Monday, October 5, 2009

Has anyone else had it with NYCentrism?

Has anyone else had it with NYCentrism? I’m referring to the assumption on some people’s parts that not only is New York City the center of the planet, but that it’s everyone else’s reference point.

This morning I happened to sit down at breakfast across from a women who proceeded to wax on about the Village and “the Park” [I assume Washington Square Park] and Bleecker Street, nodding at me earnestly the entire time as if we’d grown up together next door to the Village Gate. I honestly thought she might have mistaken me for someone else.

We hadn’t been introduced; in fact, I hadn’t uttered a word, so there was no way she had of knowing that I’m even a native English speaker, much less whether I’d ever so much as stepped foot in North America. For all she knew, I’d just dropped in for the day from Afghanistan. But the galling assumption not only that I’d been to NYC, was familiar with it, and share her cultural references, was simply over the top.

Anyone else been in this situation, and does it bother you?

2 comments:

  1. Americans (except New Yorkers) feel the same way. In the American South they call it "Yankee-centrism." I'm a native-born American citizen, and I don't know where "the Village" and "the Park" are!

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  2. Interesting. Thanks for reading, Robyn! Mind if I ask what led you here?

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