Background
Jacob Riis was a well-known photojournalist in New York in the late 19th century. He took hundreds of photos of tenements, which were crowded, run-down slums in the lower east side of New York City. A very large percentage of the residents of these tenements were recent immigrants from southern and south-eastern Europe. Riis’s work was first published in 1889 and later became a book, How the Other Half Lives, which influenced progressive reformers and politicians of the time, including Theodore Roosevelt. We normally think about these as very sympathetic to the tenement residents. However, Professor Postel asks students to look more closely at the pictures and recognize that Riis’s photos had the potential to arouse fear in the middle class. Thus, the goal of cleaning up the tenements was not just a humane thing to do, it was necessary to prevent the spread of crime and squalor beyond the slums.
Writing Assignment #1
Thesis Statement
Jacob Riis’s photos had the potential to alarm the middle class by presenting several dangers and menaces that could someday threaten those readers: It depicts the immigrants in an abnormal light, showing them in distressful situations, not reflecting the appropriate emotions, and their body language makes them appear as a hazard. The effect would be to motivate those readers to do something to improve the tenements.
Introduction
One of the biggest issues plaguing America both internally and externally is the discussion around immigrants. America has been popularised as a country built on the strength of immigrants, but as the discourse in the last few years has proven, these ‘builders’ are not always viewed in a positive light by the settled civilians or the authoritarian forces in place. As seen in Once I Was You by Maria Hinojosa, the American attitude towards immigrants is dependent on the requirements of the country. If there is a need for more manpower or intellectual strength the Americans call on these immigrants, harmoniously inviting them into their lands, facilitating the illegal means, which they abhor when recession hits. The interpretation of immigrants in front of the world is heavily manipulated by media, to preserve the American goodwill. Even for the undecided American civilians a form of media like Jacob Riis’ photos creates a certain image which does not safeguard the immigrants necessarily. This essay examines these hazardous outcomes. Jacob Riis’s photos had the potential to alarm the middle class by presenting several dangers and menaces that could someday threaten those readers: it depicts the immigrants in an abnormal light, showing them in distressful situations, not reflecting the appropriate emotions, and their body language makes them appear as a hazard. The effect would be to motivate those readers to do something to improve the tenements.
Outline:
Concept 1:
The unbearable living conditions of Immigrants
- They lived in unsanitary conditions, sharing space with five or six people.
- Surviving in such conditions reflected an uncanny image of immigrants.
- Media attached supernatural connotations and terminology with immigrants to make them seem like ‘aliens’.
Immigrants from Southern and Southeastern Europe arrived during the industrial revolution, to earn more money and send to their families. Since, most of them were singles without any filial unit they mostly lived in communities, sharing a dwelling with five or six other people of the same descent, to strengthen their cultural bond. They lived in very tough conditions as obvious in Photographs 3 and 4. Though Riis might have aimed to portray the ‘real truth’ of immigrants, in actuality it makes them appear as abnormal beings, living in unbearable conditions. Seeing these photographs created an uncanny impression in the minds of people regarding immigrants. Because these immigrants were able to survive in such an environment filled with dirt and racism, made civilians attach unfair supernatural connotations to them. They began to be considered as something other than human, specifically ‘alien’, a term attached to them in the Green Cards. In the media, too immigrants from China were portrayed as villains with unrecognisable strength, reflective of what is shown in the photographs.
Concept 2:
Unhealthy living conditions in children:
- Children of immigrant families do not have a normal upbringing.
- Showcased as sleeping in claustrophobic condition, in place of studying.
- Their physical action may not allow them entry into the community.
Children of immigrant families are always portrayed as devoid of joy, innocence, and naivety by the American media, like these photographs. As clear in photographs 2 and 9 the immigrant children of this locale were not having a normal upbringing by any means. The age at which they should be shown studying in schools, these photographs create an image of them cramped up in small places, existing in extremely unsanitary conditions. The intended effect of these images was to garner sympathy, but for many, they led to a feeling of distaste. The best outcome for an immigrant n a foreign country is to get assimilated, keeping their individuality and personal values intact. The contaminated environment in which these children are living seems like a ‘red flag’ for American civilians. Photograph 9 also shows intense physical actions by the children that might hinder native people from opening their boundaries towards the immigrants, as the most relatable subject of any group.
Concept 3:
Lack of domestic stability
- Riis photographs aim at showing the difficulty faced by the immigrants to stable their living conditions.
- Photograph 4 mainly focuses on how it was difficult their living was.
- Females had to live in unhealthy conditions with improper food and sanitation.
- Alternatively, Photograph 4 also focuses on how difficult life was, as the immigrants were considered to be as ‘aliens”, in society, as they had to sleep where they cooked and kept their wet clothes hung to get them dried.
- This gave rise to slums, and unhealthy living conditions giving birth to contagious diseases.
Riis mainly aimed to portray in the images showing about the practicality that how it was difficult for the female to stabilize their domestic settings. Thus, photographs 4 mainly focuses on how it was difficult for the female to handle their living conditions along with improper food conditions, healthcare needs, maternity care, and improper sanitation. Photograph 4 depicts how it was difficult for the immigrants to live in healthy conditions, as they had to live in unbearable domestic living conditions, which lacked domestic stability. Here, this photograph also focuses on how difficult life, was, as the immigrants had to sleep in the place where they cooked and kept their wet clothes hung to get them dried. Hence, society, discriminated against them, to get a proper domestic living, because of their unemployment.
Conclusion
Jacob Riis, a well-known photojournalist, has taken hundreds of photographs of the immigrants who had unbearable living conditions in New York City. Therefore, being a progressive reformer Riis tried to focus on the living condition of the immigrants over the period, by the 19th century and gave a close picture of the people that spread unnecessary crimes, slums due to poverty and unemployment, and evidence through these photographs to focus on how immigrants started developing squalors. Moreover, Jacob Riis’ photographs, mainly focus on the idea, of how this developed the fear for the middle-class people, as the settlements of the immigrants developed squalors that deprived them of slum areas.
Reference List
Goodfellow, Maya. Hostile environment: How immigrants became scapegoats. Verso Books, 2020.
King-Dejardin, Amelita. “The social construction of migrant care work. At the intersection of care, migration, and gender.” International Labour Office: Geneva, Switzerland (2019).
Ryo, Emily. “Understanding immigration detention: Causes, conditions, and consequences.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 15 (2019): 97-115.
