Dealing With Demography

By Isaac Abraham

When Isaac Abraham, 38, was growing up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, N.Y., it was populated mainly by ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews. But by the 1970s, Williamsburg had experienced a large influx of blacks and Hispanics. Abraham now lives in a subsidized housing project where 49% of the tenants are white and 51% black or Hispanic, and race relations are often strained.

"When we got in ((the housing project)), there was a struggle to survive. It was the late 1970s, and the vibrations from both groups was very hostile, very, very hostile. There was almost every day a major crime -- people getting mugged, robbed, chains snatched, children beaten. And not people of both groups: the victims were always somebody out of the 49%. A kid who was sent down to the grocery, an adult would escort him. Forget the playground. Only one kind of people used that, and that was the people who created the nuisance. My wife was mugged by a team. And at that time we decided we were just going to stand up and fight. Now if ((someone tries a mugging)) and we get him, you don't know what will happen."