What I like about the Russian-speaking community in New York - ForumDaily
The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.
Переклад цього матеріалу українською мовою з російської було автоматично здійснено сервісом Google Translate, без подальшого редагування тексту.
Bu məqalə Google Translate servisi vasitəsi ilə avtomatik olaraq rus dilindən azərbaycan dilinə tərcümə olunmuşdur. Bundan sonra mətn redaktə edilməmişdir.

What I like about the Russian-speaking community in New York

It seems to me that no one criticizes the “Russians” of New York more than I do. Perhaps I see in others what I want to get rid of myself. That’s why I criticize all “our people” mercilessly. And we avoid each other - we heard Russian speech, and immediately there were dissatisfied faces and we remained silent; and we like to place our parents in free apartments, while we worry that others won’t get it anymore; and we shout at children in public places; and we are rude to each other... In general, often I am simply merciless.

But in fact, in fact, the Russian-speaking community has a lot of positive qualities. Did they appear because our community is very international and each contributed something of his own? Or can this symbiosis of qualities be called general, because it was inherited by us all from the USSR? Never mind. It is important that we have something to praise ourselves for.

Brighton Beach. Photo: Andrey Barth

1. We improve the area in which we live. And we are talking about global changes. The simplest and most famous example is the metamorphosis that happened to Brighton. The heyday of this area occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century. At that time, this place was considered elite; crowds of citizens and tourists came here to play in the casino, swim and eat delicious food. However, the Great Depression reached here too. The area fell into disrepair. And quite quickly those who could not afford more or less decent housing began to settle here. And so for almost forty years. In the early 70s, when Soviet Jews began to settle in this area, they knew that they were settling not just in a dangerous place, but in a place where they could literally lose their lives. This area was then one of the poorest in New York. But either Soviet Jews thought that it couldn’t be worse than in the Soviet Union, or because the presence of the ocean nearby overpowered fear - it’s no secret that we love to settle near water. Perhaps because the city authorities didn’t really offer any other options, and living in Brighton was cheap and therefore affordable, “our people” began to populate the coastal area - a gloomy, dirty place where white emigrants were not at all welcome.

Brighton Beach residents are looking forward to summer. Photo: Pavel Terekhov

“We literally went out to fight crowd against crowd,” local old-timer Mark, who settled in Brighton in 1973, told me. “Only our crowd of Jewish boys consisted of about twenty to thirty people, and there were usually two or three times more of them. We made our own brass knuckles, we bought dog collars and sharpened them, making them the same size as a hand. It's scary to remember.

There is a wonderful photograph by Karl Glassman, which perfectly describes the situation in Brighton at that time - a graffiti-covered subway car in which two people are sitting - a Jew with the newspaper “New Russian Word” and an African-American woman, who, judging by the expression on her face, is not very happy with this neighborhood.

And no matter how miserable today Brighton seemed to us, believe me, today it doesn’t closely resemble what it was before “ours” came here.

2. We change lives for the better and in the details. Did you notice that it costs us to live somewhere, and rather quickly a small shop with “Russian” food appears in the area, then a pharmacy with Russian-speaking pharmacists, ascorbic and “Zvezdochka” balsam. Then “our” beauty salon, advertisements on the fences about the very best tutors of the very same mathematics that is not taught in American schools. And here real estate and apartment rentals are getting more expensive, the rating of local schools is growing, and in front of the houses not cheap old cars are parked, but new black Mercedes cars.

Business woman on Brighton Beach. Photo: Pavel Terekhov

Yes, “our” districts often look specific, but they are definitely not the worst in the city. They are safe and there is always a delicious smell of food.

And let this kind of prison often be for those who could not assimilate into “real” America. But after all such people are in any community. But, even those who do not speak English are completely independent and self-sufficient in our areas - here they can work, get treatment, go to lawyers and beauty salons, and all this without knowing English. In our area, we will buy the same recipes for children, get the same manicure and take a steam bath with a broom in a real bathhouse. Should this be annoying?

