Welcome to New York City! One of America's biggest melting pots... or is it? When I walk down the streets of down town, it seems like this ideal standard of racial expectance and unity seems like as much the fable of the crocodiles said to be living in the sewer drains. Sure day in and day out we're all shoved together on the subways and busses but sometimes I couldn't feel we're all farther apart than ever. As much as i hate to say it, NYC isn't quite what I expected- everyone here seems to self segregate. 

           Now, I understand NYC history, and I know that certain spots in the burrows were segregated territories for races to commune with their own people/religion after escaping terrible hardships to come to a new land. I get it, having people you know  from your own battered homeland was a comfort to these individuals, while sharing cultural aspects to maintain their individuality. But that was over a century ago right? Wrong, as a matter of fact its just as common today. Take the Crisis in Haiti for example, many refugees are now making their way to the land of opportunity and taking refuge with  extended families living in New York. Personally, I welcome these poor people, but I can't say I speak for everyone else. Its easy to sense a great deal of fear among current New Yorkers over the matter. In fact, it greatly resembles the fear that the Irish immigration caused to New Yorkers decades ago. People fear this new tidal wave of humanity and the questions that come with them.

Will they speak English? Will they come here legally? Work is tight as it is, how many new jobs can we give out?

Tough questions to answer I'm afraid. Many people in NYC do not speak english. This is fine when the individual self segregates to same speaking parts of the city, but at the end of the day its scary not to be able to communicate with everyone. Now I know what you're thinking, "Why don't Americans learn other languages?"  and as a bilingual American I'd say in a perfect world, yes Public school systems should be more open to multi-language programs- but that takes money, money we do not have right now. So, here lies the problem. People arrive in the US speaking a different language and what are their choices? Pay money for English lessons when they're trying to save enough to put their lives back together? Or, stick to their own "race areas" in the city and manage the best they can within their own language? I know which I'd pick if I were in their shoes. Learning a new language is hard, and extremely time consuming- it doesn't exactly fit in a very hectic "Starting your Life over" to-do list. I'd say that until government programs aid with free English lessons for "ESL" immigrants, we will see even larger division lines drawn between races. But, there seems little help for these over crowded underfunded programs.

That is the End of Part 1 of this post- Part 2 to come later- please tell me your thoughts on this topic if you are interested! Thank you for reading!