Peer Interview: A Look into the Life of Rafsan Chowdhury

Marginalized Communities in NYC 

Ivanna Dominguez

Department of English, The City College of New York

ENGL 21002: Writing for the Social Sciences

Professor Kay Bell

September 14, 2020

Abstract 

There are always people in a community that are considered marginalized members because of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, etc. Those are defining characteristics that make us who we are but most times the things that make us different are the things people use to oppress you. With that oppression also comes stereotyping, discrimination, and prejudice toward a group of people in society defining them as marginalized members. In this interview, we discussed his ethnic and cultural background, how his environment affected the person he is today, and if the sum of all these things ever led to him being discriminated against or feeling marginalized. This interview offers insight into how people from the same city but from different ethnic backgrounds can experience life differently.

Keywords: Marginalization, stereotyping, discrimination, environment

The person I had the pleasure of interviewing is a young man who is nineteen years old named Rafsan Chowdhury. Rafsan was born in Bangladesh but moved to the United States when he was seven years old. In search of a better life for him and his family and better education for his children, his father made the move but as expected it wasn’t easy. Leaving your home country, a place that you are familiar with, and moving to a completely different country where the language, culture, and overall way of life are different was difficult for Rafsan and his family. Like the majority of the people from Bangladesh Rafsan grew up in a Muslim household where there is prayer five times a day and only Halal meals are eaten. However, as Rafsan got older he lost his belief in Allah and his religion but nevertheless Rafsan never lost his sense of faith since he still believes in some higher power in the universe. The community Rafsan has resided in for the past twelve years since he first came to the United States is South Jamaica, Queens. This community was different from what Rafsan was used to because the diversity he saw was nothing like that of Bangladesh. Rafsan explains that this neighborhood is primarily “a mix of African Americans and Latinos, with the majority being African Americans”. Living in this community definitely impacted the way Rafsan grew up when it came to his interests like music, sports, and video games. In contrast to where he lived in Queens Rafsan attended high school in Manhattan which comes with its own set of cultures and diversity but in a different way. Rafsan went from a residential area of living to attending school in a more urbanized setting which also contributed to the way he grew up and the person he is today. To Rafsan the main issue his community faces is the lack of Bengali people with all the culture and traditions that ethnicity brings. This also impacted the way he grew up because he felt a disconnection from his culture since he could not interact with members of that culture besides his family. His friends, clothes, and even the foods he ate all were the result of his environment and community and contributed to who he is today.

There were two questions that I asked Rafsan that during our interview process where the answers really stood out to me. The first question was “Do you have any specific religion or beliefs? Rafsan expressed his disbelief in Allah, the fact that he had not prayed in years, and in turn the fact that he was not religious at all. This shocked me because Islam is a religion that Muslims usually feel very strongly about and never have complete disbelief about it like Rafsan. I immediately thought “Well what does his family think”? He explained that his parents felt as if they had failed as parents in that respect and still continue to try and get him to pray. Rafsan said “ I felt restricted and I just never believed in God. Nothing really good ever came out of it, like why pray when you don’t really know what happens after”. I think coming to the United States could be a factor in why his beliefs changed because perhaps if he still lived in Bangladesh he would still have a belief in Islam. Besides his environment, Rafsan’s age could be another factor in his disbelief because the older we get we realize that we don’t actually believe something but that our parents imposed it on us. The second question was “Can you describe the community you live in? And how that environment affected your upbringing and ultimately your life now as a young adult?” In the explanation of his community, Rafsan mentions two Bengali friends but did not mention them in detail which gives me the impression he is not that close to them. Instead, he mentioned his two best friends who are Guyanese and Black in detail stating that they influenced him playing video games and sports. Rafsan also mentioned his high school in Manhattan where he was skeptical about it being diverse since it was a specialized school thinking it would be he says “predominantly White and Asian” but once he got there was shocked to find all kind of ethnicities from “Brown kids, some Latinos, some Asians, some African Americans, and some white kids”. Going to that school definitely influenced Rafsan’s life by being able to have friends from different cultures.

