Consuming
Harlem: Tourism, Public Space, and Representations of the Black Diaspora
by
Yazmyn L. Skinner
Submitted to the Board of School of
Liberal Arts and Sciences
School of Natural Science
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts
Purchase College
State University of New York
May 2014
Sponsor:
Mary Kosut
Second
Reader: Jason Pine
INTRODUCTION
When I was young and sitting in the back seat of our blue
Honda, I would stare out my window at the beautiful black faces before me. My
parents would drive from West 123rd and Fredrick Douglas Blvd,
which is where my father was raised. The lot
across the street from my Grandmother’s 3rd floor window was
fenced off, separating the space from the church behind it and the 28th precinct
across the street. By the time I was 15, my grandmother was relocated to a
development on 122nd and 8th avenue. The
building that held her memories in Harlem was sold and renovated.
Fortunate for my grandmother her rent was fixed at $175 a month, the other
tenants were paying $5,000 for a 1 Bedroom apartment. It became no secret that
rent on these developments were increased to enforce the relocation of
residents, so property could be sold for
millions by real estate agents. These developments and vacant spaces are now
“luxurious apartments” and renovated brownstones for those who can
afford $20,000 and more per month.
The small, family-operated Chinese restaurant that was under my grandma’s
building was bought out and replaced by an African Beauty Supply store and then
a 99 cent store, currently this business is a spice and herb shop. The Pioneer
supermarket that my grandma hated due to expired goods and high prices was also
bought out and turned into a hotel called the Aloft.
The vacant
spaces next to her house re emerged as a flower shop. An ambiguous management
office that was always closed was on the corner of her block, now it is a
business, whose name I cannot recall. With the
increases in rent, most establishments are struggling to remain in business.
The gentrification of Harlem is to blame for the changes over time towards
private and local establishments.
WHAT’S
AHEAD
The spaces that were part of my childhood are being replaced
with new cultural ideas and representations that reshape the experience of the
Harlem community. My memories are now a part of the “back in the day stories…”
told by my elders, as they stood in front of their vending tables, laughing and
shaking their heads at departures of their favorite local spots. Harlem is
entering a platform where elements of its past are replaced with new ideas that
either maintain or erase the identities shared by local. Harlem has undergone
social and cultural changes that are visible to most locals and some outsiders
as well.
It has become clear to me that the people and spaces in Harlem have morphed
into a mini diaspora of its own by attracting and acknowledging those that identify
blatantly or obscurely with Africa. The word diaspora, in general, refers to the scattered populations of those that
share a specific geographic location or a movement of peoples from their
original homeland.
Harlem is
home to immigrant Africans and blacks that identify as Americans. Within this
paradigm I will look at the ways the diaspora influences how one identifies with their blackness within the spaces of
Harlem. This study examines how the diaspora affects ones shaping of
identity transatlantically through the lens of non-locals (tourists). The
diaspora of Harlem reveals a disconnect among blacks who do not identify with
their African past, and Africans who do not feel as if they are part of the
American culture. I also will refer to the Diaspora to explore how tour
companies utilize these identities to display culture all whilst questioning
what aspects of the diaspora are prevalent with their creation of
experience.
My study will explore Harlem’s past and present
as I participate in tours around Harlem through the approach of tourism and
cultural centers. I will observe how cultural and social ideas have
reshaped and redefined Harlem. Lastly, I will analyze how Harlem maintains its
blackness while undergoing gentrification.
I will be navigating Harlem under the guidance of local tour
guides to observe the ways of which the Diasporas of Harlem is discussed,
shared, and presented to tourists. I am primarily interested in non-locals who
participate in these types of tours. There is
a common misconception among non-white locals that non-local white people are
moving into Harlem due to tourism. However, there is an increase of housing
developments and businesses, as well as changes to pre-existing businesses
which has increased the value and interest in Harlem. Gentrification began to
consume Harlem’s air: locals blamed the epidemic of rent increases and the
influx of white people moving into Harlem for these changes.
