Month: December 2016

Mandeep Singh stretched his arms while the American custom’s security officer patted him down. The officer told him he was going to move onto his turban. Mandeep agreed while he silently cursed the man. He knew the airport security mistook him and his family for people of the Islamic faith—the same religion well-known terrorist groups follow. Mandeep, however, is not a Muslim; he is a Sikh.

Mandeep, 24 years old, visits a Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) every Sunday he can. He sits in the corner of the basement with people close to his age. His head is buried in his phone, making time to study for his finals. A group of young children run up to him and ask him to play. He doesn’t outright tell the kids to leave, but lets them pull on his arm as they feebly try to move him from his positon. Mandeep is adamant and won’t budge. A young boy, who also wears a turban, goes to his side and tackles him, but fails to push him from his seat. His turban becomes crooked. Mandeep helps him fix it before snatching his phone back from another kid.

Next week, Mandeep says, he won’t be at the Gurudwara. He had to focus his time on studying for finals at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine.

***

Sikhism is a monotheistic religion, and it is the world’s fifth most popular religion, originating in the 16^th century. It is often mispronounced as “seek.” Major tenets of the religion include worshipping one god, treating everyone equally, working hard, and never begging.

Male Sikhs wear turbans and grow their beards as a commitment of their faith. These visible identifications cause confusion between Sikhs and Muslims, who wear turbans for fashion or status reasons. However, many Muslims in the west don’t wear turbans. Most people who wear turbans are Sikhs. [find statistics].

Due to the rise of Islamophobia in recent years because of terrorist attacks, Sikhs have been targets for Muslim hate crimes and discrimination. In recent years, these incidents include Sikh-American actor Waris Ahluwalia being denied board on his flight because he refused to remove his turban and the 2012 Wisconsin shooting at a Sikh Temple.

Dr. Simran Jeet Singh, an assistant professor at Trinity University and a senior religion fellow at the Sikh Coalition, was mistaken for a Muslim even though he is a Sikh. During the annual New York City Marathon in November, Simran participated in the marathon and received anti-Muslim remarks from fellow participants and volunteers. It was his fifth year running.

He took to twitter to share his experience. “To the woman who just pulled back the water cup as I reached out and called me a ‘dirty Muslim’—screw you… also, to the dude who just yelled out: ‘Run faster everyone! That guy from ISIS is right behind you!’ Seriously, not cool.”

“We like to tell ourselves ignorance only really occurs in rural communities and that’s also really ignorant,” says Simran. “I lived in New York City for nine years, and me and my friends experienced a lot of attacks. That’s just with Sikhs, but there are also Muslims who’ve experienced the same things.”

[add pictures]

***

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, an American news satire and talk show program, made a video called, “Confused Islamophobes Target American Sikhs.” In the video, News Correspondent Hasan Minhaj walked around Times Square with a large photograph of “a bird, binoculars, a child playing hide-and-go-seek, and a man in a turban and a beard” and asked New Yorkers which one was a “Sikh.” All those who answered in the video answered incorrectly.

“[The video] was pretty interesting but, in my experience, not that surprising,” says Mandeep. “I think they should’ve asked them to name each one of the pictures to the best of their abilities. If they did that, I wonder how many would’ve said the Sikh was a Muslim.”

[add picture of the poster]

Minhaj asked a group of Sikhs, “Why don’t you go, ‘Hey, I’m not Muslim’?”

An unnamed Sikh said, “It’s just not an option for us to throw another community under the bus, even if it means things are harder for us. We believe it’s the right thing to do.”

Mandeep, Simiran, and many Sikhs aim to follow this disposition.

“I don’t resent Muslims or their community for the harassment of Sikhs,” says Mandeep. “They haven’t done anything to me personally. The way I see it, they’re the victims in all this, too.”

Hate crimes in the Middle Eastern and South Asian, including Sikh, communities soared as a result of the September 11 attacks.

[add picture of Bin Laden]

The infamous terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda, wore a turban. During the 2000s, Laden’s face became familiar to Americans, who have begun to associate turbans with Muslims—a common stereotype even today. Through the rise of more terrorist attacks and Islamophobia, Muslims are associated with terrorism. Thus, Sikhs who wear turbans are also associated with terrorism.

