Recently an elderly white man was pushing his shopping cart long 30th Ave. As I walked past he greeted a neighbor with a wave. We were right next to Trade Fair, the supermarket where back in 2011 I interviewed the two managers Mustafa and Sabah. Mustafa had said “You cross borders when you cross our aisles,” referring to the fact that they stock products from all parts of the world so that “no matter where you’re from you can always find what you want.”
This scene would have just been a very typical Astoria sidewalk snapshot reflecting the “old” and “new” of the neighborhood, other than the fact that pinned to the front of the man’s shopping cart was a large “Trump” sign.
The sign bounced another narrative to the foreground, in which the elderly man was publicly supporting a Presidential candidate – by then President elect – with a divisive anti-immigrant, anti-minority agenda. Whatever the man’s personal motivations for voting for Trump, the sign on his shopping cart conveyed a message to the Latin American, Middle Eastern and Asian neighbors walking along the street next to him that “I support a ‘great’ America that you are not a part of.”
As Trump’s numbers rose during the primaries I remember feeling that Astoria’s diverse sidewalks, which I’d come to take for granted, were a fragile, increasingly threatened fabric. Now that sense is intensified of course, two weeks into his Presidency.
During a Muslim solidarity gathering on Steinway Street and 25th Avenue this Friday, local politicians celebrated the diversity of the crowd while a small group of three or four riled-up white men and women stood on the stoop of an apartment building behind the rally chanting “Go home, Go home!” and “Don-ald Trump, Don-ald Trump!”.
During the installation of the “He Shall Not Divide Us” livestreamed installation at Museum of the Moving Image, artist Shia LaBeouf was arrested when he retaliated against a man who had interrupted with racist language – and since then the livestream has been used other times by neo-nazis.
Yet immediately after the inauguration there was an accelerated strengthening of ties in response to Trump's divisive and dangerous agenda. There's a recognition of the urgency and power of collective action and organization.
Challenging Trump’s policies will be a question of numbers, i.e. physically demonstrating that, just as Trump lost the popular vote, the policies he is now implementing are in the interests of a slim, powerful majority of Americans. And a question of strategy, i.e. from protest, to fearless legal efforts, to strategies to bring key Republicans around against his agenda. And in response to Trump's supporters, it will involve clear communication policy-by-policy to make it clear that in many cases his approach is not in their interest, as well as outright rejection of racism in all its forms.
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In the midst of the turmoil of big picture politics, small, local interactions keep me grounded.
One Saturday afternoon we took our two "dining" chairs ("dining" sounds much too posh for what they are) that have very dirty beige seat covers to be re-covered. We went to a little place called "LIS Upholstery" along the quiet end of 28th Ave in Astoria, beyond Steinway. CMH said "boring place" when he walked in and saw the curtains and cushions on display. But then...the kids saw the big room at the back of the store where two guys were busy using old-school sewing machines fixing curtains and clothes, with spools of cotton on the wall and big rolls of fabric and suddenly it didn't seem boring at all! They watched one of the men use a sewing machine with much interest, trying to figure out how it works.
Another day I went with JNH to a quirky jewelry store - Shienny & Co Jewelers - just round the corner from us on 30th Ave. The skinny, bearded man who runs it is often standing outside having a cigarette. I wanted to see if they could clean the silver-and-stones necklace that my parents gave me for my 30th (aka a decade ago!). He said that, well if he cleaned it I'd have to give him $20, and that instead I should use a liquid they sold for $8.50, and a silver-cleaning cloth for $5.50. Then he realized that the liquid might not be good for the stones and that it would make the silver "too" shiny for that style of jewelry, so just the cloth would do. "What it needs is some TLC" he said, and told me to use the cloth to "work at it" for a while and I'd see the difference. I think he could tell I don't usually create the time to sit down and patiently fix things, and was enjoying telling me to do just that. So off I went with my cloth and spent a while polishing it that evening, and it looks wonderful of course.
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Melania Trump: A broken soul in an artificial body.
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