There exists a domino effect on the community; the lives of Harlem’s communities
are undergoing a change in space where the diaspora of Africa is supposed to
exist. How can the diaspora umbrella the individuals of the African diaspora if
historical landmarks, businesses and homes are being removed?
I have found establishments that utilize African and black American culture as
a theme to accommodate the pre-existing identities of Harlem’s communities. I
have come to believe that the diaspora poses the huge question, what is
cultural identity? This is why I referred to the global practices of
tourism. Touring is the most popular way to experience life in another
location. Although, Harlem is one place to experience African/black culture, I
too am curious to know how culture and heritage is experienced by Africans and
Blacks transatlantically in countries such as Brazil and Africa. However,
I will explore why Africans/blacks are not necessarily tourists but instead are
pilgrims that are oblivious to the reality of time in order to experience a “shared
past” of memories.
A shift in the way one navigates space and enclaves impacts one’s own identity
as well. In the case of this study the spaces I am referring to are enclaves
that encompass cultural symbols and themes that utilize race and identity as
commodities to separate themselves from the public spaces in Harlem.
Spaces such as West 116th street are home to West African
immigrants who have turned this space into their homes and location for
business. Harlem, has named this enclave -Little Africa. This
enclave is marked by West African, Muslim, and Islamic practices, marking this
area as distinctively different from the neighboring spaces and enclaves.
There
are several other ethnic and racially separate enclaves that exist within
Harlem which I too will explore later in my study. Meanwhile, for the
sake of clarity, my intention is to understand how the diaspora has been
(mis)used locally and globally. I will explore how agency to the
occupancy of public space is determined by global ideas of identity and how
such have evolved to be part of Harlem’s identity as a culturally rich
neighborhood and a top tourist site.
By examining the impacts of tourism in the African and black
American regions of Harlem, one could begin to understand how Harlem serves as
a location for outsiders to immerse themselves upon the Diaspora of Africa
through the streets of African and Black American cultures. These navigated
spaces consist of cultural symbols that branch to the modern and historical
understandings of black culture. My interest in Harlem has led me to my primary
question, what about Harlem constitutes it as a representation of the Diasporas dispersed groups,
whom of which have either lost their identity or replaced it with identities of
their new culture.
TOURISM
Tourism consists of organized experiences created for people
to visit their places of interest. Many of these tourists are interested in
experiencing another culture. Private and corporate tour companies accommodate
tourists by creating shared histories of specific ethnic groups, inviting
“pilgrims” to experience cultural enclaves. However, these spaces are created
through social and political ideas that do not always correspond with local and
global identities.
Tours today do not only aim to create memorable experiences
for travelers. Now, they attempt to illustrate “realistic” and modern forms of
life in particular regions. For instance, Arjun Guneratne analyzed how walking
tours represent ethnic status in a village in the Chitwan district of Nepal. In
his study, Shaping The Tourist’s Gaze: Representing Ethnic Difference In A
Nepali Village. Through this tourism
practice, he observed how modernity was determined and maintained by locals
themselves. He found that globalization disrupts the “framing of locality” by
revealing the ethnic differences between the lower (e.g. Tharu) and upper (e.g.
Brahmin) castes, both of which play a role in the Nepali tour industry. The
walking tours allowed for intimate observation of these caste differences. The
tours advertise an “authentic” experience of the Tharu world where “time and
civilization is forgotten” (Guneratne 2001:534). Tours of this kind are “time
portals,” allowing travelers to experience otherness and familiarity in a
foreign space.
Proximity and intimacy are essential to success in the business of tourism.
Ideas of modernity are maintained by examining how the past was lived in Nepali
society. Guneratne observed the social and political structure of caste
systems which attribute to the constructing of social order and interactions.
