I think about the ethnic enclaves that immigrant communities made in the US as the opposite of atomization. People brought together due to circumstance who develop a system of support to watch each other’s kids, cook for another during illness, help each other get jobs. Really just the basic concept of community. America is designed to dismantle that stuff. Some of those immigrants’ kids acculturate and assimilate and “move up” in society to be lonely suburb dwellers with more material wealth than their parents, but none of the community.
When I worked/lived in the East Bay in a very working class, diverse neighborhood, the Abuelas would check in on everyone constantly. At least once a week, they’d knock on my door to make sure I’d eaten that day.
I think about the ethnic enclaves that immigrant communities made in the US as the opposite of atomization. People brought together due to circumstance who develop a system of support to watch each other’s kids, cook for another during illness, help each other get jobs. Really just the basic concept of community. America is designed to dismantle that stuff. Some of those immigrants’ kids acculturate and assimilate and “move up” in society to be lonely suburb dwellers with more material wealth than their parents, but none of the community.
When I worked/lived in the East Bay in a very working class, diverse neighborhood, the Abuelas would check in on everyone constantly. At least once a week, they’d knock on my door to make sure I’d eaten that day.