Although President George W. Bush acknowledged the contributions Muslim Americans made in America through several public appearances, it did not prevent the [ensuing] discrimination. According to CNN, one month after 9/11, more than 300 cases of violence and discrimination against Sikhs were documented.

***

Prior to 9/11, in elementary school, students knew Mandeep and his reasons for wearing a turban.

Mandeep was 10 years old during the attacks, and he graduated to middle school two years later.

In this new environment, many students were not familiar with Mandeep or Sikhs. They were familiar with, however, Laden, terrorism, and turbans.

Students would pull on Mandeep’s turban in the stairwell and run away. They would pass him in the hallways and taunt him openly.

Although school bullying was a difficult ordeal, Mandeep acknowledges his experience was not worse than the experiences of other members of the Sikh community.

“The things I’ve gone through compared to other Sikhs is nothing,” says Mandeep. “I was lucky to never have been assaulted physically. You hear stories of a Sikh being attacked all the time in Gurudwaras (Sikh Temples).”

Whether he is walking on the sidewalks or going to his local grocery story, Mandeep always senses eyes wherever he goes. He tries to keep his head down and not draw too much attention from his actions, however small.

“The general attitude of New Yorkers is no one cares to look at you twice,” he says. “When you wear a turban, it’s different. Everyone gives you a glance. I understand that it’s noticeable…but, when you’ve been through the things I’ve been through, that glance can mean a lot of things… That insecurity is always in the back of my mind.”

***

-Ignorance of Sikhism

-Wisconsin attack

-Obama not entering the Golden Temple

-What the Sikh Coalition and other organizations are doing to help the community

P.S. From the long forms I’ve read, the writers sectioned their piece into 3 main parts. I felt, for my story, breaking it into more parts would make more sense structurally.

P.P.S. I don’t feel like my second paragraph in the beginning showcases Mandeep well enough. Do you?

Comic Conventions: For Geeks Of All Types

By: Nicole Caropolo

When you think of comic conventions, what do you think of? People running around in capes debating the relationship dynamic between Harley Quinn and the Joker? Maybe you picture lots of light saber fights and yoda talk from people bashing the “Star Wars” prequels. Well there is much more to comic book conventions than meets the eye. Pop culture from every topic, and from every medium, is embraced and celebrated by the attendants. Comic conventions are centered around “geek” culture, but expand to so much more.

Comic conventions are generally geared towards fans of comics, superheroes, and science fiction. As years have passed since the first one in 1964, which took place in New York, the world of comic conventions has spread out to all masses of entertainment.

Merchandise, discussion boards, and celebrity meet-and-greets from the most popular shows and movies can be found in a place where things that may be considered “geeky” are honored. Comic conventions represent what it means to be proud of being a “geek” and showing off your interests.

Cosplay is a huge segment of comic conventions. The word cosplay refers to dressing up as a character from a movie, television show or video game. Most people cosplay for fun, but there are actually people that make a living off of it. At most conventions, you will find professional cosplayers that are often paid for appearances and photos.

Rae Allen, 23, doesn’t get paid for her cosplay (yet), but she takes it very seriously. Allen has been attending conventions for anime, Japanese cartoons, for the last 10 years, but recently began attending comic conventions like New York Comic Con and Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia.

Her recent cosplay costumes include Spider-Gwen from Marvel Comics, Maya from the Borderlands 2 video game, and Harley Quinn from DC’s Bombshells’ comics.

“What I personally enjoy most about it is showing what I can do, showing what I’ve made,” Allen said.

The cosplayer also loves how the costumes break her out of her shell.

“One of the most important things I enjoy about cosplaying is the confidence it gives you. In person, I’m a very shy person with social anxiety who also happens to be quite self-conscious,” Allen said. “But in cosplay, I’m outgoing. I make new friends. I don’t have an issue talking to new people. Most importantly, I feel confident in myself.”

Anime and manga, Japanese comic books, are huge communities in the world of geek culture. For example, Dragon Ball Z, an extremely popular anime cartoon, is a common topic at conventions, and the voice actors from the show often make appearances.

Alina Palubinskas, 20, attends conventions because anime is one of her largest passions in life, often cosplaying as the characters.

Her first convention was called MegaCon in Orlando, and she was instantly taken by the amount of anime fans.

“It was hugely busy, with thousands of people in wigs in every color,” Palubinskas said. “I’d never seen anything so exciting as a little kid.”

Daisy Elise Feddoes, 19, is a manga lover who loves the international interest it brings to the conventions.

