Nightline (ABC) - 1999-07-27

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:02] July 27th, 1999.

[0:07] >> Your home is there. Your friends are

[0:10] there. It's your town. And then new

[0:13] people move in.

[0:14] >> I don't want to come off as prejudice

[0:16] cuz I'm not prejudice by no means. I'm

[0:18] not, you know,

[0:19] >> who don't look like you or talk like

[0:22] you.

[0:22] >> Uh these people have the feeling that

[0:25] of, hey, if you don't look like me, I

[0:27] don't really like you that much. And

[0:29] sometimes they feel as if you don't like

[0:31] them much either.

[0:33] >> They don't really expect to fit in

[0:35] perfectly anyway.

[0:37] Uh so they just try to manage and hope

[0:39] hope for a better future for their

[0:41] children, which is the main reason they

[0:43] came to the United States. Anyway,

[0:45] >> tonight, new faces on Main Street.

[0:52] From ABC News,

[0:57] this is Night Line. Substituting for Ted

[1:01] Cppel and reporting from Washington,

[1:03] Chris Wallace.

[1:05] >> One of the central ideas behind the

[1:07] growth of this country has been the

[1:09] great American melting pot. The notion

[1:12] that successive waves of immigrants come

[1:14] here from around the world, blend in

[1:16] with everyone else, and become

[1:18] Americans.

[1:20] In fact, it hasn't worked out that way,

[1:22] or at least not that smoothly. Each wave

[1:25] of immigrants has tended to view the

[1:27] next wave as intruders, not as educated

[1:30] or hardworking, and certainly not good

[1:32] for property values. They may become

[1:35] American, but not without a struggle.

[1:38] There's a small town in New Jersey

[1:40] called Palisades Park where it is

[1:42] happening all over again. After years of

[1:44] dominance, Irish and Italian-Americans

[1:47] there have got some new neighbors from

[1:49] Guatemala and Korea. And one of the

[1:51] fascinating lessons of Palisades Park is

[1:54] that sometimes the only thing harder

[1:56] than having to deal with newcomers who

[1:58] are too poor is having to deal with some

[2:01] who are too successful. Night Lines

[2:03] Michelle McQueen on the melting pot that

[2:07] isn't.

[2:11] >> This is Palisades Park.

[2:16] But it could be any small town in

[2:18] America.

[2:21] There's a main street.

[2:25] Here it's Broad Avenue,

[2:29] a swim club,

[2:32] a parade every now and again,

[2:37] and a big turnout for the high school

[2:39] graduation.

[2:42] But about 10 years ago, this little town

[2:44] in northern New Jersey started to

[2:46] change.

[2:48] >> And it started with a group of 10 uh and

[2:50] then eventually mushroom to a group of

[2:53] several hundred all waiting on corners

[2:55] uh for contractors to pick them up every

[2:57] day.

[2:58] >> They'll make comments and they'll walk

[3:00] they'll stand in front of you. They want

[3:01] you to let you pass sometimes. It

[3:02] depends. Not everyone, but there's a

[3:04] bunch that will do that.

[3:06] >> Yeah, that's that's been a problem here.

[3:08] >> And a lot of people resent that. resent

[3:10] them.

[3:10] >> Really? What do you feel about them the

[3:13] day later?

[3:13] >> I don't have a problem with it. I have a

[3:15] problem as a home owner having 50 70 men

[3:18] on one corner waiting for work.

[3:21] >> Nobody remembers how or why men from a

[3:24] few villages in Guatemala started

[3:26] migrating to this particular town.

[3:30] But Elizabeth Lorente, who covers

[3:32] immigration for the record, figured out

[3:34] why they kept coming. They started

[3:36] sending word back uh to the hinterlands

[3:40] of Guatemala that here was a place where

[3:42] if you were willing to work hard, you

[3:45] could stand in the shadows of

[3:46] immigration law. You could stand in the

[3:48] corner and get work.

[3:54] >> This young man, who agreed to talk to us

[3:55] if he didn't show his face, told us he

[3:57] followed his brother here 4 months ago.

[4:03] Also

[4:05] als

[4:07] $500 a month back home.

