Having lived in a very rough neighborhood in Brooklyn, as I was growing up, has made me a bit wary of trends and people. You learn in that kind of neighborhood -- that not everyone is honest or can be trusted to treat you right. This wisdom, I've found out , can be applied to almost any other facet of your life.
For example, when you hear the name New York, certain images flash into your mind: the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State building, the skyscrapers, and so on. But if you stop to think about it, a lot of the images of New York that people worldwide have in their minds, are manufactured by either the news or the movies. Which means that unless you have lived here for a while, you don't know the real New York.
This point is illustrated, to me, by people I have met that have come just as tourists, who express a view of New York, that is distorted by what they have been shown by these media. If you go by what the movies show, New York is either populated by super rich people, who live in these fabulous penthouse apartments, and get driven around by their private chauffeur. And, oh yes the only "ethnic" people you see are either the taxi drivers, the newspaper kiosk guy, and so on. But rarely are these "ethnic" types portrayed as being part of the "elite".
Except,of course, if we are talking about the other way New York's people are portrayed: as super evil villains out to destroy the good parts of the city, for their own selfish purposes. Unfortunately, for some reason, these evil people most always are portrayed as the "ethnic" types. Which makes me uncomfortable, since in the real New York, the super rich and the not-quite-rich "ethnic" types, tend to live side by side in a kind of parallel situation. They see each other and sometimes interact with each other, but it's like there's an invisible wall that keeps them from understanding how the other side lives.
And they do not interfere with one another, each assuming the wrong thing about the other side. Which is a pity, because a good conversation between these groups, once in a while, would -- I think --be beneficial for everybody concerned. But that's just one person talking....you may have another opinion.