Feddoes said, “TV shows and comics are pretty regularly covered in the US, but comic con makes it a lot easier to get cool merchandise more common to Japan.”

These conventions are also seen as a think tank for people to debate and share ideas about topics that some may not be seen as important or influential in common day-to-day conversations.

Sheraz Farooqi sees the deeper meaning in comic books and science fiction. He is so passionate about the ideas that stem from them that he created an educational course on it.

Farooqi is a 22-year-old finance major at Baruch College that created a Marvel and DC course for the Resource and Opportunity Center, referred to as the ROC, for homeschoolers. The course idea was sparked by a twitter page that Farooqi created, called ComicBook Debate, that quickly gained over 5,000 followers. His professor recommended him to the ROC, where his pitch for a class about superheroes and comic books was approved.

Farooqi said, “I think getting kids to think and get their imagination going is awesome and the school director is very positive on programs like this that deviate from the normal curriculum”

Topics at conventions can range from Doctor Who to Disney to science fiction literature, and everything in between. The expansion of interest in entertainment has translated into events that are attended by thousands of people every year.

The reason why so many people flock to comic conventions is because they find it has a sense of community and excitement in the air that just can’t be ignored.

Gabriel Nash, 21, has attended Tampa Bay Comic Con for the past three years, and plans on continuing the annual tradition because he enjoys how it felt to walk in for the first time and see his favorite pieces of entertainment being celebrated by other people that he can relate to.

“I thought it was my whole imaginative world come to life,” Nash said.

He is not alone. Over 180,000 people attended the New York Comic Con in 2016 and 130,000 fans swarmed the San Diego Comic Con in 2015.

The New York and San Diego Comic Cons embody what it means to bring together different communities of pop culture.

The pop culture diversity really stems from the meet-and-greet aspect of the conventions. At the large city comic cons, such as New York, San Diego and Tampa Bay, hundreds of people line up for hours to meet well-known celebrities and voice actors. These are places where the term “fangirling” run rampant. The term refers to the excitement and nerves a fan faces when they meet one of their favorite stars.

Imagine being face-to-face over your celebrity crush that you’ve been daydreaming about for years, or your idol that inspires you. That is where the term “fangirling” comes into play at comic conventions.

And don’t be fooled by the word either. Men are just as prone to getting excited over celebrities as any other “fangirl.”

“My favorite memory would probably have to be meeting Jack Gleeson, also known as Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones!” Nash said.

Nash says he will never forget when he met “King Joffrey” at Tampa Bay Comic Con in 2016, known as one of the most hated characters on television, and was actually the nicest celebrity he met.

In 2016, New York Comic Con had guests like Christopher Meloni from “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit”, Alano Miller from “Jane The Virgin”, and the “Impractical Jokers” from the popular TruTV show. These shows stand out from the typical “comic nerd” world, and bring people together with all different entertainment tastes. Your mom definitely watches at least one of those shows.

Pop culture fans also find comic conventions to be a spot for business opportunities. Hundreds of small town businesses, vendors, and artists set up shop at convention centers every year to get their name out there. Fans buy homemade fan art and merchandise faster than Avengers’ movie tickets. At every large convention, there is even a section of the venue dedicated to original artwork, called “Artists’ Alley.”

Don’t just think that comic conventions are a place to blow all your money on Big Bang Theory t-shirts and meeting the cast of “Sherlock.” At nearly every minute, there is an event, a competition or a live show happening.

Discussion panels are often the main event. For instance, San Diego Comic Con is known as the “mothership” of conventions due to the high-leveled stars that attend panels. For a majority of their airtime, hit shows like Teen Wolf and Supernatural have had the main stars hold panels where they discuss the past, present, and future of the show, as well as answer questions from their adoring fans. Events like these bring the television world to life for the viewers.

Caitlin MacDougall, 21, has attended Tampa Bay Comic Con due to her love of all things Doctor Who. She enjoyed how the parts of the British science-fiction fantasy world were brought to life at the conventions for her to admire with her fellow “Whovian” friend, the name that Doctor Who fans have dubbed themselves. They even posed with the phone-booth time machine that is featured in the show.

“When we came across a professional photo-op with a life sized TARDIS, I didn’t even think twice to shell out the money for the two of us to have our picture taken,” MacDougall said.

