As a Southerner, how do you think I would be treated? (Indianapolis: fit in, lawyers)

[undertheironsea]

I was thinking about the upper midwest for job opportunities after grad school, and I was wondering, how do you think I would be treated, being from the Southern United States?

Don't jump to early conclusions, however. I have a Southern drawl, I'm from South Mississippi, but I'm not your stereotypical media "redneck." I did not grow up in a trailer, I HATE country music, I don't wave a rebel flag or drive a truck, I dress more urbanite than farm boy...etc, etc. I still wonder, with the accent and just knowing I'm from the South, how I would be handled.

Here (I'm in Arkansas now) the problem is that I'm not Southern enough, and I just wonder if just being Southern at all would be cause for jokes and snickers at my expense in the north. I want to find a nice, round the calendar cool weather place with friendly people to spend the early years of my career, and I don't want to take a job offer and suddenly regret it.

Not only that, but if homes are very expensive, I would be losing money and respect.

Hopefully someone can give me a good idea of what it's like.

[Frey Guy]

I'm from a ritzy sub of Chicago orginally and I find anything south of Indianapolis "Southern," there is pretty clear Southern culture: very religious, traditional family values, guns, Country music, NASCAR, republican like no other, and mid-southern drawls. The whole state of Indiana is very conservative with a few exceptions. People in some parts of Indy (Indianapolis) and anything south of there have a mid-southern drawls so you may not sound too different from them, although most people would probably be able to tell the difference, I know I can.

You'd probably be treated pretty well by most people in Indiana and they'd see you as one of them pretty quick. But depends where you are, people in Northern Indiana wouldn't probably warm up to you as much as people in southern indiana or indy would.

Even though I'm extremly liberal, I've liked most of the Southerns I've meet and as long as you don't run into any closed minded liberal people (theres more of them then I'd like to admit) you'll be treated you fine. I've found people in Indiana much more friendly then people from Chicago.

If you move to Bloomington, IN which is where I live, you might run into a few people who will give you a few strikes against you as soon as you open your mouth, its a pretty liberal town because of IU.

Out of all the midwest states you'd fit best in Southern parts of Indiana especially, but also central and southern Illinios or Missouri. I wouldn't be so quick to move to Chicago, Michigan, or Wisconsin, but I mean there are nice people and mean people everywhere. I know for a fact that some people in Chicago will make fun of you for your accent unfortunatly.

As long as your not looking to live an a huge city, housing will be cheap in the midwest, Danville, IL has the cheapest housing medium in the country. Compared to living in the South it'll be close to the same +/-.

Its funny you mention that you don't like Country music cause I love it and want to go South (well maybe) so I can be around more people who like it. Although most people in rural Indiana listen to country.

If you ask more specific question I could help you out some more, I've only been to Ohio maybe 4 or 5 times so I don't know how they'd treat you there. Personally though I think most of Ohio is a dump.

[sandrakay]

It depends on what part of the state you are going to. I am from Texas and I lived in Lafayette for years and loved it. We never had any problems with people being unfriendly and would have loved to live there for ever. But we moved back and forth between Indiana and Texas quite a bit. The very last move we made, we ended up in a town called Decatur, which is near Fort Wayne. I have never had such a bad experience in all my life. The license plate on the car told people where we were from. Yes, we were made fun of in the way we talked and dressed. We had to fight our way in school and my mother had many problems with her job. We moved again, back to Texas, 6 months later and I was never so happy to get away from there and would never recommend living there to anyone. I do have to be fair, though, some of the people was nice to us and treated us really well. I still have very fond memories of living in Lafayette. Good Luck

[undertheironsea]

My problem here in Arkansas is that we're in an area that really has it out for people who are in the middle/upper class. It's a pretty poor area of the country, and instead of being made fun of for being southern, I'm catching it for my family having a bit of money in the bank. I never act like I'm better than anyone else--nor does my family barely make 85,000 a year, so it's not like we're lawyers--in fact I'm one of the most accepting people you'll meet...it's just an overreaching generalization, be it the car I drive, clothes I wear, etc, etc.