[4:09] >> The men worked long hours and tried to

[4:11] stay out of the way, but there were too

[4:13] many of them to go unnoticed and many

[4:16] residents did not like what they saw.

[4:18] >> They go to the bathroom out on the

[4:19] street.

[4:20] >> Is that true?

[4:20] >> It's totally disgusting.

[4:22] >> Really? You've seen this?

[4:23] >> Have you seen it? You see it all over

[4:25] all over the walls. I'm afraid to walk

[4:26] down one avenue in my town.

[4:28] >> There followed the predictable uproar.

[4:31] demands for a crackdown followed by

[4:33] complaints of police harassment, angry

[4:35] letters to the newspapers, political

[4:37] fallout.

[4:38] >> This came as a shock to this town, which

[4:41] is only a square mile, has 15,000

[4:43] people, and had long been the domain of

[4:45] Irish and Italian-Ameans,

[4:47] >> but in many ways, it was merely history

[4:50] repeating itself.

[4:51] >> We've always reflected the waves of

[4:53] immigrants out of New York City.

[4:56] >> Frank Patty is the town historian. The

[4:58] Italians came early on at the turn of

[5:01] the century. The Irish and German came a

[5:05] little before that. So I think if you

[5:07] look at Palisades Park's growth, you'll

[5:11] see that it's tied to the streets of

[5:14] lower Manhattan

[5:16] because as people became more affluent

[5:20] and they wanted a better life for their

[5:22] family, the first stop

[5:26] was the East Bergen County area,

[5:28] particularly Palisades Park.

[5:31] For example, Korean families also

[5:33] started moving in and buying small shops

[5:36] on Broad Avenue. And as the Guatemalans

[5:39] settled in, something interesting

[5:40] happened. Town people say what started

[5:43] as anger and fear turned into something

[5:45] like recognition and respect. The

[5:47] original residents started to see

[5:49] something familiar in the men, something

[5:51] that reminded the old-timers of their

[5:53] struggle to make it in America. I think

[5:55] the old-timers, considering when they

[5:58] came over, they came as a group. I think

[6:00] they've taken to these uh people that

[6:02] came after them.

[6:04] >> Sandy Farber is the mayor of Palisades

[6:06] Park

[6:06] >> and uh they're very good people. They

[6:08] worked very very hard. Uh and uh it's

[6:12] tough.

[6:12] >> And while the town was arriving at

[6:14] something like a truce with the

[6:15] Guatemalan men, something else started

[6:17] to change. The trickle of Korean

[6:19] families became a wave. Like the

[6:22] Guatemalans before them, they looked at

[6:24] Broad Avenue and saw an opportunity.

[6:26] >> The Koreans in New York learned about

[6:29] Palisades Park because it's close to

[6:31] highways. Um, and many of them live in

[6:34] Manhattan or worked in Manhattan and

[6:36] real estate agencies started advertising

[6:38] Palisades Park as the place to come to

[6:40] in Korean newspapers both in New York

[6:43] and Queens and also in Soul. Koreans

[6:45] bought a carpet store, then a

[6:47] restaurant, then another restaurant, and

[6:50] then the pizza parlor was gone, and then

[6:52] the Italian butcher, and the five and

[6:55] 10, and then the things that people

[6:58] identified with little by little were

[6:59] disappearing. And so when it got to be

[7:04] uh enough of those experiences and when

[7:06] enough people in town started having

[7:08] those reactions, that's where the

[7:11] tension started shifting. to shift, in

[7:14] other words, to the new newcomers. And

[7:16] the people who made the old-timers

[7:18] uncomfortable, the subject of meetings

[7:20] and tense talk at the swim club, were no

[7:22] longer the brown men with calloused

[7:24] hands waiting on the street corner. It

[7:26] was the Korean men and women in business

[7:28] suits, and they owned the corner.

[7:32] >> As a nation, we pride ourselves on

[7:34] welcoming immigrants, but we want them

[7:36] to be American and to speak like

[7:38] Americans as soon as possible. When they

[7:41] don't, especially when they're not

[7:43] downtrodden, the usual native versus

[7:46] newcomer tensions get turned upside

[7:48] down, as we'll see in part two of

[7:50] Michelle McQueen's report when we

[7:53] return.

