Having moved from my beloved Queens hood to a yuppified corner of Manhattan (you could say “The enemy of Avenue A”) my first blog entry after a rather long absence has to be on my most favorite borough, QNS. It is often stated that Queens County is the most diverse in the entire nation, which is indeed true. This is why, as the New York Times reports today, a professor named Albert Waters from Kuala Lumpur came to Flushing to learn more about the world’s religions: “This dizzyingly diverse corner of Queens is an urban showcase for the varieties of religious experience, where traditions brought over by Asian immigrants coexist alongside those of Catholics, Jews and mainline Protestants.”

The article is interesting as I, a non-religious person, never really considered the unique challenges and role of urban institutions of faith.  Particularly when working in social justice campaigns at the grassroots level, religion and places of worship are often at the center of a community, and a priority for individuals and families.  This is often even more apparent when working with working-class or immigrant communities in urban areas.  As Matt Weiner of the Interfaith Center of New York asserts, “If you want to work in the South Bronx or Chinatown, religion is a powerful social force that you have to understand.”

 

However, what role does diversity play in a geographic area such as Queens, and what does that mean for our organizing efforts?  If you were to visit Queens, you would see pockets of very distinct communities (i.e. ethnicities) in discrete neighborhoods.  Statistical diversity does not necessarily equal exposure to those unlike yourself and your close friends and relatives:  “People are living in the same community, but within little sections of their own,” [professor Waters] said.   “I find it very strange. I think it further solidifies their insecurities. Are you integrated into American society? Are you really part of the whole process?”

 

Decidedly, many campaigns in New York City affect a defined community which must be organized, such as tenants in Chinatown resisting gentrification and holding slumlords accountable.  However, gentrification affects all working-class people, and the only way to ensure residents aren’t pushed out en masse is to build a broad scale movement.  How can religious institutions help us to unite people facing similar issues, but who seem to have a valley of cultural difference between them?