Dirt on the Dirty
checking out new york’s neglected stepsister
An overheard dialogue from every crook of the Columbia social scene:
“Where are you from?”
“New Jersey.”
“Oh… I’m… sorry.”
It’s known as “the Jerz,” “the Dirty,” and even “the armpit of America”: the state of New Jersey.
“I wish we could just find a way to take a knife and carve it out of the U.S.,” jokes native New Yorker David Cooper, CC ’09.
While New Jersey is one the most fiercely criticized states in the union, it is one of Columbia’s most represented states in terms of student population. It’s also the most densely populated state and one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse. The New Jersey turnpike is one of the state’s claims to fame, but New Jersey’s transportation system can also contribute to its negative perception.
“Every time I drive through New Jersey, I want to vomit because of the deadly aroma,” Philip Tjimos, SEAS ’09, says, referring to the Bayway Refinery operating in Linden, N.J., just off the Verrazano Bridge.
Students from New Jersey don’t have much better assessments of the state.
“There isn’t much to do, and no matter where you go it always looks the same,” says Janusz Kesek, SEAS ’08 of Linden, N.J. “People who aren’t from New Jersey are biased, and people who are from New Jersey are proud. ... People shouldn’t judge where you’re from.”
Another Linden resident, Brittany Reid, CC ’11, defines “the Jersey attitude: we’re just mean and trashy. But I feel like you can only say we’re trashy if you’re from New Jersey.”
Where does all this paradoxical pride come from?
New Jersey is the birthplace of numerous notables, including Michael Ian Black, Jack Nicholson, Amiri Baraka, Derek Jeter, Bruce Springsteen, Thomas Edison, Bruce Willis, Ice-T, and Jon Bon Jovi (just to name a few). It boasts a Six Flags Great Adventure theme park, the Liberty Science Center, a number of historical sites, several beaches, cranberry bogs, cities, suburbs, and farmland, with nothing farther than two hours from anything else.
Then why all the New Jersey hate?
Jersey’s proximity to New York City seems to be a big part of the problem.
“In New Jersey you have 12 things to do, and you’re done in 12 days. Then, you come to the city and you’re like, ‘Wow, New Jersey is like a village,’” Kesek says.
Like most states, New Jersey doesn’t have a city large or varied enough to compete with New York, and the cities that it does have—Newark, Camden, and Trenton—are known more for crime than anything else. As Cooper says, “New Jersey has to deal with living in the shadow of New York, which it can’t really do anything about.”
The Jersey-New York tension looms large at Columbia, where even students from other states are conscious of anti-N.J. sentiment. Quincy Sweeney, CC ’09, says, “It’s pretty much New Jersey is like Barnard. We love to make fun of it ... constantly.” Sweeney hails from Nevada and maintains that there is no scapegoat state on the West Coast, though people have no problem making fun of the East Coast.
Stephanie Wu, CC ’10, has also heard the complaints about New Jersey, despite the fact that she’s from Iowa. “There’s something about New York dumping trash into N.J., but it also might be Staten Island. They’re pretty much the same in my mind,” she says.
People from outside of the tri-state area make Jersey jokes of their own, despite the fact that it’s a place they may have never visited. “It’s funny because I think that in order to pretend you know something, you make fun of New Jersey,” Sweeney says. “It’s like, ‘What do I know about the East Coast? Oh, insert New Jersey joke here.’”
Still, television shows and movies continue to use New Jersey as a setting for an assortment of plots. House, M.D., The Sopranos, Being John Malkovich, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Garden State, and all of Kevin Smith’s films are still only a short list of movies that take place in New Jersey.
“It has the city quality, but it also has the suburban feel, which is probably a good combination for movies,” Reid says.
Heather Oh, CC ’09, says the suburbs of New Jersey are easy for movie audiences to identify with, especially “if you’re going to make a movie about people complaining about something unimportant.”
Media portrayals may do more to hinder than to help, though.
“I think that the representations of Jersey in pop culture reinforce the stereotypes,” Kesek says, comparing the self-conscious condemnation of movies and television shows in New Jersey to the complete sanction of Colorado in the heavily satirical animated series South Park.
However other people see the Garden State, residents will continue to defend it, even while acknowledging its lesser characteristics. “I didn’t really appreciate it until college, until I left,” Oh says, missing the copious malls and the 24-hour diners most while she’s away at school. Her favorite New Jersey memory is an experience frequently stereotyped: her prom and the massive weekend-long after party at Seaside (“Sleazeside”) Heights.
Reid recounted his prom experience as one involving an attack by a “man-sized wild turkey” right alongside the comfort of convenience stores such as 7-11 and Wawa.
Wu had a great time when she visited a friend in New Jersey over winter break. They flew a kite on the beach and just drove around. “I miss driving wildly and irresponsibly, like teenagers do. You can’t do that in New York,” she says. After a couple days in the suburbs, Wu has her own opinion of New Jersey: “It’s like Happy Days or something. New Jersey is like a time machine.”
While the armpit of America probably won’t smell better to outsiders anytime soon, residents will continue to maintain the attitude of a catchphrase rejected from the statewide slogan contest held two years ago: “New Jersey: You gotta problem with that?”\\\