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[10:01] >> It's a terite stampede.

[10:06] >> Fear not, my wood friends. There's a new

[10:08] sheriff in town.

[10:09] >> The organ man.

[10:11] >> It's roundup time.

[10:13] >> You got them all.

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[10:40] As in a lot of small towns around the

[10:42] country, downtown Palisades Park, the

[10:45] center of town, was dying.

[10:47] >> There were a lot of abandoned

[10:48] storefronts. The Koreans arrived and saw

[10:51] looked down Broad Avenue and saw

[10:54] a pathway to the American dream.

[10:57] >> To the newcomers, it was, if not a

[10:59] welcome mat, at least an open door. But

[11:01] to the old-timers, this American dream

[11:04] looked different.

[11:05] >> This is you.

[11:06] >> Yeah, I'm carrying the veteran of war

[11:08] flag.

[11:08] >> Okay.

[11:09] >> You're not trying to hide back there,

[11:10] are you?

[11:11] >> Tom Albanese has lived in Palisades Park

[11:13] since he was two. The

[11:14] >> immigrants that we're familiar with came

[11:15] in Ellis. They came here because they

[11:17] wanted to come here for a new life.

[11:18] These people, Koreans, came here to make

[11:21] a new life better for themselves. They

[11:22] come here with money, big investments.

[11:25] >> True or not, many people we spoke with

[11:27] in Palisades Park believe the town has

[11:30] gone Korean. But according to a report

[11:32] by the county human relations

[11:33] commission, 16% of the town's 15,000

[11:36] residents are Hispanic. 30% are Korean.

[11:40] A majority is white. But Koreans do own

[11:44] 90% of the town's 200 businesses. And to

[11:47] the old-timers, it seemed as if the

[11:49] Koreans were setting up their own town.

[11:51] Within the town,

[11:54] the Koreans founded a Korean PTA and

[11:56] Korean sports teams. They revived the

[11:59] dormant chamber of commerce and held the

[12:01] meetings in Korean just to save time.

[12:03] They said, since the members are mostly

[12:05] Korean,

[12:06] >> I go to shop there. They raise the

[12:07] prices for us. And then the rumors

[12:10] started that the Koreans refused to

[12:12] serve non Koreans. That they were only

[12:14] pretending they couldn't speak English,

[12:16] that their stores had two sets of

[12:18] prices, higher ones for non Koreans.

[12:21] >> A friend of mine whose teacher speaks

[12:23] Korean but and reads it but she spoke

[12:26] English and said, "How much is this?"

[12:27] And they gave her one price. And then

[12:28] when she read the bottom of the paper in

[12:31] Korean, it was higher price.

[12:32] >> Higher price.

[12:33] >> Yeah. And it'll tell you if you want to

[12:34] buy something, send a friend in who's

[12:36] Korean. Whether any of that is true or

[12:38] not, the anger boiled over. Some

[12:41] Korean-owned stores were pelted with

[12:43] eggs and tomatoes. No one was arrested.

[12:46] But one thing became clear. Many

[12:48] longtime residents felt that Palisades

[12:50] Park was not their town anymore.

[12:53] >> Everyone knew each other. Today, you

[12:55] could go through town, you don't know

[12:56] anybody.

[12:56] >> You don't know anybody.

[12:57] >> Hardly. All people that I've known and

[12:59] grown up with have moved out.

[13:00] >> It has changed.

[13:01] >> Well, let me ask you this. Is it is it

[13:03] the fact that the people who've moved in

[13:05] are of a different race, different

[13:06] ethnicity? Is that part of why it feels

[13:09] different?

[13:11] >> Maybe, but it doesn't bother me that it

[13:13] is. You know, there's a lot of Spanish,

[13:15] there's a lot of um Korean, more Korean,

[13:18] I guess. Like she said, they don't

[13:20] mingle. Like they don't try to Maybe

[13:22] it's because it's the language barrier.

