Untouched in the Contact Zone

When Mary Louise Pratt discussed the “contact zone” in her essay, “Arts of the Contact Zone,” NYU and New York City popped into my mind instantly. The contact zone that Pratt refers too reminded me of how NYU was known to be a diverse university with so many different cultures and backgrounds coming into contact with one another. The city of New York itself is considered the melting pot of the world, where all different types of people and cultures come together to interact, creating the ultimate contact zone. However, I noticed there is a very obvious trend in this contact zone: people tend to cluster according to ethnicity. Chinatown, Little Italy, Flushing, and other ethnic enclaves are examples of this phenomenon. With so many immigrants coming to New York City, most immigrants tend to cluster together because it most likely reminds them of home. A new country and new city can be scary, so people like to interact and do business with those of the same race.

NYU is a microcosm of this phenomenon. One would think that young students coming to New York City from all over the world would mix and interact more readily, but this is usually not the case. Of course there are exceptions and I don’t mean to jump to conclusions from my single perspective, but this is what I have observed. Among the freshman class, Founders Hall, a first year residence hall, has become known as the “Asian Dorm” because of its high concentration of Asian students. It’s quite astonishing that even in a college setting, ethnic enclaves can form among the residence halls. Apparently, international students, primarily in Hong Kong and Korea had coordinated among one another to choose Founders as their dorm. Why? Because in a new city, school, and country, familiarity is the most comforting.

I am no exception to this trend. During my first semester at NYU, I lived in Third Avenue North, another first year residence hall. However, after seeing how Founders was predominantly asian (most of my friends were asian, and as a result lived in Founders), I moved to Founders myself. However, I was not an international student, yet I caved into the temptation of the Asian Dorm. Another interesting thing was that I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood in Southern California. I am very familiar with other cultures and didn’t have many Asian friends. When I came to NYU, I interacted with almost every single race, but I found the most comfort in my Asian circle of friends. I felt like I belonged the most with my Asian friends. Honestly, I can’t really explain or give reasons as to why this is the case. It’s merely a connection that I share among my friends who are Asian. Walking down the streets of New York, one can see that, for the most part, ethnically similar people will be together. Even though the opportunity to mix, interact and bond with people from different backgrounds, people tend to become closest to those who are ethnically similar. Pratt explained that people prefer “social and intellectual spaces where groups can constitute themselves as horizontal, homogeneous, sovereign communities with high degrees of trust, shared understandings, temporary protection from legacies of oppression.” This usually explains that ethnically similar people have similar backgrounds, where they feel homogenous and free from oppression. Though this sounds somewhat harsh, it is very true. Fortunately though, society is definitely shifting towards a welcoming generation where oppression is heavily frowned upon. Despite this trend, it’s likely that people will continue to group together. Some say that it’s a waste to interact like this when there’s such a diverse student body within this huge contact zone, but it’s usually the most comfortable to be with those who are ethnically like me, and I have no problem with it.

The Informational Advantage

Speed has become so important to modern society. The time it takes for information to travel in between two people via the internet has become negligible. Information about a bombing that happened on the other side of the world can be accessed by the average person within 30 minutes of its occurrence. The intro of chapter 1 in Academic Writing illustrated how media revolutions brought huge changes to the world, like the printing press. In the introduction, the internet is like the new printing press, and some argue that the internet signal “the democratization of literacy” (Rectenwald 2) and how knowledge is incredibly accessible to anyone. I have been reading the book Freakonomics that I think well explained the concept of information and how the internet has changed this society. For example, in terms of the business world, information that is withheld or hidden from the public can be used by businesses to take advantage of their customers. In the past, life insurance companies had taken advantage of the customers’ inability to compare other life insurance rates and jacked up their own prices. However, when the internet had rolled along and life insurance quote websites began popping up, the public was then able to compare and contrast life insurance plans to find the best one, hence dropping the life insurance rates dramatically. This is a primary example of how the internet has distributed information in a concise way so that the public is benefitted more. The democratization empowers the people to use new found information to their own benefit, and “the spread of the knowledge to the disadvantaged” helps create “a more equitable distribution of wealth” (Rectenwald 2). Even in the classroom, the internet has closed the informational gap between the teacher and the student. With laptops allowed in the classroom, the student has instant access to almost all of the knowledge of humanity at his or her fingertips, which could possibly explain why some teachers may not like laptops in the classroom, because the informational advantage that the teacher has over the student is significantly diminished. Though laptops and the internet may be a possible distraction for the student, they’re incredibly useful, allowing the student to clarify unknown terms during class and keeping pace with the lessons, as a result, the internet helps put an end to the knowledge disadvantage that the average person, like the student or a life insurance customer, has compared to the expert, like the teacher or the life insurance provider. The internet is simply a distributer, like the Robin Hood of information, that allows the knowledge-starved public to gain more of an advantage in their day-to-day lives and finances against the money-hungry companies that try to hide such information to exploit customers and maximize profits.