Cosmopolitan Canopy:
Salvation for a Diverse Society
Elijah Anderson, Ph.D.
The William K. Lanman Professor of Sociology, Yale University
Anderson:
“Under the cosmopolitan canopy, all kinds of people can go about their business together, let down their guard, behave civilly. They can practice racial comity, creating a pleasurable social atmosphere.” These were the words of hope for the future expressed by Dr. Elijah Anderson, the William K. Lanman Professor of Sociology at Yale University, during his October 11, 2007 lecture, Cosmopolitan Canopy: Salvation for a Diverse Society.
Dr. Anderson noted that the forces of industrialism, immigration, and globalization have created more racially, ethnically, and socially diverse cities. Social groups are divided and there is a pervasive wariness toward strangers, especially toward young black males. Utilizing defensive strategies, people “look past” or “look through” each other, distancing themselves from strangers. The anonymous black males – and not just those who are young and more “ghetto” in appearance but also those who wear a coat and tie – most frequently are the targets of such avoidance, often left to sit alone on the bus or subway. They feel estranged and disliked by whites and struggle to develop strategies for evading such arbitrary treatment and salvaging a modicum of self-respect. Within this backdrop of fear, mistrust, and alienation, however, there are public spaces that provide a kind of respite from this wariness, introduce a code of civility, and allow diverse people to let down their protective shields. These places are a part of the cosmopolitan canopy.
Dr. Anderson noted that in Philadelphia the Reading Terminal, the Down Home Diner, and the former Zanzibar Blue Jazz Club are examples of cosmopolitan canopies. The white Italian girl from South Philly hugs the black bus boy from West Philly. She wouldn’t take him home to South Philly and he wouldn’t take her home to West Philly. An older black woman with a walker struggles to open the door and two Irish guys jump up to help her. A homeless man is engaged in a discussion with a meticulously dressed business man about the prospects of the Eagles making it to the Super Bowl.
Under the cosmopolitan canopy, there is a sense of involvement and trust that would not occur out on the street, and at least for a few moments certain barriers are broken down. People engage in a kind of folk ethnography; they collect stories, they interact with strangers, and they may find their stereotypes reinforced or they may discover new truths about others as well as themselves. While there is enormous complexity in understanding and addressing the relations among those who reside in or otherwise share public spheres in our urban areas, in the end, encounters under the urban canopy can promote an everyday urban civility that provides a more grounded knowledge of others and may at the very least initiate the establishment of new norms of tolerance that perhaps in time will lead to comity and goodwill between diverse groups of people.
Anderson's lecture is part of the Center for Child and
Family Well-Being 2007-2008 Scott Lecture Series.
Sponsored by the
G. Mildred and A. Foster Scott Endowment Fund.