The influences of this structuring creates ethnic-social groups that are casted
to particular categories that place the Brahmans and others that are considered
forward and pure within the grouping of modernity. Meanwhile, the Tharu’s are
equivalent to the caste system which is associated with an ordering that
reshapes their society.
The structuring is based on impurity and pureness and
particular treatment is associated with those that are position in groups that
seem befitting. Clearly, for Guneratne’s study the ideas of status are
instilled in an approach that categorizes differences of status, which are then
exemplified through tours where Nepalese of high ethnic status can attribute
their forward modern behavior in particular spaces and practices that are
familiar with global status and identity that resonates with tourists.
The tour guides are now in control in shaping the
experiences for tourists by navigating to spaces were differences are made
apparent. Brahman guides are given the power to project their ideas of
modernity by displaying their power through their literacy (education) and
wealth; in comparison to the Tharu’s who are illiterate ;( this is the
shared belief of the Tharu’s as well. ) Guneratne’s understanding of
the gaze being constructed through village walks directs his study to the
examining of globalism and the structuring of identity that is further
developed by tourism, in Pipariya ( a region in the Chitwan district).
Globalization varies based on the identity of locality of a given space, in a
space where differences are kept visible, difference among tour guides is
apparent when Tharu tour guides stated they choose to not partake in the process
of global-local placement.
In some instances, what you see is what you get, in
the case of this study in relation to others, what travelers hope to see and
instead do see, may not hold up to expectations. Pinho
discusses the shaping of “Africanness” in Brazil through the usage of baianas,
black women vendors. These women were not created but instead preserved as an
idea and then are used to create an authentic experience through a symbol that
is familiar within the context of Africa. She then goes on to the interests of
black bodies that are exoticized and sexualized, which is nothing new,
considering the slave Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman, was purchased in
South Africa and traveled as a slave and an entertainer in a freak show.
Saartjie’s unusual features were her buttocks and elongated labia which made
her a “freak,” in the defiance of western ideas but also a symbol where ideas
of the African body and savagery were believed to be justified due to her
physical differences. This concept is still relevant in modern day where black
bodies are appealing and black face is a temporary costume.
What grasped Gunertane’s interests was the questioning of the resourcefulness
of anthropology, when searching for locality in the world where “ontological moorings”
are diminishing, due to the creation of feelings ignited by practices and
materials. Guneratne believes such practices were invented to accommodate
global ideas of culture, opposed to acknowledging the local realities of
culture within their own spaces. Placing global ideas in local settings
encourages travelers to find meaning within a culture. The village of Pipariya
is backwards; therefore the past is among the present configuration of
modernity which allows the idea of change and coming of age present itself to
others as a form of progression to modernity.
The idea of a specific culture or
society modernizing is of interest especially to those who are ethnically
related to these cultural enclaves. Those of which, seek to find the emotion of
comfort and acceptance being among their own. Patricia de Santana Pinho
research aims at the motives for travel to Brazil, in relation to
Guneratne, Pinho has found the black travelers she interviewed in Bahia
appreciated being part of the majority oppose to the minority. Pinho refers to
Urry’s (2002) “romantic tourist gaze,” as the type of experiences sought and
Guneratne explores the utility of “walking tours.” Both involve a sense of
closeness by removing realism and playing off of fantasies. In some cases
the romanticized ideas come from false memories that create shared memories
that are so captivating individuals seek truth and travel hoping to discover
anything that reflects their ideas in public and private spaces. Within these
spaces, travelers are immersed in enclaves that not only play off of their
ideas and reasons for traveling, but also due to the appeal of particular
social, ethnic, cultural histories that have created landmarks within these
spaces, modifying and modernizing these spaces to locations that accommodate a
diaspora, all while accommodating the never ending interests of travelers.