[13:24] Like a lot of them still don't speak

[13:26] English, you know, and they feel like

[13:28] they have to keep to themselves. But uh

[13:31] >> have you tried to reach I mean have you

[13:33] tried you know to go over with the

[13:35] >> I don't know bottle of wine or pound

[13:38] cake or something? I don't know. Have

[13:39] Have you really

[13:40] >> Well, yeah, kind of. We did. We had a I

[13:43] had a neighbor that was Korean play with

[13:44] the kids and it was just hello, how are

[13:46] you? And that was it.

[13:48] >> Most people here do acknowledge that

[13:50] Korean businesses have stabilized the

[13:52] town's economic base. Officials estimate

[13:54] that fully half of the town's tax

[13:56] revenue, $21 million, comes from Korean

[14:00] businesses and residents. But only a

[14:02] fraction of Korean residents are

[14:04] eligible to vote, which might help

[14:06] explain the ordinances, all adopted in

[14:09] the last 3 years. Among them, store

[14:12] signs were required to be at least 50%

[14:15] English language. Stores were required

[14:18] to close between 12 and 6:00 a.m. Most

[14:21] restaurants between 3 and 6:00 a.m.

[14:30] >> In fact, if any one thing serves as a

[14:32] symbol of the conflict between the old

[14:34] residents and the new, it is the fight

[14:36] over closing times for the karaoke bars.

[14:44] To the Koreans, who prefer to call them

[14:46] music studios, they are a part of the

[14:48] culture, a way to let off steam after a

[14:51] long day. Perfectly innocent, especially

[14:53] since they don't serve alcohol. The law

[14:56] says they must close at 1:00 a.m.

[15:01] But the All-American Diner, which does

[15:03] serve alcohol, can stay open all night.

[15:06] >> We are not a 24-hour a day town. We do

[15:10] not wish to have Palisade Park to be the

[15:12] Las Vegas of the East.

[15:13] >> To the Korean businessmen, some of whom

[15:16] have been fined thousands of dollars for

[15:18] closing late. It's about respect for

[15:20] their culture and for their contribution

[15:22] to the town.

[15:23] >> I'm very sad and I'm angry.

[15:26] >> I don't know what to do.

[15:27] >> I was told that the uh Korean was the uh

[15:30] right uh race to be uh targeted. When I

[15:33] came the 15 years ago when I came this

[15:35] country

[15:36] >> this country is a freedom country it's a

[15:39] very nice country when I came to Paris

[15:43] I find out no

[15:45] >> even some Koreans who don't patronize

[15:47] the studios like this local clergyman

[15:49] see tinges of racism in the karaoke

[15:52] battle

[15:52] >> do I want a business business that goes

[15:55] on for 24 hours which is toward

[15:56] entertainment personally no I don't okay

[16:01] but when it involves my ethnic

[16:04] community. That brings a total different

[16:06] feeling. You know, I feel my people are

[16:09] getting oppressed uh by the uh local

[16:13] government.

[16:14] >> But the mayor and many other old-timers

[16:16] insist the Koreans have only themselves

[16:18] to blame by thinking of their community

[16:20] first and the rest of the town second.

[16:23] >> They do not come to mayor and council

[16:25] meetings. We have uh 150 uh volunteer

[16:30] ambulance and fire department people. We

[16:33] only have one Korean who has

[16:36] volunteered, youngster. We'd like to see

[16:38] more of that. I constantly am saying,

[16:41] "Why don't the comm Korean community

[16:44] respond to that?"

[16:45] >> The whole civic life is very different

[16:47] in Korea. In Korea, what a citizen

[16:50] citizen expect to do, you work hard, pay

[16:52] tax, and for the um election for the uh

[16:56] Congress or the president, they vote.

[16:58] That's about it. But, you know, of

[17:00] course, in America, it's very different.

[17:02] >> As is so often the case in a small town,

[17:04] the political became personal. Things

[17:06] got so bad between the mayor and the

[17:08] businessmen that the mayor refused to

[17:10] show up at a Harmony picnic last July,

[17:12] although it was his idea. But those who

[17:15] take the long view see it another way.

[17:17] as Growing Pains, another chapter in the

[17:20] saga of the town. It's about change and

[17:23] growth. It's an American story.