Television and movie sneak peaks are not uncommon at conventions, and what many attendants look forward to the most. Devoted fans are rewarded for their support with screenings of future episodes or movie trailers. This year’s New York Comic Con was choc-full of exclusive looks at movies like “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders” and the FX shows “Legion” and “Archer.”

There can be many misconceptions about the reality of comic conventions that may make people feel wrongly excluded or like an outsider, but con-goers think the opposite.

“I think it’s generally a nice, judgement free space for adults who consume video game and cartoon media to fully embrace what they enjoy!” Feddoes said. “I think it’s very important to have that space as adults and teenagers who can often feel marginalized.”

Due to the ever-expanding content coverage, Allen thinks that conventions are finally being seen as a place for not only geeks, but for everyone who enjoys entertainment.

“I think the misconception is that the only people who go to these things or people who dress up are often socially inept people who live in their parents’ basements. I think that misconception has slowly started to fade as more and more casual fans or just people who are curious about conventions have started going.” Allen said. “Sure, you might see a person or two who fits the stereotype of the misconception, but honestly, it’s a lot of “normal” people who just want to enjoy their hobbies.”

At the end of the day though, the geek community is at the heart of these pop culture events.

“Sometimes people say that ‘Oh, only nerds go to cons’ is a misconception, but honestly it’s completely true,” Palubinskas said. “You have to be some degree of nerdy to have fun at a convention and to keep going back year after year.

So whether you are a proud nerd, or just an average pop culture admirer, comic conventions welcome you into a place to let your inner “fangirl” out.

 

 

 

 

Sau takes slow, careful steps from the Grand Street train station as more people come pouring out from behind her. There’s an elderly woman selling steamed rice wrapped in bamboo leaves on a newspaper on the ground. Sau moves past her, careful not to knock any over. She walks slowly four blocks over to Open Door Senior Center, on the edge of Chinatown and Little Italy. By the time she makes it to the kitchen at 8 am, she is only the second to arrive. She begins preparing meals for the day.

The 7,000 seniors in Manhattan’s Chinatown navigate their days with incredible independence even though more than half live below the poverty line. TK- more here summing up the gist of the article

Sau’s back is bent slightly at the middle from decades of leaning over a stovetop or cutting board or sewing machine. Her hands, knobbed and smooth from work, haven’t stopped working since she arrived from Hong Kong in 1975. Her commute from Sheepshead Bay to Chinatown takes an hour each way.

The people she serves at work are not unlike her. The 200 or so seniors spend a majority of their day there taking turns on a karaoke machine, chatting with friends, or playing chinese chess. Some of the more active seniors take advantage of the ping pong table in the back or join the dance group that performs at community events.

Hau is in is early seventies and lives with his wife in a small apartment a few blocks away from Open Doors. He spends most of his days here, in the ping pong room. He’s one of the best players at the center and can beat almost any challenger handedly. He moves lightly on his feet, but never overexerts or moves more than he should. “That’s the good thing about ping pong,” he says. “I’ve been playing for so long, I know exactly what I have to do. Never more, never less.”

One of the lucky seniors, he is retired. After working for a shipping company in Chinatown, he and his wife have saved enough to live comfortably in addition to the help they receive from their two adult children. They have lived in Chinatown since they immigrated in the late seventies. He’s never left because of convenience and his rent-controlled apartment. All of his friends live nearby, and his grocer, butcher, laundromat, and train station are all within a two block radius of his apartment.“There isn’t really a better deal for living in Manhattan,” he says laughing. A bell rings indicating that lunch is ready and his eyes light up.

After cooking and serving meals at Open Door, she and the rest of the kitchen staff take all the pots and pans to be cleaned at another kitchen facility on Chrystie Street. (A younger coworker in his fifties rolls the cart over.) They clean and begin preparing meals for the next day. Sau packs some leftover boiled sweet potatoes and cornbread for herself and takes the train home.

The plight of Chinatown’s seniors isn’t unique to the area– other ethnic enclaves in the city have shown alarming rates of poverty among immigrant groups. In Sunset Park, a densely populated immigrant neighborhood, half of the foreign-born citizens are living in poverty. Flushing is home 52 percent of all Korean seniors living in poverty.

