Analysis of My Neighborhood
I currently live in Dorchester, my neighborhood is only one street surrounded with Victorian houses. I had a discussion with my neighbors about their identities in our neighborhood. Most of them said even though most of the inhabitant were not born in United States they identify as part of this neighborhood. Multiculturalism means accepting the cultures and beliefs with the presence of respect and open mindedness. One of my neighbor told me “The only thing is it crucial is when you changed your identity in order to belong or to fit in in other culture. Just be yourself, enjoy everything but don't forget where you come from“. In this analysis of my neighborhood essay I an going to analyse the neighborhood where I am living.
I live in Dorchester in a neighborhood with multicultural culture that is a big part of our community. One example of detteritoralized culture in my neighborhood is the salsa dancing school which is a cultural form and influence that all originated from another country and culture. In my neighborhood I don’t see any reterritoralized culture who I can think of.
Our neighborhood is constituted of people with different ethnicities, origins, and background. Often, we organized festivals and events for example, each month we highlight a new culture and dedicated the month to learn about the food with food tasting or educational experience. The neighborhood host a number of special events throughout the year, including Chinese, Arabic, or Indian Festival. During the summer, we play soccer, American football, or listen music from different countries. I think sports and music bring people together no matter where they came from.
During 1950s and the Great Migration, African American move to the north and lived on Blue hill Avenue. Also, Jewish American community during this period were moving in and moving out to the suburbs. Another waves of immigrants came from Puerto Rico, Vietnam, Latin American, Asian, Jamaica, Northem European like Ireland, England, and Poland. Immigration has such a positive impact on the economic by opening store and restaurant.
My neighborhood is a mix of different culture that make it sublime and charming at the same time. Walking through my neighbor you can often see some restaurant like for example Asian or Mexican restaurant. There is also a mosque and church that have a positive impact on our neighborhood and help people to tsay connected to their culture.
One of the crisis that had a significant impact on my neighborhood is the housing crisis in 2008 in the United States. Dorchester was severely impacted by it, Dorchester was the center where the city of Boston was buying houses for a little price comparing to today. Many of families will low incomes moved to Dorchester where houses were affordable at that time.
My neighborhood is nothing as a segregated space, it’s not a space to separate people . This neighborhood bring people together regardless of their different religious ethnic, or race. Hybrid space is where different culture coexist in the same location .Immigrant create hybrid space to creatively maintain their relationship to their culture and tradition. For example one of the hybrid place that my neighborhood have is this little Asian and Indian bakery. The honors are a couple who migrate from Bangladesh and China 40 years ago. They have the best food that you can find.
In my neighborhood we can see the rest of contested space especially with the strong Jewish community. In the sixteen, conflict was rife thanks to block-busting, redlining, and the “White Flight” to the suburbs. In 1969, the Jewish population of Dorchester dropped to 6,000, white families decided to live the area and real estate agents pushed low income and black families to live in the area.
In conclusion, it’s a wonderful experience to live in this area. Nothing is homogeneous, and you get to see different cultures and viewpoints in your daily life. That’s the beauty of this neighborhood.