[17:26] >> I feel a sense of continuity. I feel a

[17:29] sense that uh we're we're experiencing

[17:33] what people 20 years, 40 years, six

[17:37] generations have experienced. I think

[17:40] Palisades Park will always reflect that

[17:42] trend as all this area because we we are

[17:46] the gateway to America.

[17:50] >> How the next generation sees the uneasy

[17:52] truths between old-timers and new

[17:54] immigrants when we return with part

[17:56] three of Michelle McQueen's report in a

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[20:49] Palisades Park reflects changes going on

[20:51] in small towns and cities across the

[20:54] nation. The newest immigrants, mostly

[20:56] Hispanic and Asian, may look different

[20:59] from some previous waves of newcomers.

[21:01] But just as with the Irish and Italians

[21:03] before them, the same complaints are

[21:05] voiced. They stick together too much.

[21:08] They don't learn English fast enough,

[21:10] and so on. As Michelle McQueen found

[21:12] out, as usual, it's left to the younger

[21:15] generation to work things out.

[21:18] We asked a handful of students from the

[21:20] class of 1999 at Palisades Park High

[21:23] School how they are dealing with a

[21:25] multicultural America or at least their

[21:27] part of it in Palisades Park. How many

[21:30] of your parents were born in the United

[21:32] States?

[21:33] And how many of your parents were born

[21:35] somewhere else? Most of you were born a

[21:38] lot of you were born elsewhere. Many of

[21:39] your parents were born elsewhere. So So

[21:41] how do you think of yourselves now? I

[21:43] don't think I I consider myself

[21:46] uh as like an an American or Korean or I

[21:50] just I don't know. I'm so used to being

[21:53] like having so all these friends that

[21:55] are a little bit of everything with all

[21:57] this ethnic diversity around me. It's

[21:58] always like, you know, I'm the white

[22:00] guy, you know, choking white guy.

[22:03] >> I like to consider myself Korean

[22:04] American and um I'm proud to have, you

[22:08] know, to be able to adapt to both.

[22:10] >> I can't consider myself either or. I

[22:12] came here at a very young age, so my I

[22:15] speak American just as well as I speak

[22:17] Persian. I have both sides influencing

[22:20] me.

[22:20] >> Yeah. My family's originally from Puerto

[22:22] Rico. My mother grew up in New York. And

[22:25] um I've learned to take pride in both,

[22:27] being American and being Puerto Rican.

[22:29] When I first tried to make friends, one

[22:31] girl's mother told her that I was too

[22:33] dark to hang out with her. But um the

[22:36] town's changed a lot over the past

[22:38] years, over the past recent years.

[22:40] >> Changed for the better or for the worst?

[22:42] With all this ethnic diversity going

[22:43] around, there's always going to be a

[22:44] little bit of prejudice.

[22:46] >> Like what kinds of things have you heard

[22:48] on all sides? Just give an example.

[22:51] >> What what's what things have I have I

[22:52] heard that you know the first thing we

[22:54] have to do is to get rid of these

[22:55] people.

[22:56] >> Is there an inroup and an out group

[22:58] here? And if so, who who's in and who's

[23:00] out?

[23:00] >> It's like there's an Asian crowd,

[23:01] there's a Hispanic crowd, and there's

[23:03] the popular crowd. That's when in every

[23:04] high school, you're always going to see

[23:05] a popular crowd.

[23:06] >> Are the popular kids any one race at Pal

[23:09] Park?

[23:09] >> No.

[23:10] >> No. The cool kids can be any race. There

[23:12] are tools. There

[23:13] >> is a mix. Nothing is really based on on

[23:15] race in our school.

[23:16] >> But it seems as though there there have

[23:18] been conflicts here.

[23:20] >> I know. I've experienced I've gone into

[23:22] stories and felt a little uncomfortable.

[23:24] >> Why did you feel uncomfortable?

[23:26] >> Well, because it's a different culture

[23:28] and you know, sometimes there are

[23:30] language problems and it's it's just

[23:33] different, you know.

[23:34] >> Nick, what about you? Have you do you

[23:36] ever go into the Korean owned stores and

[23:37] not feel like you belong there? Well, I

[23:39] don't feel like I belong in the five and

[23:41] 10, which has been there since I was

[23:42] five. Now,

[23:43] >> you don't feel resentment, though. It's

[23:44] different. I don't like it anymore. That

[23:46] kind of thing.

