My first thought regarding Big City Values cannot be expressed without considering one of the great urban planners, writers, and activists: Jane Jacobs. She purposed that America’s big cities are actually the drivers of economic development in the country. The places where creativity, opportunity and connection are found so that industry and ideas can flourish. I would like to think that innovation and hardwork are both wonderful values for any person, whether American or not. But just as industrial innovation prospers in the city, so does personal innovation. That is to say, people in big cities have learned to accept newcomers, immigrants, faiths, colors, ethnicities, genders, etc. In a lot of ways, acceptance is a Big City Value because rubbing shoulders in such close quarters means learning to recognize the humanity around you as people worthy of relationship: friend, neighbor or maybe even partner.

I have lived in big cities both inside and outside the U.S. I have also lived in small cities and towns much more quintessential than even politicians can paint in words. The same town I lived in Tennessee was both a place of great friendships and also hurtful experiences. I have a typical American story: a first-generation-American-dweller practicing a faith not native to this country (Islam). The first typical American small town I moved to upon arrival was a place where I learned most dramatically how diversity can sometimes be too close to home for some people. A place where 9/11 meant that expressing Anti-War sentiment or just being Arab or Muslim was unpatriotic and irresponsible, because it might mean losing your job or a scholarship, receiving a threat on the phone, having your hijab torn off on the street or being called a “terrorist” by a high-school schoolmate (all of these things happened to me or other Muslims in my town). It was a place where some of my local public school teachers and administrators felt comfortable using their power for racist aims (against me as the only person of my ethnicity, or black students, or others). I’m not claiming that these things do not happen in big cities, or that small towns don’t offer acceptance too. But I do know from personal experience that while living in Philadelphia and New York, I felt more comfortable praying in a mosque, speaking in Arabic, expressing my political views and breathing easy being someone who although is not unique for U.S., is often considered too “foreign” for small town America. I still visit my town, and enjoy spending time there, but I always remain guarded.

Lena Z
Moving from Philadelphia to NYC but currently in Atlanta, PA, NY, GA