This is about tribes, not races. Midwest is very much a rural vs. urban notion more than a racial one.
On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
121–130 of 350 posts
Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
What things are happening in the Midwest that you consider overt racism?
Southern Indiana comes to mind. Here is the SPLC's interactive map of 'hate groups' in operation. Though the density seems, to my eyes, correlate strongly with population, there are still a fair few assholes out here. https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
The SPLC is not a credible organization for mapping 'hate groups'
Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
#123I grew up in the Midwest and moved to Silicon Valley. I think that people here don't understand what this author describes as "Midwestern history is a study in racial quarantine." I would go as far as to say that racial is the wrong word to describe what happens in the Midwest. I think that communities in the Midwest have tighter cultural restrictions on what it means to be "one of us." This can be affected by where…
I think you're missing a familiarity with a good chunk of the history of systematic racism in the U.S. There are reasons homogeneous communities form in the U.S. A few of those reasons have to do with city planning and legislation. City planning can be racist in nature and promote exclusionary communities. Redlining, while not typically state legislation, is a good example of practices that contributed to the formati…
I think you raise sever good points.
The past did contain city planning that was racist and had redlining. Those are past problems that do need some form of correction and I would support correcting them if you have specific actionable ideas.
I would like to point out that race isn't the only reason you couldn't afford college. Do you see any problem with race blind admissions and race blind aid? That way everyone who is disadvantaged when it comes to being able to pay for college gets a helping hand?
Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
confederate flags are another example.
So stupid considering they were Union. I just don't understand it.
I spend most of my time in Ohio and WV. Ohio might as well be in Canada and WV split from Virginia to join the union. Still confederate flags flying in both states. It's not about "heritage" at that point.
Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
#125I moved to Minneapolis last month after working as a software developer in NYC for twelve years. It still feels like I'm on vacation in comparison, with all this space and a reasonable cost of living. My main concern is career development with the thinner tech scene out here (Chicago didn't seem bad when I looked, although I'd prefer somewhere smaller).
Chicago born, moved to Minneapolis for school and work. Lived there 8 years. While everyone was nice, found it very weird that any conversation that started spontaneously (Stores, parks, etc) always seemed to be with people from somewhere else. The running joke was people are nice, but they are just not taking applications for friends at this time.
Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
#126Growing up in Indiana, I thought my home was backward and boring, and wanted to see what the rest of the world had to offer. After spending 10 years in a variety of cities across the world, I was relieved to find that Indiana houses were still cheap enough that I could buy one and move back.
Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
#127> the vast majority of humans have worked hard, or been worked hard, for all of recorded history
Huh that's an interesting way of saying that...
> a person might explain these tropes of featurelessness by pointing out the similarities imposed across the Midwestern landscape by capitalism.
Oh. That's why. Trash article.
Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being from central Kansas, I always say I'm from the great plains. Lumping the prairie into it's own group always seemed useful to me.
I had a very bitter argument about whether Kansas was Midwestern or not. An important distinction is that what's now considered the "Midwest" used to be just called the "West", and that the Great Plains formed a natural barrier of relatively lower rainfall that settlers headed out to Oregon or California would be crossing over before they hit the Mountain West. As a result, settlers in Kansas had lots of natural conn…
I always thought that the Missouri river was kind of the western border to the midwest. So Kansas City, which straddles the river is still in the Midwest, and a very large chunk of Kansas' population lives there and are midwestern, the western chunk of the state is much different.
Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
#129I grew up in the Midwest and moved to Silicon Valley. I think that people here don't understand what this author describes as "Midwestern history is a study in racial quarantine." I would go as far as to say that racial is the wrong word to describe what happens in the Midwest. I think that communities in the Midwest have tighter cultural restrictions on what it means to be "one of us." This can be affected by where…
How about not treating people differently based on which community they come from?
Re: On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Southern Indiana comes to mind. Here is the SPLC's interactive map of 'hate groups' in operation. Though the density seems, to my eyes, correlate strongly with population, there are still a fair few assholes out here. https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
The SPLC is not a credible organization for mapping 'hate groups'
Why?