September 13, 2007
Our Changing Cities II Posted by Frederick E. Allen at 11:35 AM EST Josh Zeitz, reflecting on the growing ethnic and racial diversity of American cities, writes, “Where this all leads is anyone’s guess, though as one who has written on ethnicity and urban life, I tend to see more good than bad in this story.” That brings to mind two recent remarks. One is what the Columbia University historian Kenneth Jackson said to the New York Times reporter covering the new census data Josh was talking about. Jackson, just back from a visit to Croatia, said, “There they all look alike and they’re killing each other. Here, we’re all different and we live in peace.” My own parents also just returned from Europe; they visited Milan, Basel, Strasbourg, and Cologne. They loved all those cities, and on their return, my mother said, they were struck anew not only by the unique energy of New York and its tremendously varied population, but also by how all its foreigners and immigrants “act like they own the place.” At first I feared she was saying something negative. Oh, no, she explained. The Muslims you see in France, or the Turks in Germany, look like a ghettoized underclass, stuck in the outskirts of the city, segregated from mainstream life. Nobody looks like an underclass in New York. Everyone looks like they are seizing an opportunity that America alone offers them. It’s a very heartening thing to come home to.
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