I’m seems like a thousand depressing news cycles ago already, but I’m relatively sure you remember that jackass lawyer from back in May. You know the one I mean, … the guy who threw a hissy fit in a midtown salad joint because he heard several members of the staff speaking Spanish. While he was hardly the first to do this (and it was later learned he had a history of behaving this way), it seems like in the subsequent weeks, there’s been a pronounced uptick in flagrant, racist, intolerant assholery of this variety. Individuals of all different stripes have been accosted, harassed and/or flat-out assaulted over their ethnicity and/or perceived status as “undocumented.” The videos of these multiple instances are frankly alarming, and seemingly becoming part of the “new normal.” If you think I’m being “politically correct,” you’re absolutely goddamn right. As I’ve mentioned here before, "Political Correctness" is basically shorthand for being culturally cognizant, considerate and inclusive. You’d do well to look into it.
In any case, while I’m repeatedly dumbfounded by the motivations of the aggressors in these instances (“you’re not from here,” “You’re not gonna change The United States!,” “Get out of my country!” etc.), I unearthed something yesterday that fleetingly restored in my faith in humanity. Time was when America was considered a “melting pot,” a monocultural metaphor for heterogeneous society becoming more homogenous, the different elements “melting together” into a harmonious whole, and nowhere was this greater evinced than here in New York City. As culturally diverse a metropolis as can be imagined, New York City has always been a richly complicated tapestry of ethnicities and –- as I kept saying back in May during that lawyer story --- THAT’S THE WAY ACTUAL NEW YORKERS LIKE IT! Walk down any street in the any of the five boroughs (even Staten Island, though I don’t necessarily recommend it), and you’re bound to hear languages pointedly other than English being spoken. It’s not out of the ordinary. It’s not new. It’s always been this way. It shouldn’t be considered offensive. If you are offended by it, you are in dire need of checking yourself.
Anyway, in the wake of posting that great Yul Bryner PSA yesterday, I came across this other PSA from my ever-distant youth. This is from 1968. This is how it was, and this is how it should be. Coexist!
Oh yeah, and also THIS BEARS REPEATING!
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