E. B. White Essay On New York City

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New York City is considered a diverse city due to the various ethnic groups harboring it. Each ethnic group has its own customs, beliefs and even has its own language. New York City has always been considered the destination for several immigrants because of all the opportunities offered. As new waves of immigrants come into the city, NYC will constantly change, so that the city feels like a home to many of its inhabitants. The two essays written by Foner, the E.B. White essay, and Mayor de Blasio’s inauguration speech, emphasize the effects of immigration on New York City. All the pieces agree that, regardless of the social, political, or economical issues, New York City will continue to receive an influx of immigrants and the city will be …show more content…

White in, “Here is New York,” defines New York by types of New Yorkers; by its growth skyward due to limited space and its complex infrastructure; by its districts, units, and neighborhoods; by the collision and intermingling of people of so many races, nationalities, and creeds. He even says, “To a New Yorker the city is both changeless and changing.” Though this essay was written more than 60 years ago, this statement is pretty accurate. For example, White discusses the various different ethnic and religious aspects present in people from all over the world and how they create their own little units of neighborhoods, each virtually self-sufficient. If one were to leave his two-three block radius, he or she would enter a foreign land. Similarly, Foner in “Immigrants in New York City in the Millennium” discusses the idea of ethnic settlements. She further goes on to say that these settlements allow for amalgam neighborhoods. In Foner’s other piece, “How Exceptional is New York?,” she states people of all sorts of backgrounds are intermixing due to growing up with each other, working together, and attending school together. The mingling of various ethnic groups allows for the creation of cultural hybrids and it is the interactions of these cultural hybrids that allow for the formation of new cultural norms. Once a popular cultural forms, people are able to identify themselves as a “New Yorker,” rather than just

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