A Breakdown in POV

As I immerse myself into the life of the sidewalk I have come to realize that this entire book is basically one giant POV shot. What Duneier is doing with Sidewalk is more than a sociological study. It’s an attempt for us disconnected whites to really understand what a POV shot consists of when the subject is a street vendor in New York City. Out of all the POV shots that have been constantly described in the final pages of Part 3 of the book, I’m going to discuss the two that shocked me most. The first case shows the POVs of street vendors or panhandlers that really need to use the restroom. The second shows the POVs of book vendors in the streets that yell out compliments at every woman that goes by.

Case 1à

POV # 1: a close up of Mudrick ‘s hand holding a cup and putting it on a low tree branch. The cup is his bathroom, the tree is where he stores it. Mudrick says he is not welcome in any restaurants, and there are no public bathrooms. To top that off, the police will arrest you for “pissing in the street” (page 174).

POV # 2: Ron looks around nervously to check that no one is seeing him as he pees exactly in between two cars. He’s being careful that nothing hits the cars or the sides of buildings because, though he doesn’t understand it, he knows people don’t like it. He has some restaurants that allow him to come inside to use the bathroom, but today he’s dirty and he’s been drinking and it would be disrespectful to walk in a restaurant like that. “When a person is dirty or stinkin’  he don’t want to go to a bathroom with decent people in there! You just don’t feel good about yourself” (page 177).

POV # 3: Raj, the guy from the Newsstand in the corner runs to a restaurant trying to find a bathroom as quickly as he can. When he finds no one to take care of the stand for him, he is forced o go in a cup. Unlike Mudrick, Raj still has a sense of privacy in this situation because he can do it inside the cubic Newsstand. He still feels embarrassed by this though, his shame isn’t impacted by the people around him but what he thinks he should do as a member of a supposedly civilized society.

POV # 4: A white man finds the poor black vendor peeing on the street. He finds it repulsive.

My interest in these points of view stems much further than how fascinating they are, I am more intrigued by the way they vary. Ron actually pees on the street sometimes as a sign of respect for other people. The white man, without knowing this, immediately thinks him uncivilized and likely to cause harm. Really? The guy just really had to pee. It is the interactions of all these points of view that makes up sidewalk life, and out of all of them, the most ignorant one is that of the educated white person who just knows this is not a right or a good thing.

Case 2à

POV # 1: Mudrick yells compliments at every woman who passes by. His explanation is that this all meant to be flattering for the women. “I say sweet things to a woman. Make her feel good. Like. You look nice. You look very nice. I’d like to be with you someday if I can. Try to make you happy” (page 193).

POV # 2à Framed in the shot is a woman’s upper body. Her face looks doubtful, her eyes are nervously checking back and fourth to see if the man that was harassing her just a few seconds ago is following her. Little does she know that this harassing guy she was trying to avoid just wanted her to feel good for the rest of the day.

Once again my interest in this type of activity lies in how the same situation can vary through different eyes. Why is it that Mudrick feels so kind and the woman feels so uncomfortable?

In the book, Duneier gives many theories as to why this is such a common phenomenon (the change of POVs amongst people of the same group I mean). Despite all the fancy names and long analyses. I’m just going to say that I don’t agree with the POV of white people as shown in both scenarios, mainly because we are criminalizing these vendors without any proof. When did the white population give itself the right to judge other populations based on so-called race?

Imagine what the world could be if we bothered to always ask ourselves why people are doing what they’re doing. Do we honestly think so low of street vendors that the idea that they enjoy relieving themselves in public seems logical in our heads?

Sadly, we’re humans. This means that we will most likely not ask ourselves why people are doing what they’re doing. We will not take lurking valuables into consideration. We will be a bad example.

Exacerbated (verb): made a bad situation or negative feeling worse