The America's Social Arrangements in the Past
The America that people live in today and the social interactions that are common now are a product of the different occurrences and social arrangements in the history of the country. Understanding the fact and also knowing that people should forge their future based on the understanding of their past, I visited the Tenement Museum in New York City to learn the social arrangements of people in the country. The experience was very informing as it gave me the chance to experience what America was in the past as though I lived at the time. While in the Museum, I visited several areas and participated I explored the Apartments of the past tenants of the areas from various times in the history of the country. I also participated in the Walk Tour and learned about the changes that have happened over time, especially on the lower East side.
Organizing the Museum Visit
Organizing the Museum visit was not very simple as I was not experienced in such matters, especially concerning a sociology museum. Therefore, I first visited the Tenement Museum New York website to understand what the museum offers before knowing what to do and where to visit when I finally visited. I also used the online platform to buy my tickets to the various tours that I planned to take part in. On the website, several exciting tours were offered. The site even gave a brief description of what a person should expect when they buy tickets for the different tours and the time they are recommended to stay in the particular trips. I chose the walking tour and the tour to the apartments of the past tenants of the place. I paid via their online system for two tours that included “Irish Outsiders” and “Outside the Homes.” I booked tickets for 1st April 12.15 pm and 2.15 pm respectively.
The "Irish Outsiders" Tour
One the first of April 2018, went to the Tenement Museum in New York. I started with the “Irish Outsiders” tour. I was accompanied by about twenty other tourists from many places both from within the United States of America and outside the country. We were guided by a tour guide who was dressed in Irish costumes and therefore made the tour feel like an actual tour back in time. The setting of the Irish Outsider tour was that of 1869, and therefore it was themed based on the time. In the tour, we explored the life of an Irish family that had just immigrated from Ireland to America and were, therefore, struggling to fit in the new society. The tour explored how the people celebrated their identity in the 19th Century. The family members wore costumes and decorated their home in readiness for the famous St. Patrick’s Day parade. We also experienced how they celebrated mass while at the same time creating a new identity that was different from their old Irish identity, but also not what they found in the American Subcontinent. The created the Irish American Identity. Due to the characteristics of the trip, children below the age of 6 were not allowed to access the “Irish Outsiders” tour.
Sociological Observations from the Irish Outsiders Tour
There are various things that sociologists can observe and learn from the Irish Outsiders tour. One thing is that the Irish people were stereotyped and therefore, they encountered hardships when trying to fit into the American society. Consequently, they had to create an identity of their own. Before the museum visit, there are several Irish stereotypes that I had heard. They include the idea that people from Ireland are drunks. Also, there is the idea that people of Irish origin have redheads. People also believe that the Irish are violent people. In the tour, it was possible to understand how the negative stereotypes affected the early Irish Immigrants. They were identified by their hair and thought to be violent. Therefore, sometimes, they had problems forming social bonds as other European immigrants thought that they had bad attributes. The fact is that based on the struggle and the behavior of the immigrants as portrayed by the actors who played the roles of the Moores, the Irish people, were like other people, misrepresented by the stereotypes and therefore wrongly discriminated. They were good people who struggled to change the American dream.
The Irish American Culture
One significant culture that the Moore family had carried with them from Ireland is the St Patrick’s Parade. Based on the interaction with the Moore family, it was clear that the parade was a major annual event in Ireland and that it was part of their cultural identity. The family made the St. Patrick’s Parade a Transnational culture that started in Ireland and was brought to the U.S by the Irish Immigrants to the American Subcontinent. The tour also gave the tourists the chance to understand the Irish American Culture as well as their dressing and struggles at the time in history. Paying for the tour gave me a 40 percent discount on any other neighborhood Walking Tour within the Tenement, and therefore, I decided to continue with the visits on discount.
The "Outside Homes" Tour
“Outside Homes” was the next tour that I participated in. The tour, just like the “Irish Outsiders,” took I hour and also gave tourists the chance to understand the American diversity from a better perspective. In the tour, we were exposed to a simulation of the situation as it was in the Lower East Side in the 19th Century. According to the costumed tour guide, what we saw was as the immigrants saw about 150 years ago. There was one primary landmark that characterized the place 150 years ago. The Jarmulowsky Bank building. The bank according to the guide, was where the immigrant community in the Lower East side deposited their earnings. According to the narration of the tour guide, the bank was very successful but failed when the first world war broke in 1917 when German immigrants withdrew their savings to send their relatives away. Many people lost their life saving when the bank failed. We also toured the daily Forward Building. The Daily Forward Building s where people of the socialist ideology fought for the rights and liberties of the workers in the United States. The tour also included seeing the PS 42. The PS 42 building is the place where immigrants from Europe learned who to become Americans. The tour did not involve entering any of the buildings as they are currently used for other purposes. The Jarmulowsky Bank building, for example, hosts many commercial activities currently and entering the building would disrupt people’s businesses.
Meeting the Residents Tour
I also went to the” Meet the Residents Tour” in which I spent an hour in the apartment of Victoria Confino, a fourteen-year-old Italian Immigrant that lived in the 97 Orchard Street of New York City in 1916, the year before the second world war began. The character of Confino was played by a costumed actor who told us the tales of the young immigrant girl at the early time of the 20th century. The setting was arranged in a way that it gave the tourists an intimate experience. I got the chance to speak to her and understand how she found herself at the place at the tender age and also got to know how she adjusted to life on the Lower East Side. From my interaction with the young lady, it was clear that life at the time was not so simple as she had to fend for her self in a place and time when women did not have a lot of liberties. It was man’s world, and even though gender equality is something that would come later, she competitively survived at the time in the growing city.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, the Tenement Museum in New York City offers visitors a trip back to the time when America was struggling o find its real identity. It was a time in the society when immigrants had to struggle against not only gender inequality but also discrimination and negative stereotyping. Workers were underpaid and yet they had to survive and chase the American dream. The museum allows students of sociology and other Americans to understand their diverse cultures and how it came to be. The fees are worth the tours, and therefore, I look forward to visiting other areas of the Museum to understand not only my heritage but also the social struggles that Americans in the past went through.
