It’s not just NYC

I also dislike people who like New York City on principle. Especially if they’re not from New York City:

Often times if you ask a white person about where to travel, you will get a lot of responses. But if you ask them about New York, white people will go nuts. They love the city universally and all either live there, have lived there, will live there or want to live there.

White people like New York because it has artists, restaurants, a subway, history, diversity, plays, and other white people. It literally has everything white people need to thrive! The only thing it’s missing is nature, but Central Park is right there, and since you are walking all the time, you are outside!

If you are from New York, tell this to a white person. They will instantly be interested in you “what part of New York? and you are really from there?” When they inevitably tell you about your home town (”I know this great italian place…”) you should respond by saying “man, I thought place was only known to New Yorkers.”

I’ve only ever had one good friend from New York City. She absolutely loathed the cult of NYC, I think I may have picked up a bit of that from her. Living in Europe, I can understand the annoyance; I can’t tell you how many people have attempted to tell me all about their two-days experience of Florence or Venice.

One of the more amusing things that happens while travelling is the way tourists compliment me on my English. Pretty much all of my old American clothes have worn out now, so I am usually taken for an Italian even though no Italian would make that mistake for a second. (They usually think I’m English, sometimes Swiss.) Needless to say, I seldom bother to disabuse them of the notion, it’s more fun to make up something about the wonderful four years I spent learning English and studying the art of mime in Iowa or whatever.

But Europeans are positively the most annoying members of the NYC cult. Seven times out of ten, if a European under the age of 30 finds out you’re an American, he will tell you that he feels a special connection with NYC and it is his heart’s desire to visit it someday. That’s bad enough, but what makes it incredibly irritating is that it is invariably conveyed in a manner that indicates they actually believe that this feeling is unique to them. The other three all want to go to Los Angeles.