West Africans in New York - Essay Example

?Running Head: DOLLARS AND DREAMS: WEST AFRICANS IN NEW YORK Dollars and Dreams: West Africans in New York: A Review Dollars and Dreams: West Africans in New York: A Review The United States has many opinions in the global population about the way in which Americans believe and live. There are those that think that Americans are both arrogant and ignorant, asserting their way of life on the entire planet because of some perception of superiority. There are those who see the United States as a land of dreams where success and opportunity is handed out at the door when people finally make their way into their dream of America. There are still others that see it as a land of waste and consumerism where the abundance is so overflowing that there is not enough space to hold all that is produced and thrown away. The truth that it is a place of hardship where people work hard to barely survive is rarely the worldwide perception of the American Dream. The film Dollars and Dreams: West Africans in New York (2007) is a documentary that discusses the experience and phenomenon of immigration from West Africa to the United States. The documentary film makers explore the truth of life in New York for those who have migrated from West Africa into what they thought would be an easier and more successful life. Through a narrative that includes successful, surviving, and struggling immigrants from West Africa, the film creates an alternative perspective on the experience of living in New York and in the United States. The producers of the film were Jeremy Rocklin an Abdel Kader Ouedarogo with Jeremy Rocklin directing and it is distributed by Documentary Educational Resources. One of the first statements made in the film is by Chika Onyeani who is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of The African Sun Times is that there is a perception that in America money grows on trees. CEO of Cape Aloe Ferox Worldwide, Arthur Smith, states in the film that the dollar is almighty and that they think it is easy in America and Zain Abdullah of Temple University reveals that the first surprising thing that immigrants from West Africa experience is that there is poverty in America and that it is not as easy to find riches in the land of opportunity. The concept of opportunity becomes more real in the sense that while there may be opportunity, one has to search and find it (Rocklin & Ouedarogo, 2007). Zain Abdullah continues to discuss the culture of immigrants as they live a life of deception where they struggle by working two or three jobs, but then present their experiences to those back home as fulfilling the expectations that they had when they left their home to travel to the new land. The deception is based on the perceptions that are promoted in West Africa that there is nothing but riches in the United States and to go to America and struggle would be perceived as a failure. Abdullah states that it is like going into a gold mine and coming out with nothing to show for the effort (Rocklin & Ouedarogo, 2007). Kaira-Murdock (2008) writes that the reason that Jeremy Rocklin an Abdel Kader Ouedarogo decided to create this documentary was to create a more realistic view of New York for West Africans before they made the decision to migrate from their homeland and seek their fortunes. The realities of New York and the rate of poverty, even among the working poor, is something that is not considered when making the decision to move. The film is visually unsettling as the garbage in the street and the unattended urban setting is contrasted to the affluent speakers who discuss the realities of moving to New York, even though the majority of the initial speakers have clearly found their own success in this country. The real problem with immigration from other nations is that the image of America is based upon Hollywood idealism that is shown in films. Racism based on blackness is rare in West Africa so the experience of being oppressed comes as a surprise for many of the people who move to New York. Kaira-Murdock (2008) writes in her review of the film that “The saddest part of this documentary was hearing how Police blatantly told Africans that they would have to take care of themselves if they wanted to live in Harlem”. One of the experiences that they had to endure was gang initiations that required potential members to kill. African taxi drivers found themselves targets because they were vulnerable and the police would not spend much effort trying to find their murderers. Coming to a country that was supposed to help them to find success suddenly was an experience of disappearance and erasure where the state had no interest in their deaths. It is clear that the West African population fall victim to the same propaganda that even natural born citizens are prey for in their experiences in American life. There is a pervading belief that everyone makes it in America, living a high style life and reaping the rewards of plenty. If someone is not living that high style, they have done something wrong and are victims of their own bad choices. Even Americans do not realize the realities of American life, but migrants have often been given inflated information that cannot be realized by every person who crosses the borders into the land of opportunity. What Rocklin manages to do with his film is capture the various realities that have been experienced by West African immigrants in order to thoroughly discuss the nature of the experience of moving to the United States (Rocklin & Ouedarogo, 2007). While reality was the goal, that reality does not only equal hardship. There are narratives by successful immigrants who describe their experience through the description of hardship that ends with the achievement of goals. The story is about the everyday and this includes both struggle and success. One of the more important themes is introduced by Chika Onyeani as the perception of the United States is defined by the concept of ‘streets of gold’ rather than streets of garbage which is often some of the first images that immigrants have when they take their meager resources and move into neighborhoods which are filled with the disadvantaged. It is an unexpected truth that the United States has a large population of poor who are living in neighborhoods with less than adequate infrastructure and urban decay. The higher incomes are in contrast to the higher costs of