Chinese culture was exaggerated and their oriental identify commodified for the tourism industry, but without that Chinatown would not exist. It would probably still be a slum. But it is not a slum anymore, the Chinese were segregated into a small area and saw an opportunity for upward mobility. Over time Chinatown became the iconic location in the second picture. The transformation would have never have occurred if the Chinese did not experience discrimination and segregation in San Francisco.

Brooks, Charlotte. "Chapter One Chinatown, San Francisco: The First Segregated Neighborhood in America." Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1971. 12-38. Print.

In the Heart of Chinatown, San Francisco USA. 1902. California History Collection, San   Francisco. California History Collection. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.             <https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbrush.html>.

San Francisco. 2016. San Francisco How to Get Around, and What to Do! Web. 28 Jan. 2016.     <http://www.leslieplustim.com/sanfrancisco/>.