Brighton Beach. Photo: Andrey Barth

3. We are successful for the most part. Even those Russian-speaking people who are in the United States illegally manage to settle down and not only live, but also send money home. What can we say about those who are legal and have learned the language. According to statistics from the RINA research institute, about 85% of Russian speakers aged 22 to 65 work full-time. At the same time, 9% of “Russian” families, where at least one person works, have an income above $150,000 per year. According to the same data, 24% of “Russian” families, where at least one person works, have an income of over $90,000 per year. And this despite the fact that we are still new here. People from our diaspora did not have time to accumulate wealth - there was nothing to save from: college fees for children and payments for houses ate up everything they earned. At the same time, we were able to taxi and sail, and were generally successful. Among us are many doctors, businessmen, lawyers, teachers... Photos with “our” faces can be found, for example, in the New York subway - here are city college students, and the guy who discovered a dangerous bag on the subway and called the police. Among us are the journalist who sent the world's first tweet from underwater, a hero police officer, and a millionaire philanthropist...

4. We ourselves love to learn, and make children do it. If a regular city school in New York has a lot of children from the former USSR, then most likely it has a good rating. We torture our children with clubs, sections, classes with and without tutors - so much so that Americans sometimes ask in horror: why are you depriving your children of their childhood? Some compare us to the Chinese, who are known for their demanding attitude towards their children. Perhaps we really are not far from them. On the other hand, it’s nice to see “our” faces on a variety of pedestals. For example, in renowned middle schools Mark Twain и Bay academy A lot of "Russian" children. We are full in prestigious universities and in competitions of various kinds.

5. We are a very bright community. Perhaps no one else has such a number of languages ​​within one community except people from Africa. So many nationalities and religions too. I remember how a new teacher came to our English language courses - a very young girl. She looked around at us all and asked: “Are you sure you are all Russian?” The class laughed. Among us were a husband and wife from Kalmykia, a girl from Buryatia, an Armenian who grew up in St. Petersburg, and other equally colorful representatives of that community, which the teacher described with one word “Russians”. There are an incredible number of polyglots among us. And we are filled with knowledge about other cultures, traditions and rituals.

Russian store on Brighton Beach. Photo: Pavel Terekhov

6. We remain faithful to traditions - and this is touching. For example, on March 8, in Russian-speaking areas, flowers are sold on every corner; in Russian-speaking offices, women are especially beautiful, and men are especially gallant. The New Year in our performance is not just bright, it is unforgettable. KVN, “What? Where? When?”, similar to the “Brain Ring” - we are devoted not only to holidays, but also to intellectual entertainment. And is it really bad when in a country where the New Year is not considered something special, there are also those for whom the smell of tangerines, the film “Enjoy Your Bath,” the Olivier salad and fireworks at 12:05 are just as important as for you?

7. We love to give gifts and never come to visit empty-handed - here even it is not necessary to finish anything.

8. We love cultural life. We have our own theaters, our stars, we are happy to go on tour performances and performances of writers and poets.

9. We are people with an active civic position. Yes, we have not been so united for a long time, as before, and from time to time, and often at all on opposite sides of the barricades. But what we don’t take away from all of us is the activity: we willingly participate in the political and civic life of the United States, and also of the countries from which we came. We go to rallies and demonstrations, we vote in presidential elections, we love meetings with politicians ...

10. Judging by the number of print media, we are the most reading community in the US. By the number of newspapers, magazines, channels on YouTube, etc. we are overtaking even the Hispanic diaspora, although the latter far outnumbers us in numbers. We are not far behind the number of radio stations, the number of bloggers and journalists. Books in Russian are in all Brooklyn libraries. Our community is full of its own writers, whom we read with pleasure.

Brighton Beach. Photo: Andrey Barth

11. Among our Russian-speaking friends, we always have someone to be proud of. For example, I’m friends with a trainer who watches the figures of Hollywood stars, an architect who is currently designing one of the airport’s terminals, a former Russian cosmonaut who in the US moves confidently at NASA ... and so on and on.

*****

Of course, quite a bit of time will pass, and Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Tajiks will finally get rid of the Russian-speaking community ... Once we will definitely stop merging for the Americans in a motley, but still a single whole. But for now we are all pieces of the same mosaic. We are Russians and can not say that it is so bad.

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