Ethnic enclaves have created a unique situation for many of the immigrant seniors living in New York. Chinatown’s self-sustaining ethos has provided more freedom for it seniors, while at the same time limiting them. While the neighborhood has everything these seniors may need, the language barrier to receive resources outside of the area is extremely difficult to overcome. In addition to this, many seniors who live alone lack any exposure to the resources provided in the community itself.

The Chinese Planning Council started as a grassroots movement in the mid-sixties in response to the rapid influx of Chinese immigrants after the Immigration Reform Act of 1965. It helped provide resources to help families settle into their new homes. Today the organization offers everything from education and training services, child care services, advocacy, and home care attendants. The CPC also helped to establish Open Doors in 1972 as one of the first senior centers catered to the Chinese community.

—

The Father’s Heart Ministries has served hot breakfast in their Alphabet City building since 1997. On any Saturday, the line outside stretches around the block and continues for another. The number of people served each week reaches over 600 and is growing, say Carol Vedral, the Co-founder and executive director of the program. The Father’s Heart sees everyone from homeless, to low income families of all ethnicities. But recently the program has been seeing more elderly Chinese attendees. They’re the earliest to show up on the line though they travel the farthest distance, huddling in bunches in the cold. “For some of these people, this is the only hot meal they’ll have this week,” she says.

As the doors open, a band plays music to welcome guests that echoes loudly off the high ceilings. The thirty-something volunteers line the walls ushering guests to their seats. The Chinese seniors come in together in pockets sitting at the same table. As soon as they’re seated, volunteer serves start giving each person a plate with eggs, hash browns, and a slice of bread. Another server brings bowls of cereal and canned peaches. When seated, they eat quickly, taking multiple servings. Though it’s not allowed per food regulations, some take the hot food home, sliding an egg into a plastic bag under the table.

One table of Chinese seniors take the bread from their plates and make a small pile in the middle. They smile at me when I ask in broken Chinese if they don’t like bread. Each seat in the 200 person dining room is filled. As soon as someone finishes their meal, their place setting is cleared and cleaned by volunteers with pit crew efficiency. The processes is repeated until everyone has eaten. By the time they’re done eating, the table’s pile of bread has grown into a small mountain. Before they get up to leave, two women at the table take the bread and pack it into tupperware containers in their bags.

—

Despite the resources available, many seniors in Chinatown still struggle to make ends meet. Either because they don’t know about the resources available (language barriers are often the main cause) or they are too prideful to take help from others. Walking through the Chinatown, you’re bound to see a “canner.” At night, these elderly women dig through trash collecting bottles and cans for recycling. They sort the materials and carry the large bags (or push them in a cart if they’re so lucky) and bring them to a collector who buys the sorted bags off the canners.

In a new phenomenon, other seniors pressed to make ends meet will ride one of the many casino busses from Chinatown or Flushing, not to gamble, but the make a few extra bucks. Seniors purchase bus tickets which includes gambling credit from the casino, take the 2 hour bus ride to sell the credit to a casino goer, and return home with $18 in their pockets.

In August, The Atlantic covered Kin-Sing Ng, an elderly woman living alone in Chinatown. The mini documentary follows her on a normal night in the winter– digging through the trash at a bakery, looking for bread to eat. She then meets an elderly friend who trades some of her bread for a few dumplings, and later her younger, middle-aged friend give her some soup that she takes home and eats in a cockroach ridden apartment. The video ends saying that sometime after the film was shot, Ng was struck by a car on her regular evening walk. The video shocked many when it was first released and prompted the question– where were her children?

The difficulties of navigating senior care in a Chinese-American context is difficult. These ethnic enclaves formed as a main point of entry for many immigrants. But after going to school and finding higher paying jobs, most of the next generation wants to leave. Seniors are less likely to part ways with their home because of the familiarity with their environment. The level of independence is much greater in Chinatown, than it is in other ethnic enclaves in Queens and Brooklyn.

Culturally, it’s customary for the elderly to live with their children, but in New York, it happens less and less as space and cultural change becomes a major barrier. For the children of immigrants, having their parents live with them isn’t always a viable option, and many times, the parents are comfortable and feel independent in the ethnic enclave. At the same time, this leaves seniors uncared for while their extended families live elsewhere.

Sau comes home to the Brooklyn home she’s lived in since the seventies. When she gets home she warms the sweet potato in the microwave and warms some soup she made last night. She eats and goes to bed early to be well rested for the next day.  Occasionally she gets a call from her only daughter– my mother, to check in on her.