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Be honest with this one! How do people in the Midwest view Iowa? For example, neighboring states like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska, etc. Just out of curiosity, because I have some roots in Iowa on my Mothers side. Is it kind of like Alabama in the South? The butt of jokes? Not trying to sound like I'm picking on Iowa because like I said, I have roots in that state.
I think Iowa is a perfectly fine albeit often forgotten state due to its low population. I don't think it's really the butt of too many jokes, and I wouldn't compare it to Alabama at all, as I think the two states are drastically different. When I think of Iowa, I think of mostly farms and corn, but to be fair, that's a lot of a big chunk of the country. Oh and Des Moines, which is a perfectly fine but somewhat unremarkable city.
I've heard MN bag on IA, but that's about it. For Wisconsinites, it's kind of the forgotten border state. It's a short border, and we have professional sports rivalries with the rest of our border states (MI, IL, MN), which also feature major metros (Detroit, Chicago, Twin Cities).
Personally, I love IA near our border - a beautiful chunk of the Driftless. I think it's prettier overall than most view it, and it's definitely more progressive than given credit for across the country.
I'm born and raised in Iowa. Moms side has been in the Des Moines area for generations, my dads side were Swedish immigrants who settled in the southwest part of the state. My family lived in Iowa City in the eastern part of the state.
I think Iowa was a great place to be from. It really has a lot going for it, and people in Iowa are perfectly fine that the state is looked over and forgotten. We assume people just make fun of Iowans for their own probaby naive reasons, but once I left the state and traveled around more I realized that people have respect for Iowa. I haven't heard it mentioned as many will talk about Alabama or Mississippi in the south because most people are bringing up social problems, bad education and healthcare and poverty rates for those states - which is something Iowa tends to be the opposite.
It's a pretty progressive state, and a very progressive state if you take the fact it has a high rural population and not many large cities. People always think it's lily white, but in reality there are 250,000 minorities in the state, and while that's not a huge population, it's not like people don't understand what non-white people are or are completely ignorant. A fairly healthy majority of the population lives in the larger metro areas, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City.
The state has very low crime rates, high educational standards, a very low cost of living and healthy wages, stable growth, low poverty, low enemployment, fairly good equality between the population. It always hides there at the top of most all standard of living ratings. I feel like Des Moines and Iowa City are constantly showing up in all the "best of" lists for cities as far as jobs, economy, standard of living, kids, etc.
Good wages, low cost of living, great schools, low crime....most of my friends who still live back in Iowa ended up moving to Des Moines and work in healthcare, finance or education. They all had great new houses by their mid 20's with plenty of disposable income and seemed extremely happy with their situations.
Last edited by Chicago60614; 12-19-2014 at 11:26 AM..
Iowa also has a strong and long history of tolerance that most people aren't aware of. They enacted court rulings far before most in many areas of civil rights, for instance on desegregated schools they were almost 100 years before the US courts, as well as women's rights, interratial marriage, gay sodomy laws, etc. The state was surprisingly progressive on rights for black people back decades before anything took place on a national level.
1839 - Territorial Supreme Court: man could not be sent back into slavery "re: Ralph," WL 2764, at *6 (Iowa Terr. July 1839) "no man in this territory can be reduced to slavery." (US - 1865 after Civil War)
1851 – Iowa General Assembly: removed ban on inter-racial marriage (1967 US)
1851 – Iowa "Code of 1851:" gave married women property rights
1855 - The University of Iowa opened its doors as the first state university in America to admit men and women on an equal basis.
1857 - Iowa Constitution included African-Americans 'same rights' as every citizen
1867 – Iowa Supreme Court: broke with 'common law' that men would get absolute custody of children in divorce; "Cole v Cole"
1868 - Iowa Supreme Court: school desegregation case -- a 12-year-old girl could not be barred from a Muscatine school on basis of race
1869 - Iowa Supreme Court: Arabella Mansfield could not be barred from practicing law due to gender. She became the first female lawyer in US.
1873 – Iowa Supreme Court: Emma Coger, mixed race woman, could not be denied eating privileges in steam boat 'whites only' dining room.
1875 – Historic First: Emma Haddock, first female lawyer to practice in US Federal courts
1879 - Law alumnus G. Alexander Clark is believed to be the first African American in the nation to earn a law degree.
1884 – Iowa General Assembly: civil rights law enacted (racial)
1884 – Historic First: Jennie McCowen, first US woman medical graduate (U.I.)
1920 – Historic First: (Iowa General Assembly?) When women got the vote, Iowa also made them eligible for jury service (most states still didn't allow this for a decade or more)
1924 -- Native Americans given right to vote.
1965 –1969 US Supreme Court - Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District: Freedom of speech includes black arm bands protesting the war in Vietnam.
1970 – Iowa General Assembly: no-fault divorce (one of first in nation laws)
1971 – Adel High School's (anti) Long Hair rule at school is unconstitutional (district court) Boys can wear their hair long.
1976 - Iowa Supreme Court: sodomy laws violate "equal protection" clause (Legislation: Iowa struck down all sodomy laws in 1978; US in 2003)
Living here in Mpls I haven't really heard anything negative about Iowa at all. It's a large state with a ton of farm land (but what midwestern state isn't), and has more varied geography than people realize. The border is about 2 hours south of the Cities. I think both Des Moines and, Iowa City are growing pretty fast, and typically get positive reviews. My neighbors down the street are both Hawkeye grads. When I think of Iowa I think of it as clean, green, progressive, big time Ag, & humble folk. As mentioned earlier it does't fit the Alabama mold at all, and I'm not sure if there is a southern equivalent for it? Kansas would be more like the Midwestern version of Alabama I guess? Iv'e been to Iowa about 2-3 times since moving here though and have had positive experiences. I would really like to complete RAGBRAI ( a famous Bike Ride Across Iowa in the Summer) sometime in the near future. I have heard it's a lot of fun! I would agree in general with the previous post regarding Iowa as well. I think Minnesotans joke more about Wisconsin than Iowa, but I'm sure its because the Packers suck soo much!
In general I think it carries a pretty good reputation in the Midwest.
Last edited by sandlapper; 12-19-2014 at 12:17 PM..
as a Midwesterner...I see Iowa as a sort of spiritual home ...seriously. And it is secretly the most beautiful slice of the North American continent...
I was originally from Illinois, and we just thought of Iowa as "out west" as full of cornfields and little-to-no people. I had no problems with Iowa or Iowans. It was the state that simply existed. Iowa was, IMO, the friendliest Midwestern state, nothing bad seemed to happen there, and it was always in the shadows of IL, very well-mannered.
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