Five years ago, I moved to Jackson Heights, Queens – a neighborhood known for its public urination, large gay and trans population, and most especially for its ethnic hyperdiversity. An older working class of German and Italian descent is sprinkled through a huge population of recent immigrants from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, just about every country in South and Central America, India, Pakistan, the Caribbean, and the even more recent influx of hipsters with ironic facial hair and children in strollers.
I am quite often and visibly a minority during my morning and evening commute.
My hair turned white some years ago, and while I’m not entitled to it, I take the senior citizen discounts offered to me because of it. 10% off my groceries. People, please. Of course I take it.
The July 4th weekend I broke my arm; it’s been in a cast or a sling ever since. I’d been taking mental notes on who does or doesn’t offer me a seat on a crowded subway or bus. I don’t think I’m especially entitled to a seat, certainly not because of my age, my gender, my white hair, or my white skin. I’ve just been noticing. When I broke my arm, I really started noticing who would offer up their seat. To me. To someone in their own ethnic group. To anyone.
Note: Data was collected on Queens #33 and #49 buses, #7 , F, and E subway lines. All ethnic categorization is based solely on observation of skin color, language and/or clothing–in other words, I’m doing some racial profiling here and I know it. With that scientific set-up, I present my observations only. My raw data, if you will.
Most likely to offer a seat, in descending order:
- Recent Spanish-speaking immigrants: I have no idea which countries these people are from, but both men and the women are quick to offer a seat to someone older, handicapped, or burdened with packages, often bypassing the front seats in the bus, leaving them available for the elderly, the disabled, or the self-centered.
- Laborers
- Office workers – less likely than the manual laborers
- Asian-American men in their 30s and 40s.
- White male laborers
- White European male tourists
Elephants will grow wings out of their asses and fly before they offer me a seat, in no particular order:
- Teenagers and Twenty-somethings. Totally oblivious or totally entitled.
- Southeast Asians – Indians and Pakistani
- Hasidic Jews
- Suits – any skin color, any gender, any ethnicity. If they’re wearing a good suit, they’re keeping their good seat.
- Women. Asian women, Black women, White women. Women. With the exception of the Spanish speakers, I’ve repeatedly watched them refuse to make eye contact and just let pregnant women, the very elderly, those with physical impairments using canes or crutches, and even women with infants in their arms just stand.
Photo of crowded subway by Nick Whitaker, from Gothamist
MTA poster by Sophie Blackall
