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Have you lived in any other states? It might surprise you but there are several states that wouldn't seem racist despite what people tell you about them. Texas for example.
AUstin and Dallas sure but some parts of Texas are the exact opposite, you get beaten up for being slightly open minded. Not such a case in Minnesota.
I thought the Pacific Northwest was a hotbed for White Supremacist activity? Also, what do you consider the Upper Midwest? If you include the Great Lakes States then that would be a resounding NO! Wisconsin? Milwaukee is like the most segregated city in the country.
Upper Midwest states like Wisconsin or Michigan have a lot of segregation and low populations of minorities outside of cities like Milwaukee and Detroit. There is also a massive hatred between those states and their minority dominated cities. Detroit vs Michigan is a very intense conflict, lots of resentment.
The least racist part of America is the southern states. Black and white people have lived together here in the south for hundreds of years. We live near each other, we work together and see each other daily. This is not 1950, for the most part we all get along. Race issues have been dealt with here more thourougly then they have in other parts of America. I say this as some one who lived in the upper Midwest and then moved to the south. The races just get along better here, less troubled areas. I know what people from up north will say, What about Jim Crow?? what about segregation, separate but equal etc. That was 60 years ago, the south is not like that anymore. The Midwest is far more like that then the south is. The cities up there are highly segregated, racial problems abound. Ironically a lot of the liberal college students who traveled south in the 50s and 60s to reform the south came from Midwest places, but in the end they failed to change their own home states. They are just as racially divided as they were 40 or 50 years ago.
AUstin and Dallas sure but some parts of Texas are the exact opposite, you get beaten up for being slightly open minded. Not such a case in Minnesota.
I am originally from NY.
I think the reason for the lack of racism you experienced is because those regions have not experienced racial tensions like other regions have, especially the South. States like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Washington are a lot less diverse than states like Texas, California, Florida, etc. They weren't the primary battleground for the Civil Rights movement and they don't have to deal with illegal immigration as much as states bordering Mexico and Florida. Many minorities aren't attracted to cities like Minneapolis and Seattle because there is not a high percentage of people of the same ethnicity living there. It is nice to live in a city with people of the same background because then it is easier to establish roots and make new bonds with people.
The Midwestern cities are the least racist of US cities (I can only speak for cities and not rural areas or small towns). The Midwest has the fewest minorities, so people who have lived there their whole lives are in a way...sheltered from the usual bull**** like racial strife, racial tension, illegal immigrant-spawned tension/problems that plague the coastal cities.
It's the same reason how people say the Midwestern folks are "Midwestern nice" and "sheltered", comparatively. It comes from the same thread.
Midwestern Americans are humble, hardworking and friendly folk and most of us are open to understanding foreign cultures and find ways to immerse in it, contrary to what people NOT from the Midwest stereotype Midwestern folk.
When I lived in the Midwest, many of my friends who lived their whole lives in the Midwest are enthusiastic about opportunities that immerse them in foreign cultures. Midwesterners are friendly, it's just part of the culture, and are actually genuine about it compared to Southerners.
This is accurate of the lower Midwest. People in states like Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri are the friendliest people in the US you can find as a foreigner. The upper Midwest is similar, with a liberal slant. Do remember that Midwestern states were free states. Midwesterners are basically in a nutshell, northerners who are relatively untainted from the social factors that besiege coastal states which gradually and effectively make Americans racist or xenophobic. People (both Americans and foreigners) who stereotype Midwesterners do so purely out of ignorance and nothing else.
This is very evident to anybody who's lived in the Midwest and had the opportunity to venture beyond for perspective.
Racial studies show that when people feel they are in competition for scarce resources with those of other races, that is when racism is the most severe. Since minorities don't really present a competitive "threat" to people in these states where they represent such a small portion of the population, my theory is that they are more readily tolerated.
Upper Midwest states like Wisconsin or Michigan have a lot of segregation and low populations of minorities outside of cities like Milwaukee and Detroit. There is also a massive hatred between those states and their minority dominated cities. Detroit vs Michigan is a very intense conflict, lots of resentment.
The least racist part of America is the southern states. Black and white people have lived together here in the south for hundreds of years. We live near each other, we work together and see each other daily. This is not 1950, for the most part we all get along. Race issues have been dealt with here more thourougly then they have in other parts of America. I say this as some one who lived in the upper Midwest and then moved to the south. The races just get along better here, less troubled areas. I know what people from up north will say, What about Jim Crow?? what about segregation, separate but equal etc. That was 60 years ago, the south is not like that anymore. The Midwest is far more like that then the south is. The cities up there are highly segregated, racial problems abound. Ironically a lot of the liberal college students who traveled south in the 50s and 60s to reform the south came from Midwest places, but in the end they failed to change their own home states. They are just as racially divided as they were 40 or 50 years ago.
Living alongside isn't the same as truly embracing minorities.
The white lifelong Southerners surely live alongside black Americans, but they do so with the full awareness that they are descendants of people their ancestors had brought as slaves. Sure, Midwestern cities with a high black population are more segregated than southern cities. But that's only because there are more African Americans in the South. Also cities like Detroit and St Louis are dangerous because of rust belt economic woes and the blame was heaped on blacks, thus explaining the segregation. You'd find the same phenomenon in Buffalo even though it's a Northeastern city.
Racism also comes in many different forms, and directed at different groups.
There's racism against African Americans, and then there's racism/xenophobia towards foreign cultures and newer immigrant groups (Asian Americans). Midwesterners are very accepting and genuine towards foreign cultures and newer immigrant groups.
Iowa has one of the highest rate of inbound immigration of first generation Asian Americans.
Anglo Americans in the Midwest are among the most prolific in cultural exchange programs and foreign immersions, whether it's language immersion courses to East Asia or sending of missionaries to the Middle East and Far East, probably the most prolific and embracing behind liberal NY/NJ Jewish Americans.
It's easy to claim to be the "least racist" city/state/region when you have an overwhelmingly white population and a sprinkling of "model minorities" and never had to seriously contend with race issues on a broad societal level. That's like bragging that you've never struck out when you've never even stepped up to the plate. Race relations in Wisconsin, to choose one of your examples, seem fine and dandy because for the most part minorities are barely noticeable. But then go to Milwaukee and it's an entirely different story -- both in the racial balance and the contentiousness of race relations.
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