Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

iasc-culture.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 350 posts

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#31

Post by liveoneggs »

throwaway15814 wrote: post #10

Just moved out of the midwest.. I was originally from the East coast and moved back. I'll just say this, being a minority, I was shocked at how much contempt people had towards middle-easterners and black people. On numerous occasions people have said they've been "dirtying up the neighborhoods which is why they moved to another burb... they need to take better care of their lawns, etc". Out of all the companies that…

I watched with amusement at my own midwestern family who thought moving south was the same as practicing racism and then later became quite racist as their own neighborhoods became more diverse.

I watches with less amusement as the evangelical right wing stuff eventually made its way into their thinking and churches as well.

I thought Homegrown Democrat by Garrison Keillor was a nice exploration of the demise of the midwest "culture".

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#32

Post by dsfyu404ed »

throwaway15814 wrote: post #10

Just moved out of the midwest.. I was originally from the East coast and moved back. I'll just say this, being a minority, I was shocked at how much contempt people had towards middle-easterners and black people. On numerous occasions people have said they've been "dirtying up the neighborhoods which is why they moved to another burb... they need to take better care of their lawns, etc". Out of all the companies that…

>I'll just say this, being a minority, I was shocked at how much contempt people had towards middle-easterners and black people. On numerous occasions people have said they've been "dirtying up the neighborhoods which is why they moved to another burb... they need to take better care of their lawns, etc". Out of all the companies that I've worked in the midwest, I've ever had a co-worker that was a black software engineer. People are put down in unfortunate ways. it's really fucking hard to climb up the corporate ladder than either coasts

Welcome to any "nice" suburb on the east coast for that matter.

Also it sounds like you moved to the Chicago area. Large metropolitan areas are generally their own culture bubbles (and resented by the rest of the state/region but that's a different discussion).

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#33

Post by dsfyu404ed »

EADGBE wrote: post #17

"reporter Alec McGillis marveled at the cheapness—and, it seems, the mere presence—of good orchestra and museum tickets in interior cities" I'm always impressed that foreigners (I'll call them that, since they tend to think the same of us) discount art from the heartland simply by being shocked it even exists.

Are you implying that them being aware of the place, possibly relocating there and participating in local government is better?

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#34

Post by cableshaft »

dsschnau wrote: post #19

born and raised in michigan, lived all over the state. I hope i die here. This nerd doesn't know shit

Michigan is very pretty, and has lots of nice areas, especially around Lake Michigan. I like to visit when I get the chance. I imagine the winters would be pretty rough there though. I live near Chicago and they get pretty bad here, usually.

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#35

Post by m_mueller »

rayiner wrote: post #7

> In a 2015 essay for Slate, “The Rust-Belt Theory of Low-Cost High Culture,” reporter Alec McGillis marveled at the cheapness—and, it seems, the mere presence—of good orchestra and museum tickets in interior cities: One fact of history that’s often overlooked is that patronage has left an incredible legacy in places like Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, etc. For example, one of the finest collections of…

Wait, is Philly considered Midwestern, not East Coast?

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#36

Post by lactinfo »

le-mark wrote: post #16

I found this piece to be interesting, but rather odd too. For example from the middle; I took the first option. As a child, I accepted without thinking that my small town, a city of 9,383 people, contained within it every possible human type; if I could not fit in here, I would not fit in anywhere. (“Fitting in” I defined as being occupied on Friday nights and, sooner or later, kissing a girl.) Every week that passed…

Not to mention college doesn’t always fix it, even for the intellectually curious. Nearly killed me. Never finished!

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#37

Post by michaelbuckbee »

le-mark wrote: post #16

I found this piece to be interesting, but rather odd too. For example from the middle; I took the first option. As a child, I accepted without thinking that my small town, a city of 9,383 people, contained within it every possible human type; if I could not fit in here, I would not fit in anywhere. (“Fitting in” I defined as being occupied on Friday nights and, sooner or later, kissing a girl.) Every week that passed…

That part about the 10k person town containing every type of person really resonated with me. There was a real sense of isolation in the small midwestern town I grew up in simply because it was pre-internet and there just wasn't a decent way in most cases to see that the greater world existed.

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#38

Post by cableshaft »

throwaway15814 wrote: post #10

Just moved out of the midwest.. I was originally from the East coast and moved back. I'll just say this, being a minority, I was shocked at how much contempt people had towards middle-easterners and black people. On numerous occasions people have said they've been "dirtying up the neighborhoods which is why they moved to another burb... they need to take better care of their lawns, etc". Out of all the companies that…

I've worked in the Chicago area most of my career. I've had multiple Indian, Asian, Black, and Women developers on my teams. My current team has two Indian people, one woman, and one Asian guy, and we only have 7 people on our team right now.

I agree that the pay and number of opportunities aren't that amazing here, though. I've been fighting that for a long time.

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#39

Post by krrrh »

domparise wrote: post #8
jerf wrote: post #5

Speaking as a Midwesterener, it was a valiant attempt to examine the Midwest without descending into contempt and cliches, but alas, it ultimately failed, and failed hard . Partial credit given for making it for a few paragraphs before descending into the usual trite analysis.

Speaking also as a Midwesterner, I would disagree. I was born and raised in Michigan, and have not really left much other than to couch hop and envy the lives of my friends who've moved out to the coast. I feel that the contempt the author descends into is self-inflicted, and may representative of the culture and authors midwestern upbringing. From what I've observed, midwesterners are brutally humble, almost to a fa…

Double this, and you’ve got Canadians.

Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality

#40

Post by QAPereo »

m_mueller wrote: post #35
rayiner wrote: post #7

> In a 2015 essay for Slate, “The Rust-Belt Theory of Low-Cost High Culture,” reporter Alec McGillis marveled at the cheapness—and, it seems, the mere presence—of good orchestra and museum tickets in interior cities: One fact of history that’s often overlooked is that patronage has left an incredible legacy in places like Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, etc. For example, one of the finest collections of…

Wait, is Philly considered Midwestern, not East Coast?

It's definitely East Coast.
Post reply on HN