This morning when you left for work or class you were in the vicinity of someone from nearly every country in the world. Welcome to New York; The real melting pot. New York born and raised. Anyone who that phrase is applicable to, says it proudly. Why shouldn’t they? Everyone knows that this is where the action is. Living in this state however can be both a blessing and a curse. The state of mind of this state is as follows “Let me get done what I need to get done and stay out of my way”. We are known to be aggressive and live an extremely fast paced life style; However, in this fast pace life-style, we over-look the things that make us a truly magnificent site that tourist from all over the world are ever so eager to be exposed to. This maybe a biased view but I’ve always considered Brooklyn to be the heart of New York. Perhaps this root’s from my entire life being spent here or maybe it’s because Brooklyn is the highest populated of the five boroughs.
Many great battles have been fought here. The Battle of Brooklyn, fought on August 27, 1776, was the first major battle in the American Revolutionary War following the United States Declaration of Independence, the largest battle of the entire conflict, and the first battle in which an army of the United States engaged, having declared it a nation only the month before. It is irrefutable that Brooklyn is an important piece of land not just historically but also because now, races from all over the globe call this great city home. “The total population of the five boroughs in unity is 8,391,881” ((Jindrak, 03)). Thirty percent of that resides in Brooklyn which is approximately 2,517,564.3. Bensonhurst and I share a love hate relationship. I love it for its diversity and I hate it for its ignorance. But I suppose ignorance is bliss. To each their own. It is relatively small but it packs a punch none the less. The total population of Benson hurst is “71,828” (http://homes.point2.com/Neighborhood/US/New-York/New-York-City/Brooklyn/Bensonhurst-Demographics.aspx) fifty one percent females, forty nine percent males for those who are keeping count.
There are one-hundred and ninety six countries in the world to the best of my knowledge. Theoretically just with in Bensonhurst there is a great possibility that you may find someone from each of these countries. With so many different countries, it would be impossible to track and give a percentage of people from these various places but the demographics of the ethnic races is more easily kept track of. This data is from (Jindrak, 03) and was confirmed on (Wiki, 7) and The consensus records.
Race and Ethnicity 2010 — * 42.8% (51.4%) are White * 34.3% (37.2%) are Black or African-American * 0.5% (0.5%) are Native American Indian and/or Alaska Native persons * 0.0% (0.1%) are Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (although listed as 0.0%, it's actually 1,243 persons in 2010) * 10.5% (9.3%) are Asian * 36.8% are White persons of non-Hispanic/Latino origin * 19.8% (19.2%) are of Latino or Hispanic origin * 10.1% (10.1%) reporting some other race * 2.8% (1.6%) reporting two or more races * 37.8% were born in a foreign country * 46.7% speak a language other than English at home
All these various ethnic backgrounds bring something valuable to the table. Not only are we rich in culture because of this, but we also have a broader range of people to learn from and to teach our own customs to. Where else in the world do we have the Italian parade, Puerto Rican day parade, Pakistani parade, Bengali parade and many more that if I listed, would take most of this page. Walking around in Bensonhurst is almost always an experience. What’s significant to me is that a block down from my house, there is a Mosque and just on the adjacent side there is a church. That to me is a beautiful sight, because it shows the racial and religion tolerance in my area. Because the federal Census Bureau is unable to