[23:47] >> It's always been a small town.

[23:49] >> I mean, it's like they feel like they're

[23:50] going it's like they're in an alien

[23:51] movie and they're they're the minority.

[23:54] I think that maybe when uh the store

[23:57] owners first come here, they think, you

[23:59] know, they're they come to America

[24:01] expecting the stereotypes you see on TV

[24:03] and stuff to be true. I guess everybody

[24:04] kind of compares the uh typical

[24:07] Caucasian male. It's like the standard

[24:09] for a culture. And then uh and so when

[24:12] they walk in, it's it's not a a strange

[24:14] or weird thing because, you know, you're

[24:16] in America, it's predominantly white, so

[24:18] you expect white people in your stores.

[24:20] >> America.

[24:20] >> Yeah. But then uh in a town like Plates

[24:22] Park where there are more than you know,

[24:24] single dominant culture, you don't

[24:26] really know what to expect and so you

[24:28] don't really know how to react to it.

[24:30] And so you kind of, you know, set

[24:32] yourself up for for anything. And that

[24:34] kind of creates tension on both sides.

[24:36] As a white person, I' I've never like

[24:38] been scrutinized or anything, but

[24:41] perhaps other people have been.

[24:43] >> In the cafeteria, do you all eat lunch

[24:45] in the cafeteria?

[24:46] >> Who sits with who? Tell the truth.

[24:48] >> There's a Spanish section, there's a

[24:49] Korean section,

[24:50] >> there's a popular section,

[24:51] >> but you'll have your mix.

[24:53] >> Yeah, there there's countless number of

[24:54] mixed groups.

[24:56] >> My table, um, there's a Korean there.

[24:58] I'm Persian. I have an Italian, um, a

[25:01] Greek, uh, Filipino girl.

[25:04] >> Okay, I'm not trying to be mean about

[25:05] it. the popular table, is it all white?

[25:07] >> Absolutely not.

[25:08] >> Usually the ethnic tables um tend to

[25:12] include people who don't speak English

[25:15] well or they don't have a common

[25:16] language with other people that they can

[25:17] speak together. I just think it's a

[25:19] normal thing because until you know time

[25:21] is given for people to integrate that

[25:24] it's it's going to happen.

[25:26] You can't expect somebody just to come

[25:28] from another country, speak another

[25:29] language, then all of a sudden to become

[25:31] part of everybody else. I mean living

[25:33] life in Palisades Park has overcoming

[25:35] that whole color barrier. It's given me

[25:38] like it's given all of us like this

[25:40] strength.

[25:41] >> You disagree?

[25:41] >> I think Palisades Park is ahead of its

[25:43] time but it's what America is becoming

[25:46] >> when you think about where what America

[25:48] will be particularly um as regards to

[25:52] how the races relate to each other.

[25:54] >> Do you feel optimistic or pessimistic?

[25:57] >> I feel optimistic about it. optimistic

[25:59] >> seeing our school and how well we've

[26:00] come together and knowing our parents

[26:02] and how it might have been a little bit

[26:04] more difficult for them. I see a trend

[26:06] sort of starting. I have to Yeah.

[26:08] optimistic

[26:10] >> and I'll be back in a moment.

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[28:52] Tomorrow in Good Morning America, live

[28:54] from Los Angeles with Diane Sawyer and

[28:56] Charles Gibson, a look at race on

[28:59] television. And that's our report for

[29:01] tonight. I'm Chris Wallace in

[29:03] Washington. For all of us here at ABC

[29:05] News, good night.

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[29:59] >> Catch Sports with John Dwire on News 2

[30:01] at 56 and 10.

[30:06] >> Ladies and gentlemen, the star of

[30:08] politically incorrect, Bill Mars.

[30:17] Bill's guest tonight, Dave Foley,

[30:20] Aiano Ali,

[30:22] Tom Lis,

[30:24] and Travis Smiley. Very kind.

[30:28] Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Oh,

[30:30] boy. You see they're they're