Why are Americans of Eastern European descent so invisible ? (live, rated)
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There are a **** ton of Eastern Europeans in Cleveland. Parts of New York City are highly populated with Russians. As for why they aren't represented in pop culture who knows.
I love Kolaches! Everyone in Texas knows it's a Czech ethnic item that has become part of Texas' mainstream breakfast cuisine along with breakfast tacos and huevos rancheros. There is still a sizable Czech-American community between Houston and San Antonio/Austin.
The Czech Stop is a famous gas station in West, Texas (not a typo with the comma--an actual town between Waco and Dallas!) selling Kolaches and other Czech baked goods by the roadside 24 hours/day. I accidentally found out about this place 10 years ago (before the smartphone) when my Aunt needed to use a gas station restroom.
There are a **** ton of Eastern Europeans in Cleveland. Parts of New York City are highly populated with Russians. As for why they aren't represented in pop culture who knows.
They always seem to make the Russians the bad guys in Bond movies
They always seem to make the Russians the bad guys in Bond movies
That has more to do with the Cold War rather than Russian imigramts, German nazis and Russians are the most popular villains because they were our biggest enemies, in a decade or two all the villains will be Muslim extremists.
The Wire did focus on the Polish American community in Baltimore in Season 2. Some sections of the Baltimore area do have a a large Polish American population. The Russian Mafia appears in many movies! There are not major organized crime groups in Eastern Europe besides the Russian mafia.
Although Eastern Europeans gentiles may be in short shrift in pop culture, in real life they are quite noticeable in many Midwestern and Northeastern cities. Chicago and Milwaukee have the Poles, Pittsburgh its Hungarians, New York its Albanians, Greeks, Ukranians, and Russian Orthodox. And I've heard that Baltimore still has a Lithuanian community.
Some smaller cities across the U.S. may also have particularly large Eastern European populations, but because those cities are small, they are not on most people's radar.
I think the answer is pretty simple -- there just aren't enough of them. I've known tons of Irish-Americans, tons of Italian-Americans. How many people of Eastern European descent have I known? Excluding Jews, a bunch of Polish-Americans, and after that ... I can think of one guy of Czech descent, one guy of Lithuanian descent who I haven't seen for 20 years, one guy of Russian descent who I haven't seen for 10 years. And I've lived in New York and Chicago. There just aren't that many.
The problem is, a lot of Eastern Europeans change their names to sound more American, so you wouldn't know their descent unless you specifically ask. One of my Russian friends changed her name to "Turner" recently. She did it so that her last name sounds more American on her law firm name.
Although Eastern Europeans gentiles may be in short shrift in pop culture, in real life they are quite noticeable in many Midwestern and Northeastern cities. Chicago and Milwaukee have the Poles, Pittsburgh its Hungarians, New York its Albanians, Greeks, Ukranians, and Russian Orthodox. And I've heard that Baltimore still has a Lithuanian community.
Some smaller cities across the U.S. may also have particularly large Eastern European populations, but because those cities are small, they are not on most people's radar.
Chicago and Milwaukee have a fair number of Serbians. When I lived in Milwaukee, there were a lot of fairly wealthy Serbians on Milwaukee's east side.
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