At Morningside Heights we met a man, probably in his late 40’s, named David. David lived in Morningside Heights with a occupation that we do not know of. He wouldn’t let us video record him or take any photos of him. Therefore, sadly, we don’t have any film or photo for this interview. However, we recorded his voice with our phones and David told us his opinion on racism in the US. We asked him about whether or not racism was a big issue in the US and he answered this: “People are trying to perpetuate the myth of there is racism. When, most people are not racist. They interpret things aren’t there.”

David, one of the few people, who didn’t think that racism was an issue in the US at all. Afterwards he elaborated his opinion when we asked about if there were any signs of racism in Morningside Heights,

David is basically telling us, that racism is an illusion created by the leaders of the minorities, to make it easier for the average black man to ignore the fact that he hasn't worked hard enough to get to a better position in life. It's an excusion to avoid the merciless truth, David says. He mentions the other minorities like the japanese or chinese who make a living for themselves after one generation.

To conclude on our trip to Morningside Heights we can say this. We brought a lot of stereotypes to Morningside Heights due to the fact that it is located right beside Harlem. We expected Morningside Heights to be a place where you don’t stay for much a long. Yet, we experienced the completely opposite. Morningside Heights is a place to stay. With the great opportunities of getting a prestigious education, it is one of the safest places to live on Manhattan. Maybe one day, the Adventures Danes will once again set their foot on the grounds of the Academic Acropolis - only time can tell.

Meatpacking District

It was late in the day, and after a long day we just wanted to go home and relax. The district which we were going to visit was the Meatpacking District. Our expectations were low due to its name. We expected an industrial district, consisting of factories and a low social class. However, what we found was the completely opposite. The Meatpacking District combines, the rough, old, industrial building of New York which dates all the way back to the industrialization and the new, fashionable retail stores, bars, clubs, restaurants and outlets. If you had to compare it to something in Denmark it would be “Kødbyen” because it’s quite similar in style and atmosphere.

In the early 1900s the Meatpacking District consisted of numerous slaughterhouses and meat markets. nowadays only around 5 slaughterhouses have survived. However in the 1990s several young designers and artists moved to the area and opened boutiques for the fashionable, around the same time, club owners saw the potential of this district and restored the old factories and turned them into trendy clubs. This active culture scene contributed this area to become a residential hotspot. The average price of an apartment in this area is 1.8 million dollars which underlines that it is a place for the wealthy.

The meatpacking district contains many public spaces, among them is a public park which is located on an abandoned elevated railway track. The park has big open green areas and an astonishing view of the area. we walked on top of these tracks and were fascinated of the contrast between the old and the new buildings. We looked down from the paved pathways of the old railroad and saw all these young fashionable people, walking around, shopping and there were even some sort of club hosting a fashion show down there. One thing struck us, there was almost no representatives of other races then the caucasian. This also relate to an interview we had done earlier with a teenager named Sarah. She told us the following about the district, “(...) in this district there is not a lot of racism, but it’s not really diverse either, there is pretty much only whites here. I don’t really interact with black people, but it is not by choice.”. We asked her the following, “why do you think there is almost only whites here?” and she answered, “ There is still a big difference between the rich and the poor, and sadly blacks are almost always poor, that might be the reason why you don’t see many blacks here. This might actually also be the reason why some people are racist, if they don’t interact with other races, they’ll only see the stereotypical races that the media might portray.” This confirmed our train of thoughts, the area was quite segregated, and the people here didn’t really associate with other races. Even though we didn't find a single person saying they had any stereotypes about other races or looked down upon them, it was clear that this would be an area where prejudice could easily blossom. Why hadn’t it? Well the area as we said early is upper middle class with a highly educated population, which might have an effect on the individuelles racial beliefs.

We came to the district expecting to take a few pictures interview three people as fast as possible and get on with our day. This wasn’t what happened. We ended up spending hours strolling the streets, discovering new and trendy stores all over, each one better than the one before. All in all this was really one of our favourite districts on the entire trip.