Through his remarkable series of photographs, documenting
life in the tenements of old New York at the turn of the 19th
Century, Jacob A. Riis has become an icon of compassionate liberalism to many
folks. That’s because they haven’t read his book. This landmark classic of
sociology is often spoken of as if it were a plea for compassion and sympathy
for the poor. If that is your opinion of this highly vaunted work, then you
have probably not read it either.
The book is somewhat akin to D.W. Griffith’s epic motion
picture “Birth of a Nation” in that it stereotypes every minority then in
existence in New York City. Jews are clever and suspicious; Chinese are opium
pushers and white slave traders; the Italians are happy people except when
pushed too far and their passionate nature gets the better of them; while the
Irish are just plain filthy and would rather drink than work. And all are
criminals of one sort or another.
While quoting from the crime statistics available at the
time he notes that the majority of the criminals come from the slums. Crime
itself is the result of unclean living and poor habits, as well as the choice of
lifestyles made by the individual. When the well to do come down to the slums
for entertainment, they are sometimes unwittingly dragged into these lifestyles
themselves; making them victims of the poor.
As a kid I used to go to Riis Park in the borough of Queens.
Riis Park is the beach which sits next door to the Breezy Point Section, which
gained widespread fame this past year in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Riis Park
was the brainchild of Robert Moses, who oversaw the building of most of the
bridges and tunnels, as well as countless parks throughout the 5 boroughs. He
named Riis Park for the author of this book, who is often considered to be a
champion of the poor, and presumably would have wanted poor people to have a
sunny, open place to go for fresh air. But, I wonder if Mr. Moses ever read
this book.
Perhaps I am being too harsh upon the author; after all,
those were different times. And he did expose the horrid conditions of the
city’s slum dwellings through his photographs. It was just somewhat of a shock
to read the author’s views on the predicament of the people he was trying to
help.
For better, or worse, we are all products of the environment
in which we live. For all the flaws in the way he has expressed himself in this
book, he did lead a crusade that helped, in some way, to draw attention to the
plight of the poor. Though most of the social ills which he decries in this
narrative still exist today, he does deserve credit for being among the first
of the moral crusaders who attempted to do something about the conditions he
saw to be unfit.
And, then there are also those remarkable photographs he
took, leaving us a window into our past, which might not always be so pretty,
but represent who we once were. May it be that we never go that far backwards
again.
