Brooklyn at Split Ends
Discomfort and Displacement in the Age of Trump
By The Ink Staff
Sarah Fattah used to cut hair in Brooklyn, but not the Brooklyn you know. Sarah, who is 28, lives in Borough Park and works in Dyker Heights, neighborhoods that voted heavily for Donald Trump. They are two of a half dozen Brooklyns we visited recently, searching for the answer to this question: nine months into this singularly disorienting time, where are you?
Most of my clients in the salon were Greek and Italian. I had this one lady, she comes to me, I’m doing her hair, and mind you, I’ve done this lady’s hair several times, she always asks for me. I’m doing her hair, and I was away for a week, and she goes, “Oh, there’s a school down the street, a block from my job, a hair school.” She’s like, “I went to this hair school, they have one of these girls with a fucking rag on her head, and I was furious.
“I go [to Dyker Heights] sometimes and hang out, and the neighbors have this idea that the Chinese people are invading their neighborhood.”Austin Brannigan, Dyker Heights
“If you walk down Fifth Avenue you can’t read half the signs on the stores. You don’t know what they are. Foreign language signs, it’s not right. It should be English first. I don’t even know what type of store it is based on the signs in the windows.” Ed Anderson, Dyker Heights
“The area has changed a lot since white people have started moving there. The quality of food and services has improved. That’s a great thing, I must say. The downside: I wouldn’t be able to afford my place now if I didn’t own it. I bought it in 1992 from my mom, who had paid $16,000 for it. I’m afraid of Trump. Write that down: T-R-U-M-P.” Monia, Prospect Park
“I just think it’s the first rule of every country that you respect their values and you can’t come here and start living off us. You have to work yourself up. It’s not a safety concern. Everyone has to abide by it.” Shimon Friedman, Midwood
And she was like “I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t want to make a scene, but “I didn’t want no terrorist touching my head.” Mind you, I’m Arab — she doesn’t know that. And, for me, it’s like — I’m trying to keep my cool, and my bosses are looking at me, like waiting for me.
“My biggest fear is that and what you see on TV every day now is that if you have a different opinion about something you’ll be shouted down. Like college campuses won’t allow people who are conservative to speak because it hurts their feelings and I think that’s the worst thing that can happen to any kind of discourse between people. My son’s 26 years old and I can’t even have a conversation. He comes in and starts yelling at me about Trump and I’m like “I don’t work for Trump.’ He’s like ‘you have to disavow him.’ I said ‘I don’t have to disavow anybody. You know I believe what I believe, you believe what you believe.’” Mark Cannon, Bay Ridge
“Donald Trump was the only person out there saying, ‘from now on everybody should say ‘Merry Christmas!’ Not ‘Happy holidays. ‘Happy Hanukkah’ and other crap because it was a Christian holiday. It was what this country was founded on.” Ray Bou, Williamsburg
I can’t snap on [her] right now, I’m at work, I can’t lose my job. And I’m literally trembling, doing this lady’s hair. She just kept going, and going, and going. And I’m like, “You do understand you’re in a predominantly Arab neighborhood, right?” And she’s like “No fucking terrorists,” and this and that, “And I’m so sick of it. I hate this neighborhood, they’re taking all the blah-la-la-la.”
“I don’t mind the neighborhood changing people-wise. I mind it changing where I don’t feel safe walking around. If you can’t understand it you’ve got to be weary of it. I mean it’s probably nothing, but you don’t know.” Ed Anderson, Dyker Heights
“I grew up here. During the 1980s, there were many gangs. Today the Latino gangs on New Utrecht Avenue have been around for the longest. New Utrecht Avenue has always been a dangerous part of Bensonhurst at night. Seems like now the Mexicans and Central American gangs have taken over the area. Drug dealers are drawn to bodegas and corners once they are caught on the camera and get a few arrests they will move to other neighborhoods and do their damage there.” Roger Curtis, Dyker Heights
“Don’t get me wrong, immigration law is unfair. But I’m not being oppressed as a Muslim — I am as an African-American. I’m more concerned about police pulling me over and shooting me than I am of terrorists coming from overseas.” “Jalil”, Prospect Park
I just, like, I went blank, and I dropped everything, and I told my boss, either take over right now, or I’m gonna lose it, I’m gonna lose my job, and I’m gonna go crazy. And on top of that, I keep reminding myself, she’s 85 years old, and it’s like…you’re still this old and you have this mentality? And, I had to leave. My bosses were talking to her. She came into the backyard, there was a backyard, and just kept apologizing. And crying, “I had no idea…you’re like the sweetest person I ever met in my life,” and this and that, and she’s like, “I can’t believe I ever had this image of people, and you’re like the sweetest person I ever met in my life, and I can’t believe I ever put you guys in this one category.”
“I’ve never been more nervous about living in this country than now, never ever. And we are going all the way back now. We back in the 50s and 60s now. Why are we still rioting and fighting about color and race and religion? Why are we still doing that?” Chris Ransdell, Midwood
“I’m scared for the younger folks. What kind of world are they going to be living in, and what will they have if this man continues to be president? He doesn’t want immigrants here; he only wants his people. He doesn’t want any unity among us. But he’s not the law, and he’s not above the law.” Charlie Jordan, Crown Heights
“So much can go wrong, anytime. Trump is an embarrassment to the country. I’m happy to have a backup in case things go bad.” Cynthia Edorh, Canadian
And for all of this, for me, it’s like, I’m blank, my brain is not accepting [her] apologizing. I was like, “It’s fine, it’s fine.” After all of that, I guess she called a week later to make an appointment. I don’t know if she has horrible memory, I don’t know what the case may be, but she was like, “I don’t want the Arab girl doing my hair.” After all of that! She was crying to me, after all of that shit, and then she finally calls to make an appointment and say she didn’t want the Arab girl. They wouldn’t even give her an appointment. They just said they were booked up.
“America is an imaginary border. you feel me. It’s a line, it’s not even real. Look, I’ve got my city tatted, THE CITY. Notice how I haven’t got America tatted?” Vince Paul, Midwood
She was hysterically crying. She would always say, like, she loves me. And she was trying to hook me up with her son. She loved me. And now it’s like, “Oh, don’t let the Arab cut my hair.”
