First the admirable part: Arun Wiita, a recently graduated MD-PhD, went to every single subway stop in New York City, took photos, and quickly described the surroundings over a two-week period for a project he calls The New York Subway Project. That takes patience, follow-through, and displays the level of curiosity we should expect from a doctor. Unfortunately, it’s the descriptions themselves that are pissing people off.
In each location, Wiita’s method is more or less thus: note the condition of the station, comment on the the surrounding structures, and then make a wild guess as to the area’s racial mix based on the faces at and near the station. Adjectives like “hoody,” “ghetto” and thuggish,” “depressed” and “crappy,” are tossed with abandon. Blacks and perceived Hispanics are listed matter-of-factly, but whites and Asians are in most instances called “gentrifiers” — often race is not even mentioned. The impression is that Wiita considers all blacks and Hispanics to be helpless game pieces, waiting in terror for some “gentrifier” to shift them along the subway “Risk” map to East New York.
In response to the 125th Street (2/3 line) station listing, Bushwick resident Joya Nemley points out his seeming amazement at the fact that “there are lots of people around, mostly black, many in professional attire.”
“Was he expecting Cross Colors jeans and 8 ball jackets?” asks Nemley — a black professional. “The shittiest part of it all is that he took all this time to do this project which could have actually been awesome. Instead it’s just a massive fail.”
Jimmy Legs June 24th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
this brings up an interesting point, can he get away with these broad-stroke racial profiles because he himself is not white? FWIW, he got my station pretty much right on :/
Joanne June 24th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I read a number of his posts and he basically just gave his first impression of each area and described what he saw (which is exactly what and how out of towners will see them should they get off at these stations). His description of the attire worn by the people on 125th Street just gives you a better visual picture of what the station and its people look like. I don’t understand why anyone would take offense at this. We judge areas based on their appearance all the time. And I think we all know a thug when we see one. This seems to be much ado about nothing. We’ve become a hypersensitive culture. I would say his description of the M and 7 lines are pretty accurate.
Professional Alternative June 24th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
This is mostly just useless. You’re right, Joanne, in that this is how out-of-towners would see these stations, so… what, now they don’t have to bother? Or maybe a more in-depth, nuanced, and descriptive blurbs about each area would have been better, maybe backed up by some local research.
A lot to ask? Yeah. But that’s the only way it’s even worth it to waste all this time and subway fare.
Ryan June 24th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I read that on Gothamist a while ago and was really excited by the prospect of someone cataloging each subway station. But the reality is he hardly even took pictures at most of the subway stations for fear of his life. So his retarded, ignorant and racist project isn’t even complete at all.
Joanne June 24th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
If you’re in a seedy neighborhood, is it not natural to be in fear for your life and get out of there as quickly as possible?
And I assume he used an unlimited MetroCard…
MoyJoy June 25th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Joanne, are we to believe that the neighborhoods he seemed to be afraid to photograph are seedy because they are majority black and hispanic?
I checked out a bunch of his ‘non-photo’ posts in what he assumes are seedy areas when I know from spending time in them that they are not. It’s just regular old black people.
Also I wasn’t under the impression that his project was for out-of-towners. To most out of towners all of NYC is seedy.
MoyJoy June 25th, 2009 at 10:47 am
“I think we all know a thug when we see one.”
“we all” is a bit of a stretch. I had a sort of mini-reunion at a restaurant in midtown with some friends from college. A couple of white guys approached my female friends and I and told us we should ditch the thugs we were with and join them and their friends. We asked them what made them think they were thugs and in all seriousness they said ‘well, look at them’ (They were dressed neat but casual in jeans and sneakers). Two of the guys are teachers, one of them plays in the NFL and the other is the head coach of the Tampa Bay Bucaneers.
wren June 25th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
At least I finally have heard of someone getting of at the Neck Road stop now.