Echoes of 1991 in Crown Heights?
The Times and Sun have articles this morning about the escalating tensions between Crown Heights’ black and Hasidic communities. The stories talk about how the NYPD has stepped up its presence on the area’s streets and politicians have been holding press conferences to decry the violence, all to try to prevent the neighborhood from once…
The Times and Sun have articles this morning about the escalating tensions between Crown Heights’ black and Hasidic communities. The stories talk about how the NYPD has stepped up its presence on the area’s streets and politicians have been holding press conferences to decry the violence, all to try to prevent the neighborhood from once again becoming the war zone that produced the 1991 riots. The latest problems in Crown Heights began in April, when a black 20-year-old was attacked by Hasidic men in what the police have deemed a bias crime. Since then, black children have pelted a bus carrying Hasidic toddlers with stones and last week black youths beat and robbed a Jewish teen. The police believe the first attack against the black 20-year-old was done by someone with ties to a Jewish civilian patrol group called the Shmira. Bias crimes in the neighborhood are up this year; there have been nine so far, compared to seven at this time in 2007. Some Crown Heights residents say the city and politicians are overreacting to the spate of violence, according to the Sun, since “most of the culprits — both black and Jewish — are too young to remember the riots, and some community leaders say they are concerned that it’s actually the grown-ups who are stoking a conflict between the groups.”
Neighborhood Simmers With Tension Again [NY Times]
Threat of Another Riot in Crown Heights [NY Sun]
Photo by Frank Lynch.
Black people want a decent place to live among decent folk.
Jewish people seek the same. Their differences in culture
and religion lead each of them in each sect on their
meaningful, peaceful way.
There IS no tension between them unless YOU (the “author”)
bring it up triviality or labels and make of it an issue.
Example: Yesterday a driver with his friends in the car hit
my car because of his driving mistake. (He had his wheels turned
and forgot to straighten them at the red light. I pulled up alongside,
quite distant from his wheels, thinking he’ll have enough room to
straighten out if he proceeds on the green.) He sideswiped
me, lightly, then proceeded to race away. A mild hit and run.
I pulled up alongside him several lights later and wanted to speak
to the driver from my window. They laughed amid the blaring music,
closed the stained window facing me, and drove off.
I took a deep breath and forgot the incident. Why become upset
when the cool evening was so fresh, and my children singing.
Is this then indicative of all Crown Heights incidents? No.
Of some of them? Yes. Of all races? Yes.
WE have to show an example of goodness and kindness and
it will rub off. That’s the only way we can all live in peace and harmony.
PS – About the person who said Jews have a knee-jerk reaction to Obama,
immediately equating him with Farrakhan, that person is either very young (not necessarily chronologically), and therefore not yet knowledgable,
or observes others while really reflecting his own personal bias.
Obama has Farrakhan as his friend, showing up in the same photo with this hateful racist; He attended the “million-man march”, among other things. It’s all open for
those who care to look. Go to Obama’s site and see how many hateful
articles revolve around Jew hatred. He is in bed with an anti-American (Ayers),
a racist preacher (Wright), a racist Muslim (Khalid), etc.
Not only are he, his wife and his friendship circle racist – to the core, but their Socialists. And they really represent the current face of the Democratic party.
In other words, these people are AGAINST YOU; They are Communist Fascists!
That Obama is black is a merit to our great country! It shows how far we’ve come.
But being black is simply not enough – any more than being white is enough.
Who is it that resides behind his skin – THAT’s who we will be voting for.
Heaven help America if Obama is elected.
I am a Crown Heights resident and we have a wonderful neighborhood.
If you DON’T think so – then learn to smile more and say “Hi” more often to your neighbor.
Montrose Morris…it sounds like someone from CHRM doesnt’ like you. Are they not the truth sayers of Crown Heights?
Montrose Morris = NOP.
Same long-winded writing style, one always backing the other. Dissociative Identify Disorder, anyone?
9:28, I’ll second that. And I’ll add that Montrose Morris’s posts encouraged me to visit my old neighborhood, Crown Heights, where I grew up in the 1950’s and that I hadn’t seen in decades. That visit not only was a wonderful trip back in time but has also helped me put the neighborhood’s current social situation in context.
There’s more to Crown Heights than the occasional sensational crime or ethnic confrontation. And from what I was able to observe on my visit, day-to-day neighborhood life can be found on every block, where handsome houses and apartments have been restored and people’s pride and investment in their community is more than evident.
My family’s been in New York for five generations. The headlines we read today are the way some of them lived back in the day, when people crossed between blocks at their peril and were chased with knives and broken bottles depending on their race, ethnicity, or religion. (One uncle, nicknamed “Whitey” as a kid, still regales us with stories of gang life in the Bronx during the ’30’s. His best friend at the time? A pal he calls an “Afro-American” whose friendship opened him to associations with all kinds of people and helped him break from the vice of his family’s and community’s prejudices.)
None of what’s occuring in Crown Heights is new, or limited to it. From my uncle’s Bronx neighborhood, to Manhattan’s “San Juan Hill” (site of Lincoln Center) and Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst, turf wars — vicious, wasteful, and stupid — are part of New York’s history.
I’m glad to know that saner heads in Crown Heights are working on its problems. And I wish the old neighborhood (and Montrose Morris) well.
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
9:57 = predictable troll
9:23, I agree that in science inductive generalization is important and can be very useful, obviously in understanding and curing racial/ethnic specific maladies. But I don’t think there is much to gain by the generalizations made above. They aren’t helping people to understand anything; it’s just enflaming preconceived stereotypes. There’s no scientific value in saying black people are fat and take up seats or Jews are rude and obnoxious – we should have a sincere interest in understanding root causes of such perceptions and misperceptions.
Thanks for your support 912-1. A question for 8:46: by what method did you determine that Chasidic men are more rude on the subway (lecherous, insular, whatever etc) than other ethnic-enclave-dwelling New Yorkers? Also, have you made a comprehensive comparison between the Lubavitch community’s insular nature and, for example, the South Asian (Pakistani, Bangladeshi, etc) community’s? To me, it looks like both groups stay in their enclaves, wear clothes that make them distinct from the larger population, not mingle so much with other groups, send their kids to yeshivas or masjids, etc. These are hallmarks of an aversion towards assimilation and I (a secular New York born male from a mixed ethnic/religious background) am fine with that. You should be too. 9:12-2 makes a good point that generalization is a necessary and valuable reasoning tool that has its limits. Finally, the only generalization that I can make about pregnant women finding seating on the subway is that women (of all ethnic groups) tend to give up their seats more frequently, and often faster, than men. It shames me to see this.
faithful = M.M.
6:53, I think you’re comment was rude and out of line. No…I’m not M.M., but I enjoy her/his comments and I share her/his passion for Crown Heights — as many here share a passion for their neighborhood. Is that a crime? I don’t know what M.M.’s real name is, but if the name you referenced actually belongs to M.M., obviously you’ve met her/him or have been in his/her social circles. If that is the case, and you have a personal ax to grind with M.M., this is not the place. Obviously, you wouldn’t be man or woman enough to confront M.M. and discuss it as an intelligent adult, since you post under “guest.”
M.M. continue to contribute to this blog. Since what you have to say is informative and intelligent, unlike 6:53.
9:12, there is nothing wrong with generalizations. Inductive generalization is the stuff of science. Without generalization, even our most rudimentary forms of reasoning about the world would be impossible. The problem is with *bad* generalizations, not generalization in general, and while you may disagree with the generalizations of others, we have no reason to accept that your generalizations trump theirs.