The traditional stereotype of the New Yorker, somebody who lives in New York City, depicts this person as "rude", "impatient", "uptight" and "snobby" (The Culture Trip, 2017). However, it could be seen that this is being challenged by the NY transport authority. One advert had the headline "New Yorkers are hard on the outside, but soft on the inside" suggesting that the New Yorker could be perceived as "rude" when they push past you on the street, but this rudeness is not a core of their personality. The "inside" of a New Yorker is portrayed as concerned, supportive and as a safe guarder. This could be seen through numerous adverts around the subway with the titles "New Yorkers keeping New York safe" together with numbers to call if you notice something "strange" or "dangerous" on public transport. These adverts also challenge the stereotype of New York as a dangerous city; the collective social group of the New Yorkers choose to live here everyday, so it must not be dangerous. These adverts were accompanied with head-shots of New Yorkers: people of all ages, genders, ethnicities and sizes. It could be argued that this type of advertising helps to create a collective conscious of what it means to be a New Yorker through uniting citizens; despite differing ethnicities, ages and genders, they share a feature of their identity with others who live in New York City. Adverts portray a sense that all New Yorkers hold a duty of care to their city in a post-9/11 New York.
Indeed, this stereotype was not the only thing that helped collectivise the state of New York. Other adverts created a sense of a state consciousness. For instances, there was an advertisement offering support and legal help to New York citizens who had friends or family going through immigration problems. Another advert stated that healthcare was not just a luxury for the "rich citizens of New York" but something that all New Yorkers deserved to have. Whilst another advertised a number you could ring if you believed that you were not getting paid the minimum wage and your working rights were being exploited. All of these adverts show New York City to be a safe and caring city to live within. Similarly, these adverts depict New York City to be very liberal especially against the current back drop of Trump's America.
Of course, these adverts echoed liberal arguments surrounding basic rights for citizens; I witnessed anti-Trump/Pence marches; and citizens adorned Black Lives Matter t-shirts. You could say that, in the current political climate, that the city is rather left wing. What does this mean about the citizens? Does this reflect their political beliefs? Statistics show that the Democratic Party's candidate, Hillary Clinton won New York with 56% of the vote in comparison to Trump's 36% (NY Times, 2017). It is interesting, when looking at the map which breaks down areas of New York and their votes, that New York City was the city with the most, proportional, votes for Hillary Clinton within the state of New York. It would be interesting to see how New Yorkers view these candidates now.
Although the politics of New York City may not be represented by the United States of America (e.g. Trump) the sense of identity and patriotism is. New York could be seen as a microcosm for American patriotism. The United States of America is exactly that, the country as a whole is very big and although the USA does a great job of creating a collective conscience of what it means to be American, New York has created its own identity. Even something as mundane as car plates gives the owner an identity to which state they belong. Perhaps this state identity helps citizens to distance themselves from political issues within the US as a country.
References:
https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/13-stereotypes-about-new-yorkers-that-are-completely-wrong/
https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/new-york
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