Are ‘New York Values’ a thing? Ted Cruz and crusty sportswriters say yes
A veteran columnist was the first to use the city as a slur
By Asher Kohn
What exactly are “New York values”? In last night’s GOP debate, Senator Ted Cruz used the term to throw shade at Donald Trump. “The values in New York City are socially liberal and pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage,” said Cruz. He then casually threw in, “and focus on money and the media.”
Trump countered the assertion by invoking the September 11 attacks, leaving some viewers to conclude that the United States’ largest city is full of bad people but tremendous victims. One Manhattan writer summed up the posturing thusly:
“New York values,” however nefarious, clearly have little to do with to do with New York money. Ted Cruz has raised millions from some of Wall Street’s fattest wallets. It has more to do with culture, social mores and general vibes.
The term first made its way into the New York Times in 1977 via the sports pages. The stalwart columnist Red Barber, in his 72nd year of life and fourth decade in New York, filed a column on Graig Nettles, “The Quiet Man of the Yankees.” Nettles had just helped the Yankees win their first World Series in 15 years with 37 home runs in the regular season and stellar defensive play in the championship.
“A low-key guy from San Diego,” wrote Barber, “[Nettles] sometimes derives mild amusement from New York values as he perceives them.”
Barber draws a difference between Nettles, who prided himself on “hard work and confidence,” and the loud, brash — and black — Yankees star Reggie Jackson. Nettles became a star the American way. Jackson, who sought out the spotlight and reached for the microphone, was a star the New York City way.
New York was a city where “a blackout plunged whole neighborhoods into frantic looting, when subway cars were covered with graffiti,” and a 20-something Trump was making a real estate fortune. Nettles was hitting home runs and winning championships for New York but not, as the sports pages put it, in a New York way.
The year of Nettles and blackouts and “New York values” was also the year Annie Hall came out. One of Woody Allen’s most famous and beloved films, Woody Allen expresses insecurity about his city’s place in his country.
“Don’t you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we’re left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes, and I live here.”
— Alvie Singer in Annie Hall (1977)
New York is a city, not a slur. Graig Nettles didn’t succeed in baseball because he was quiet and a hard worker, but because he had forearms the size of hams and legs quicker than a panther’s. But Red Barber’s dig at the Big Apple works now as it did then: as a dog whistle, a way to elevate white American life above the gritty urban fabric of the country’s biggest city.
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