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A Bit More Diversity

By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

Only in Queens.

For more than a decade, the Tribune has been publishing special editions highlighting Queens as the most multicultural place on earth. And with each passing year, our diversity has become greater.

When the Schenkler family first moved to Queens 50 years ago, the place was very different. Most people were the same.

When I first took over as publisher of the Tribune 25 years ago, the staff was very different. Most people were the same.

Today, our home, the Tribune, reflects the diversity of Queens. And in issues past, I’ve written columns detailing the diversity of our Tribbies: Africans, Asians, South Asians and Latinos have blended with a staff whose ancestry was historically European.

Like the Queens in which it matured, the Tribune was built initially by those with family roots in Jewish Eastern Europe, and then, in Europe – predominantly Italy and Ireland. Our paper reflected the borough. And as the borough changed so did our staff: Chinese, Koreans, Latinos from a string of nations, South Asians – Indians and Bengalis, even a talented artist from Viet Nam, those from the Caribbean and Guyana. Moslems worked next to Jews and Hindus next to Christians. We, like Queens, were a mini United Nations.

And it was a story I’ve told before. And it was a story I was telling to our new special edition editor Josh Parish when Josh quietly pulled from his wallet a card showing that he was recorded on the “Sacred and Political Rolls of the Cherokee Nation.” The card gave him rights proscribed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, but to me, and more importantly, it gave a new twist to our Tribune multicultural story.
The editor of this special edition dedicated to our ethnically diverse cultural quilt known as Queens, has roots in the Cherokee Nation.
Only in Queens!

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