Despite Conflicts in Asia, a Neighborhood in Queens Stays Harmonius

HOST INTRO:

Over the last week, the conflict between India and Pakistan has escalated. The two countries have exchanged fire and over one hundred people have died so far. Our reporter, Zijie Yang headed to Jackson Heights, home to many South Asian residents, to see whether the conflict has influenced their lives.

YANG

It’s a sunny day in Travers Park. At 34th Avenue and 79th Street, parents from the neighborhood are playing with their children. Susan Anthony opens her arm under the slide and waits for her son to come down. Anthony has lived in Jackson Heights for more than 40 years. She describes herself as Indian. I asked her if the conflict would create separation in the community. Anthony says no.

ANTHONY 1

We are very safe in this neighborhood. You know, we take care of each other, you can walk 10 clock, you can walk 11 clock,without any problem. . We have all kind of people–We have Spanish, Asian People, Indian People, Pakistani.YANG

Among the faces here are Indian, like Anthony. But also,, Pakistani, Bengalese, Nepalese, Mexican and Chinese. Children are playing together on the slides. The harmony and diversity here in Travers Park is a good representation of Jackson Heights. The neighborhood is around 65% Hispanic and 27% Asian. Among Asian Residents, South Asian residents are the biggest group. 

ANTHONY 2We are all same. We are one group. So we never see that this is Bengladesh, this is India. We are a same family.

YANG

It seems like the raging conflict across the ocean in South Asia doesn’t affect residents in Jackson Heights - at least, not here today in the park. But Rifat Salam is worried about the conflict.. 

SALAM.

And I think that every time that there is a regional conflict or something happens, it will be magnified.

YANGSalam is a professor of Political Science at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. 

SALAM

There’s always this sort of underlying tension, which doesn’t really boil over necessarily. But there’s a kind of avoidance, in the sense that not belonging to the same type of peoplehood.

YANG Salam says even here thousands of miles away from India and Pakistan some residents have held tight to their cultural memories. She says immigrants from the Indo-Pacific countries, first formed communities in New York City after 1965. These communities centered on shopping locations to buy food and appliances, which became their cultural and economic centers. But as they expanded, people became separated along cultural lines.

SALAM

So while on some levels in these areas like Jackson Heights, in consumption, there is a sense of everybody being together, it’s not like that in people’s personal lives and how they worship and other aspects of their social lives. Over time, as more and more people come over, you can get more specific about your social circles. .

YANG

But here in the park, people from different backgrounds are enjoying the public space together. A young Pakistani woman is sitting on a swing. She doesn’t wish to speak on tape, but she smiles to greet other residents in the park.

Several steps away,  Bridget Lambrechts is walking through the garden with her daughter in a stroller—her  little girl giggles, bathed in morning sunlight. 

YANG

Do you meet a lot of people from the South Asian community in Jackson Heights?

LAMBRECHTS

It’s a very diverse neighborhood. Part of the reason we chose to live here.

YANG

Great, what part of the community’s diversity do you like? Is it the food?

LAMBRECHTS

Everything! It’s the food, it’s learning other people’s culture, exposing my daughter to people from different places. I have not that experience when I was little, so I would like her to have the experience.

YANG

Two blocks away, Children are on a community playground. I don’t know where they are from, but they are playing soccer together. They kick the ball too hard, and it goes out of the fence. I pick it up for them; they give me a fist bump.

Zijie Yang, Columbia Radio News