It is not only the shared histories of particular spaces and cultures that are
“revisited,” (by African descent travelers) and explored (non-African descent
travelers), but the new spaces and changes made to uphold landmarks, symbols
and experiences within regions that effect ways of interpreting social and
ethnic identities. This idea is a facet of Dydia DeLyser’s when looking at
memories placed upon Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel Ramona, the
regions in Southern California served as a platform for the creation of the
novels characters, ethnic climate and landmark settings. The realism and
romanticism of Jackson’s novel inspired readers and travelers to identify and
locate the spaces that resemble, specifically, Ramona’s home and marriage
chapel. Like those discussed in Guneratne’s study, tourists came from different
countries, societies and areas to see experience an “Old World,” Ramona
admirers wanted to see the spaces that gave Ramona’s story meaning. DeLyser
notes the new attractions that have developed to accommodate “social
memories”(DeLyser 2003:887) which stems from “tourism and boosterism,” which
profits off of selling attraction sites and objects, with the intentions of
preserving memories and consumption habits through the creation of a new way of
attributing meaning through themed inspired attractions. DeLyser strikes my
interest when questioning the “new social memory [for a region] (DeLyser
2003:887), ” I then question the role of travelers within the tourism industry
in relation to the experiences endured that are intended to provide cultural
defiance.
I have referred to the type of individuals within this section as travelers, an
umbrella term for those who commute to continents and regions. When referring
to a particular type of traveler, such as a pilgrim, I am
identifying those who are influenced by ideas related to Alex Haley’s Roots;
those who explore transatlantic spaces that reflect the paths and histories of
Africans. A tourist seeks experiences that are other than the
ones they live in or have experience, which some scholars have argued is
influenced by exoticism, fetishism and otherness.
This pertains to the ideas that are created but what about those who do
not feel as if their experience was authentic enough, due to their expectations
not being met or for the lack of education on the behalf of the traveler. It is
plausible that the other experience experienced by African
Americans is affected by geography and perception. The concept of otherness is
a result of constructed social identities, the “otherness,” is the differences
between minorities and majorities of a society which are controlled by those
with power which influence the way identities are perceived. Sandra L.
Richard’s study of how identities are constructed through hosts and tourists is
projected through heritage tours and historical-landmarks that are used to
create “re-assembled narratives,” (Richards: 2005: 617). These narratives
are related to theatre performance studies that address issues through
memories. Richards’ claims culture and heritage she points is shaped through
selectivity of ideas that “produce the effect of existing in the present,”
(Richards: 2005: 617). The present effect of tourism for Richards is
cross-examined through theatre. She relates the approaches of creating
performances to the attractions that give memories of particular histories ways
of which to be relevant and identifiable in the present.
The creations behind narratives, memories and the past influence the shaping of identities and knowledge which are part of
the beliefs affiliated with the term, Afro-Diaspora. The approach and beliefs that
created this specific diaspora are intended to address the heritage of Africa
in relation to those who seek a journey to a space where they can find
“Africanness.” However, what other spaces are used to define the array of
Africanness, when slaves were relocated to other continents during the slave
trade from the early 1500s into the mid-1800s? What are the different
paths these slaves experienced in the Americans and the Caribbean and how are
the lives of Africans within these spaces similar or different from African
American travelers? Do these spaces resemble the shared ideas society is shown
through media, capitalism and marketing? How do tour companies create
experiences and what symbolic representations are utilized to do such?
During my experience as a tourist and as a pilgrim, I have ventured to
locations throughout Harlem with the anticipation of learning and consuming
spaces that represent the history of Harlem. In conjunction with the
information shared from site to site, the information told by my tour guides
correlates with ideas of Africans and black Americans shared past histories
which are found in Harlem. Such information has led me to explore how the
African diaspora influences the culture, heritage and spaces that represent the
identities of blacks and African Americans. Ultimately, I am investigating how
Africans and blacks have shaped culture and how such ideas are presented today
by looking at modern spaces. The African diaspora has provided a window of
opportunity to experience a heritage through tourism. I intend to examine the
authenticity of information shared about Harlem’s history in relation to
present day Harlem.
