☀ Hanover Hangover
Mike Molovinsky reposts an unfair piece from 2007, with the incendiary title “No Dutchmen Need Apply.” It briefly tells the story of two longtime Allentown residents of PA German heritage, who couldn’t get into the new Overlook Park public housing development.
Its hard for them to understand how brandnew comers to the area, who don’t even speak English, go to the head of the line.
Molovinsky knows that residents of Hanover Acres–the public housing project that Overlook replaced–had the right to return to their (rebuilt) homes first. These aren’t “brandnew comers to the area,” either. Many, many Hanover residents–white, black and Latino–had lived here in Allentown for years.
But this post is directed at Latinos. The “brandnew comers” here “don’t even speak English.”
Leave aside the silliness of the “don’t even speak English” when applied to most Allentown Latinos. Leave aside too the fact that Allentown has had a vibrant Puerto Rican community for over 70 years.1
This post comes off as Emma Trapiano-style race-baiting, complete with the anti-Irish allusion (”… need apply”) and a call for a “Pennsylvania Dutch American Organization.”
This is nativist pandering, and forgetful at that: There was a time when German Americans were attacked for not speaking English. Over the last two centuries, most immigrants to this country–let’s call them Americans–have been dismissed for the same reason.
UPDATE: I regret not making clear in my initial post that I do not regard Mike Molovinsky–a friend whom I respect–as racist in any way. I’ve defended him against the charge in the past. He’s a provocateur, and this post is an example. Still: All the post does is fan the flames, in terms of a PA Dutch vs. Puerto Rican story that’s way too simplistic to capture what this city has been through (as Mike knows) over the last 30 years. I am copying below Mike’s email to me.
Jeff, I resent, but understand your portrayal of my post as race-baiting. It would much more accurate if you said, ”Here is a very politically incorrect post from someone very informed about housing in Allentown.” Although you may perceive my post as race baiting, there exists in Allentown a tremendous cultural divide. I don’t discriminate, either against people or truth. Although some, yourself included, talk about mixed income housing and shopping, such as on 7th Street, it doesn’t exist. I believe progress will only occur when one can speak the truth without being labeled. As you may well know, when my post first appeared in 2007, Damien commented that I was mistaken, because he had HELPED a white family get into housing there. I have also HELPED people get into public housing. The key word is HELP, because both Damien and myself acted as advocates. The Housing Authority always has set aside units for hardship, and it takes an advocate to know which buttons to push. Maria Cruz at Hispanic American Organization is such an advocate, but there is no organization for the families that Damien and I helped. As far as the Latino Community goes, the number of Hispanics here in the 1970’s was miniscule. There was a sizable Mexican community in Bethlehem from the Steel, but only a few Puerto Ricans. The large Puerto Rican Community which we know today has developed in the last 20 years. This accelerated change in demographics was noted years ago by the New York Times in an article called The Latinization of the Lehigh Valley. As a landlord who rented apartments in Allentown for thirtyfive years, I have never been accused of discrimination; even Alan Jennings can’t say that. If you knew Emma Tropiano as a person, instead of a rumor, you would also know her acts of kindness and intervention were a stark contrast to the label painted on her.
Mike is right about the Puerto Rican community being small here before World War II, but it’s important to note that it did exist, as Anna Adams shows. I admit I don’t know a lot about Tropiano, except through conversation and, in fact, that New York Times Magazine piece on “The Latinization of Allentown” which I hope to post about soon. I shouldn’t have used her name that way without knowing more.
UPDATE 2: This is from Damien Brown, the blogging pioneer and tireless West End Alliance advocate.
Jeff, A drive through Overlook Park will demonstrate many different kinds of people have taken up residence there, including Caucasians. In an effort to illustrate my point I will mention that my mother, a lifelong Allentown resident, now calls this community home. I have a few minor criticisms about how the neighborhood was developed but the application process was handled fairly. As soon as each applicant submitted their application they were mailed a number representing their place in line for an interview. After passing a criminal background, credit, and rental history check they were in provided the number of bedrooms their family required was available. Like most things in life, residency in Overlook Park simply came down to timely action. Damien
Comments enabled.
- As Anna Adams carefully documents in her 2000 book Hidden From History: The Latino Community of Allentown, Pennsylvania. ↩
March 7th, 2010 at 10:47 am
damien, i’d like to ask you a couple of questions, and totally respect your right not to answer. in 2007 you commented on my blog that you had advocated for somebody to get into overlook, was this for your mother? do you believe she (or whoever it was) would have gotten in without your help?
despite anna adams book, a former worker for the allentown welfare office, who gathered statistics for the government, informs me that well less than 1% of the population was Puerto Rican in the mid 1960’s. also, even by the early 1980’s it was less than 20%. now, underestimated by the official census, it is well over 40%. this discrepancy is obvious from the number of hispanics in the classrooms.
jeff, thank you for the inclusion of my comment and some faith in my motivations. we do differ on the value of “provocative discourse.” it seems to me that all the political correctness has done nothing to address the cultural divide in this city, perhaps some frankness will go farther.
March 7th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
despite writing that “Allentown hosted a thriving Puerto Rican Community since 1950…” Anne Adams, a muhlenberg college historian, may find it interesting that there was not one Puerto Rican in the 1964 graduating baby boomer class at allen. a few Puerto Rican families were clustered near 3th and Hamilton, certainly not a community, or thriving
March 7th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Mike,
I don’t see any strong contradictions in our two statements. Any help I provided was limited to making sure the application was filled out properly and making sure a stamped envelope was mailed in a timely manner. The process laid out by Pennrose was very clear.
That said, the answer to your question is probably not, but that was not the premise of your post. While your original post is witty and entertaining I think it perpetuates a myth among locals (often white) in need that opportunities like Overlook Park are not for them. This discourages them from even applying. Suggesting people were denied because of their heritage or race simply is not accurate in this case.
Your continued assistance of those you know in need is a good way to alleviate this concern.
Damien
March 8th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
This is a lame article.
Very lame, indeed.
I’m sorry I stuck up for you last time Troll Villa hammered you.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Revisionist history NEVER flies.
March 9th, 2010 at 9:24 am
I like provocative political incorrectness, when it’s right and even (sometimes) when it’s wrong.
On Adams, I have the book and will retrieve it. Regardless, I completely concede that the vast majority of the Latino migration has happened in the last thirty years.
Regardless, I think we should be talking a lot more about what is obviously the most important change to Allentown in the last 30 years. Most often I’ve heard it talked about openly in living rooms, in bars, neighbor-to-neighbor–a kind of “whisper campaign.” A number of white neighbors took me aside when I first moved here seven years ago, as if to confide in me: the topic was Puerto Ricans. Most of this was openly racist.
There’s a way-too-simple story about what’s happened to Allentown over the last 30 years, that blames Puerto Rican newcomers for the city’s decline. It’s much more complicated than that, and I objected to MM’s post because it draws on that story. I have much more to say about this in future posts.
The “don’t speak English” thing is particularly upsetting, because it signals “foreigner” or “non-citizen” or “alien.” Puerto Ricans in the US are full-fledged citizens. I have a neighbor who, from the first warm day in spring all the way through the last warm day in the fall, wears a t-shirt that says, “Welcome to America. Now speak English.” He wanders around the neighborhood day after day (I hope he has a dozen of these shirts), in a majority-Latino neighborhood. It’s that kind of attitude that MM’s post, unintentionally, taps.