living that are also sometimes unexpected when trying to reconcile their perceptions of America with their experiences (Rocklin & Ouedarogo, 2007). Arthur Smith mentions that when immigrants come from West Africa they believe that all of their problems will be done. Kofi Afful is a cab driver that describes his perceptions of New York as a wonderful dream, but when he arrived it was a very different experience. After ten years in the United States he is a cab driver even though he intended to go to college, but the unpredictability of life leads some to make other choices as he has had to do. He is doing what he has to do to survive. Chudi Uwazurike of the City University of New York makes a claim that New York is the toughest town in America in which to survive. Abdul Kader Ouedarogo discusses his first job in New York as a dishwasher and the fast pace that he had to adapt to in order to survive. Author Mohammed Naseehu Ali relates that many of the experiences of West Africans after about a month of trying to live in New York feel so overwhelmed that they cannot continue to live in that way. However, at the end of the month they realize that they are making a great deal more than what they make in their home towns (Rocklin & Ouedarogo, 2007). However, when the narrative moves to the cab driver, the sense of survival and the pressure that survival puts on everyone in the United States begins to become more real. In the beginning the scenery is disturbing, but it is balanced by men who are polished and in suits, suggesting that it must not be that bad. When the narrative moves to Kofi Afful as he drives his cab, the realities of working hard and just making ends meet become more apparent. He speaks about how he had wanted to go to school when he came to the United States, but that he had not been able to fulfill that dream. Social construction that existed back home for the West Africans is challenged by the work that they end up doing in New York. In their home culture it would be women, either as wives or hired maids, who would do jobs such as washing dishes or cleaning bathrooms. In this new culture men find that these are the jobs that they can get and while not enough pay is available to go to school, there is still more pay than they would have back home. They are humiliated by the experience of taking jobs that are not defined as male work back home, but they take them in order to survive and to become part of the American experience, even though it is an unexpected experience. Community is an important experience for those who come to America from West Africa. In order to build what feels like a familiar space, much of Harlem now has African inspired shops and services such as churches, restaurants, hair braiding shops and grocery stores that are filled with what mainstream American would find exotic. The film refers to the region as ‘Africatown’, a reference to the more widely known concept of Chinatown where foreign culture is integrated into local culture in order to have sense of place and home. Kaira-Murdock (2008) discusses her favorite part of the film which is when the two teenage sisters, Aminata and Nassou Camara decide to embrace their heritage rather than completely adopt the American teenage lifestyle Kaira-Murdock (2008) quotes them as they say “We are African and we are here. If you have a problem then too bad, deal with it!” The cultural condition of being from two nations means that certain choices will have to be made. Another example is found in Belgisse Zoungrana who traveled the world as a performer. She was a dancer with a French dance company before traveling to the United States to plant routes. A West African migrant and a worldwide performer, she now makes her living braiding hair because this skill was the only marketable skill she could find to make a living. Making as little as $35 per hour, she has adopted her new nation while still trying to maintain the integrity of her past. Those from home do not understand why she chooses to do what is considered menial labor, but she has no choice (Abdullah, 2010). The real underlying message of the film might be to consider that there is a message out there about the experience of being in America that is unrealistic. While it is nice to have a national image, it is also important for people of the world to realize what it really means to be an American. To be an American is to live constantly in the shadow of great things as many great things have happened in this nation. The problem is that the population in the shadow is far greater than the population that casts the shadow. The perception of the clean, opportunity laden nation with consumerism based on abundance is a fallacy told by film and television that clearly influences the way in which people in other nations view the United States. The importance of this film is that it gives a more realistic understanding of what it means to be an immigrant into New York. One of the problems with the film is that it focuses only on the experiences of those who stay in New York. The message that might be told is that there is another 49 states where the opportunities are different than one finds in New York. One of the problems with the perception of the United States is that there are a few cities that matter and the rest of the country does not have anything to offer. This perception is reinforced by the focus on Harlem in New York. However, New York is one of the hubs where people from other nations will land. It is one of the oldest cities with more infrastructures and services than any other city. However, this fact should not limit the perspective of America to just this city. The film successfully reaches its goal of exploring reality for those who emigrate from West Africa into New York. However, the limited perspective means that there are still perception problems about America. Resources Abdullah, Z. (2010). Black mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem. New York: Oxford University Press. Kaira-Murdock, M. (13 February 2008). Dollars and Dreams: West Africans in New York. Jamati Retrieved from http://www.jamati.com/online/film/dollars-and-dreams-west- africans-in-new-york/ (Accessed on 17 May 2013). Keedle, J. (2010). West African Americans. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. Rocklin, J. & Ouedarogo, A. K. (Producers). Jeremy Rocklin (Director). (2007). 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