Immigration and Migration and the Making of a Modern American City

Narratives for social change

When I say my students and their families could benefit from a little social change, I understate the issue. Like the migrants and immigrants we studied in this seminar, they are outsiders in their city because they are in the juvenile justice system, because they are recipients of public assistance, because they are minorities, because they are judged for their culture or sexual identity, because they have inadequate access to good public transportation and jobs, because they have been victims themselves. They can mix and match from the list. They must learn to speak up for themselves and their community and to listen to others when they speak up, as well. The inherent lesson that can't be ignored in this issue is the role these and other narratives have played in shaping public consciousness and eventually policy. In their exploration of narrative as a means of social change, Gergen and Gergen tell us something we already know: ". . . there is something particularly effective about listening to others' narratives that crosses boundaries of meaning, and brings people into a state of mutuality." They give several reasons. Universally, people appreciate story-telling as a mode of entertainment and teaching. We understand and expect the basic structure of beginning-middle-end. When the story-teller speaks from the role of witness, we tend to trust him or her and insert ourselves in the story. Once there, we internalize it more thoroughly. ²⁴

Jacob Riis and Charles Dickens drew attention to immigrants and the urban poor with their writing, both fiction and non-fiction. They drew tourists and their attention to the tenements. Riis is credited with influencing reform to make them more clean and livable. ²⁵ Upton Sinclair's The Jungle drew the public's attention and ire to the inhumane working conditions and unsanitary setting of the meatpacking industry in 1906 Chicago. The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act were results. ²⁶ More close to my students are websites that share the stories of young people in whom they can see themselves and familiar social issues. We'll look at Things I'll Never Say: Stories of Growing Up Undocumented in the United States, an online interactive collection of stories by undocumented teens. Another is "On the Brink in Brownsville," a New York Times Magazine story about a teenager living today in Brownsville tenements in the Bronx. In addition to rites of passage stories, many of the selected texts for this unit are known for their lasting influence as agents of social change, especially Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Black Boy. The Things I'll Never Say website has the purpose of drawing unheard voices out into public conversation. In his Afterword to Down these Mean Streets, Thomas explains that he wants his stories to inspire peace and better lives for children, especially. "So let's make life fair," he says. "Let America set a beautiful new standard of caring, not only for our own children, but for all the children of the world." ²⁷