Pluralistic societies can work. If we let them.
Took a break from writing about Marx to walk to the pharmacy in Windsor Terrace, owned by a South Asian family, that never seems to run into supply-chain issues or whatever it is that prevents other pharmacies from having medications when you need them. On the way there and back, I crossed paths with two Orthodox Jews, reading and reciting to each other in Hebrew, as they go to or from shul for Shavuot; a trio of South Asian teenage boys, calling each other “girl” in the informal way that, six months ago, they’d have been calling each other “bro” or “brah”; a chic woman in fancy biking gear, sitting on a bench, speaking Haitian Creole on the phone; two young white women, swapping stories about the different SSRIs and SNRIs they’ve tried and tossed; a group of Black construction workers, fairly young, in front of a house, with one acknowledging to the other that he was “into spanking and shit” while the other insisted that he wasn’t into “whips and chains and shit.”
For all their problems and challenges and injustices and inequalities, pluralistic societies can work. If assholes would just let them.
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5 Comments
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Yup! Even better if someone from one group were talking to someone from another.
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marc sobel
Don’t think Marx said it, but opinions are like assholes. Everyone has them and they all think theirs don’t stink.
The problem is you can win elections by selling hate.
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Steve Zielinski
I once took the subway from Ditmas Park to Manhattan and then to Queens. Along the way, I noticed signage written in >30 languages. (I counted.) One day I worked late and took the subway to the ferry terminal. The time of day was around 3:00 am. I always worried about my safety when traveling that late at night. On that specific morning, the car was crowded, and everyone in that car looked like me, tired, sleepy and holding on till they made it to their homes and beds. The ethnic composition of the passengers was about what you would expect to see in NYC. No one was a threat to any other passenger. When I lived in Sunset Park, my friends and I were one of the few children of the white middle class living on our block. Most came to America from the Dominican Republic. But there also were Chinese, Brazilian and Palestinians living there. I also would walk up the hill where I could visit Polish, Halal, Turkish, Vietnamese and Chinese shops and restaurants. If I walked past the avenue (8th?) with the shops and restaurants, I would soon find myself in a Jewish community. I knew it was a Jewish community because seder tents were visible from the streets.
This diversity of peoples is one of the great joys of living in New York City, and I miss that and the many cusines that make the city special.
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Gary
Just wondering why I can comment here but not on your fb feed? Regarding, LR and G. Steiner: Have you ever watched TOTW? The entire thing, not just the first ten minutes? BORING propaganda. She is vastly overrated, and the famous aerial bit is, I believe, cribbed from another director.
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Nelson
fair enough, but I feel like you need a system to deal with a certain amount of assholes in your society. As in, deal with the fact that conmen can always sell fear and this is a good/easy way to do it. Just like a political system needs to deal with power consolidation and bad faith actors.