To begin I have lived in New York City my whole life which is a blessing because despite being a big city I have had and continue to have the opportunity of experiencing many different cultures, foods, and religions. With that being said I have never in my nineteen years of life been to the borough of Queens, therefore interviewing Rafsan allowed me to learn information about a place that in a way is foreign to me. There were many things that surprised me about Rafsan’s community because I really don’t know much about Queens, especially his neighborhood. The most I know about Queens is what I have seen or heard on the news which is that the areas are mostly residential and that the CitiField Stadium is there. As an outsider Rafsan offered me an in-depth insight into his community which shocked me because he altered my stereotypical thinking of the type of people who lived here. I was surprised to find out that in Rafsan’s community there was a heavy presence of African Americans and Latinos which is something I never knew. Instead, I assumed that area had a heavy presence of people from the Middle East and from India. Living in a big city you try to find the people you identify with whether it be through culture, religion, gender identity, etc. It’s important to feel that sense of community and connection to at least a small part of your culture. This whole time I never knew about the large percentage of Latinos in Rafsan’s neighborhood and assumptions prevented me from learning more. I stereotyped a single area that I had never even been to based on how others described it despite the fact they didn’t even live there. Rafsan was able to provide a contrast to this view and this is why it’s important never to assume because you could end up being wrong and unintentionally stereotyping. 

In a city as big as New York there are a lot of communities that have issues that need to be solved in order for that community to prosper and grow. In regard, to Rafsan’s community, the main issue in his community is the lack of Bengali people and his culture. Rafsan states that there are “there are only 1 or 2 Bengali businesses and they are not that developed”. This has left Rafsan feeling unconnected from his culture because he is unable to interact with people from his culture. This is a real issue that many people across New York City face because in large cities people tend to create communities in specific areas according to their culture. Rafsan noticed a larger brown community in Hillside Jamaica but struggles to find even a small group of Bengali people in his neighborhood. It is very difficult to come up with a direct solution to the issue in his community because it would be impossible to just move people from one community or neighborhood to another. Presently, there are only three solutions for the issue, the first one is a slow one, which is to allow for a gradual movement of the Bengali people into Rafsan’s community. The second solution is to move to a community where there is a majority of Bengali people in order to feel interconnected. The last solution is to create a kind of activity group or community center so that people of that culture can come together and enjoy and share in food traditions. The most ideal is the third one because Rafsan likes his community he just wished there was more of a presence of his culture and people. One way I can advocate for this community relating to Rafan’s issue is to just motivate and push members of this community to be more active in pursuing the third solution. Culture is important because it is part of who makes us who we are therefore I would want everyone to have some piece of their culture with them here in this big city. Another way to advocate for this community is to stop having stereotypes about what kinds of cultures and ethnicities live there and stop others from having the same stereotypes. It’s important that every community has a combination of all cultures and ethnic backgrounds because it promotes tolerance and new information is learned.

To conclude I would like to offer a bit of comparing and contrasting Rafsan’s community and my own. I am Hispanic, my parents are from the Dominican Republic, and I live in the South Bronx. Our communities are similar because we both live in communities where our own cultures and ethnicities are not predominant. In my community, there is a large mix of Latinos and African Americans just like in Rafsan’s but when it specifically comes down to my ethnicity there is not a large presence of us like for example in Washington Heights. In contrast to Rafsan’s community, my community does have shops and stores where the owners are from my ethnicity and have products from my culture. Also, there is a large percentage of people who speak Spanish just as I do even if we are not from the same Hispanic country. Overall my community does a greater influence of my culture and ethnic background than Rafsan’s but the majority of people are African American and Puerto Rican. I think for the most part everyone belongs to a marginalized community either through gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc. In regard to Rafsan and his family, they are definitely members of multiple marginalized communities because first, they are immigrants who came from another country, second, they are Muslim, and third, English is not their first language. All these components make them who they are and represent their culture and ethnic background but are what people use to make fun of them or be scared of them.