User talk:Kcabral18
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Mattapan An article I found was on the ScholarWorks University of Massachusetts Boston website. This article discussed the interaction between Haitians and African Americans in Mattapan and how similar they were to one another. The data from this article comes from "20 key informant interviews of Haitian and African American community leaders who have either lived or worked in Mattapan for at least three years." Mattapan, like a lot of other neighboring cities in Boston, is an extremely diverse community. This city suffers from poverty, crime, and the proper education. The Haitians believe that their children are "impacted by the same issues black children face everyday, for example, gang, violence, poor-quality education, a lack of youth services, and a lack of after school programs." It goes on to explain that these two groups of people, the Haitians and African Americans, want to live in a place where both ethnicities collaborate together and become united. It was noted that the informants explained that over 15 years ago things like this didn't happen in Mattapan; different ethnicities didn't get along and never even tried or considered working with one another. They are now starting to create organizations to help enhance the idea of interethnic collaboration, within the churches and neighborhoods, and the informants are shocked that these two groups can actually coexist with one another without their being any problems. One sentence I found important happened to be the last sentence of this article, it summed up the general idea of this paper, it stated that, "These organizations may be the first step in formulating a common agenda for Mattapan and to create an inclusive community, as opposed to a divided space in which different groups merely coexist."
- I recommend this article because it was of significant importance when learning more about my city. You want to know what is going on and who makes up the majority of the population when researching a paper and this article was a perfect fit for that. It also discussed the unity of these two ethnic groups which I found interesting because you never hear about that. Usually different ethnic groups clash because of their many differences but the Haitians and African Americans are unique, they immediately put their differences aside and focused on the similarities they share and the importance this brings for themselves, their children, and their community. This article was just a different kind of read, it was inspiring. It was nice to finally read about diverse people coexisting in the same place rather than being segregated from one another.
Citation: Cantave, Alix (2010) "Incorporation or Symbiosis: Haitians and African Americans in Mattapan," Trotter Review: Vol. 19: Iss. 1, Article 7. Available at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/trotter_review/vol19/iss1/7