Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn Against Liberalism | Date: 28 April 2011, 04:33
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Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn Against Liberalism
By Jonathan Rieder
* Publisher: Harvard University Press
* Number Of Pages: 306
* Publication Date: 1987-03-15
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0674093615
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780674093614
Product Description:
What accounts for the precarious state of liberalism in the mid 1980s? Why was the Republican Party able to steal away so many ethnic Democrats of modest means in recent presidential elections? Jonathan Rieder explores these questions in his powerful study of the Jews and Italians of Canarsie, a middle-income community that was once the scene of a wild insurgency against racial busing. Proud bootstrappers, the children of immigrants, Canarsians may speak with piquant New York accents, but their story has a more universal appeal. Canarsie is Middle America, Brooklyn-style.
Summary: Excellent portrait of a reactionary community
Rating: 4
Rieder's book does a good job in detailing what must be considered a monument to the often unbelievable stupidity of white, working America. The author tactfully does not take sides either with the Italians, or Jews, or Blacks in this narrative, but lets them speak for themselves. In my assessment the reactionary mentality of the Canarsie Italians can be understood only as an hysterical attempt to make time stand still. Mentally stuck in the Eisenhower era, the Italians and Jews(themselves products of violent ethnic ghettoes over a century ago) real resentment came from seeing African-Americans and Puerto Ricans share the same social equalities that they themselves fought for. Their fears of high crime and drugs infesting their communities were childishly unwarranted. Their own violent racism blinded them to the realities of upwardly mobile African Americans who were seeking to get AWAY from the ghetto, NOT (Heaven forbid!) to bring the ghetto with them: if this is what upwardly mobile blacks wished, then, naturally, they would have remained in Brownsville or Harlem. To this day, Canarsie remains a safe neighborhood. The Italian and Jewish communities, however, have largely disappeared, making way for the black newcomers they fought so hard to stave off. Seems that their real fear was not "crime," or "drugs," but a world where blacks could quietly live alongside them, as equals.
Summary: An accurate presentation
Rating: 5
I lived in Canarsie from 1959 through 1970. I'm Jewish but knew and went to school with many boys and girls of Italian descent. I think that the author presented an accurate picture of the social fabric of Canarsie, especially the view that it was a "closed place" in the eyes of the inhabitants; that is, it was a safe haven for its inhabitants and could remain so if outsiders were kept out. In view of skyrocketing crime rates in the 1960s outside of Canarsie, this was a rational opinion in what was seen as an oasis in an otherwise crumbling city. Rieder captures the sense of rage and helplessness felt by Canarsians about their lack of control of their lives by threats of violence by minority populations and actions of Manhattan elites who tried to redress centuries of legitimate grievances of blacks by making the Canarsians (and not themselves) give up control of their schools (and lives) and pay taxes for doing it. This is not to condone violence against black children and the firebombing of black-bought homes, but Canarsians had every right to oppose forced bussing of their children from successful Canarsie schools to unsuccessful schools outside their district, and the bussing of outside children into the district in order to satisfy the desires of outsiders without any evidence that such bussing would benefit Canarsie children (let alone the outside children as well).
For anyone who thinks that the people of Canarsie were nothing but small-minded, mean-spirited bigots, I'd like to remind him that this was a population of hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying members of society who were the working backbone of New York City. They may have not been as educated nor "cosmopolitan" as many Manhattanites, but they were wise enough to see through the nonsense of expanded welfare handouts, non-enforcement of law, excessive government spending, and "ethnic politics" of the Lindsay years that took a generation to repair.
This is definitely a book worth reading for anyone who is interested in ethnic politics or the history of New York City in the 1960s and 1970s.
Summary: Lived Through It, Rieder Tells The Truth
Rating: 4
I lived in Canarsie 62-86, so I saw first-hand what he is talking about. My mom lived there 1962-2009, so I see what the neighborhood has become.
Rieder pulls no punches, but he is fair to all parties. Wonderful book. It gives me greater insight to what I was experiencing as I was growing up and to the other cultures involved.
I would love to see Rieder go back and look at the social forces that are now in the community. Barely anyone who grew up in that time still lives there.
Summary: The Epilogue
Rating: 4
For those of you who wanted the racial Epilogue about the actual subject of this book, Canarsie, here it is. In the 80s the first black families started to move into single family homes in the "prime" white areas of the neighborhood. The realtor who brokered one of these moves had their offices fire-bombed. Alas, the trend already was underway and not to be stopped. A significant number of Chinese families were the first to make inroads, but I believe they since left since a critical mass of these never was established. Black families, largely middle class drawn from the ranks of city workers and others, began to move into the neighborhood in great numbers. The racial changeover occurred with remarkable speed. Within about 5 years during the mid 90s, it was complete. It seems as if there had been a huge exodus of the former residents, probably to other middle class areas in Long Island, Staten Island, Queens and elsewhere (which is where my own siblings went).
The economic outcome is mixed, at least to the observer. Rockaway Parkway and the neighborhood's shopping areas (Avenue L, and those on Rockaway Parkway itself) have declined over the years. However, the housing stock seems to be well-maintained. The decline of the shopping areas may have been a result of outside influences such as large retailers.
The rise of conservatism among the areas inhabitants, to my mind, is drawn more along economic lines. The upwardly mobile Jews in particular may have remained somewhat liberal. The working class probably did go more right.
Pay the actual neighborhood a visit one day! Canarsie Pier has been wonderfully renovated and it a nice place to walk on a summer day, to see what the fishermen have in their buckets.
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