So it's getting aggrivating. Plus, after being in the heat all my life, especially being hot-natured, enough is enough. I want some snow.

I did live in Nebraska during my final two years of high school. It was different--50% of people loved my accent and were great, and the other half or so laughed every time I opened my mouth. The cold weather I liked, but it was terrible during the summer..110's weren't just a myth. I made it pretty well though, after people got used to me, the joke wore off, and I was treated pretty much like a normal person. You can hear a "yankee" accent or two whenever I say certain things, haha. So me dealing with northern people would not be a new thing.

I also lived in Seymour, Indiana, when I was 5. All I can remember is that I saw John Mellencamp's limo, hahah..

I kinda want to be in the middle ground...I don't really mind a comment or two, I just don't want my intelligence coming into question every time I open my mouth. Of course, people can be jerks anywhere, so it'll always be something sometime. I mean, if housing is reasonable, and I can find a well-paying job, I'll put up with some rude people. I've done it before.

To add to that, I'm also mostly liberal in my politics, so that wouldn't be a problem, haha.

[artemis]

I'm from NW Indiana originally, I currently live in Nashville, TN.

I take ribbing from the folks here because I don't have the Southern accent. We're called D*mn Yankess here.

Stick to the larger metropolitan areas and you'll do fine. I think the rural areas of Indiana tend to be more clannish.

People from Chicago are just like people anywhere else. Personally, I've always found Chicago people friendly.

[domergurl]

I'm originally from the South Bend area, but lived in Chicago and the region (NW Indiana) and now live near Indianpolis (Fishers). I find that a lot of people down here have southern accents. We are getting ready to move to Columbus (IN), so I'm getting ready for the southern Indiana accents that I first heard when I was in Bloomington.

You'll do just fine. But I'll second that you should stick to the bigger cities since there is more of a chance that you'll meet other "out of towners".

[deanhubb]

Hey, Ya'll,

I spent part of my life growing up in Hattiesburg. My Dad still lives there. I've lived literally all over the world and parts of Loozyanna.

I lost my southern accent during college, I think. Nice people are nice everywhere and there are rednecks in the most unlikely places way outside the South.

People from southern Mississippi seem to fit in quite well. You'd be surprised how many network newspeople and personalities are from south MS. and across the Gulf Coast.

Don't sweat it. You may have to become accustomed to people noticing your accent due to it's entertainment factor.

The biggest problem I've run into are dealing with people at work for which there can be no political debate nor dissension. If you're quietly labled a "liberal" or a "traitor" find another job...or another state.

[Hoosier Girl]

Originally Posted by undertheironsea

I was thinking about the upper midwest for job opportunities after grad school, and I was wondering, how do you think I would be treated, being from the Southern United States?

Don't jump to early conclusions, however. I have a Southern drawl, I'm from South Mississippi, but I'm not your stereotypical media "redneck." I did not grow up in a trailer, I HATE country music, I don't wave a rebel flag or drive a truck, I dress more urbanite than farm boy...etc, etc. I still wonder, with the accent and just knowing I'm from the South, how I would be handled.

Here (I'm in Arkansas now) the problem is that I'm not Southern enough, and I just wonder if just being Southern at all would be cause for jokes and snickers at my expense in the north. I want to find a nice, round the calendar cool weather place with friendly people to spend the early years of my career, and I don't want to take a job offer and suddenly regret it.

Not only that, but if homes are very expensive, I would be losing money and respect.

Hopefully someone can give me a good idea of what it's like.

Take this for what it's worth, but this was MY situation. I'm FROM Indiana (southern third) and I WAS PERCEIVED to be from the deep south. As a secretary, I was told I could NEVER work in the executive area because of my 'accent!' Also, I found out in later years that a 'lady of color' thought that since I was 'from the south' that I didn't like her!!!! She actually apologize to me (in a round about way); I was TOTALLY shocked because I had no clue that she felt that way about me! Sometimes she was VERY chilly to me, I had just taken it as her having a bad day. So, I say just move where you want, and eventually your good skills, along with your own good attitude etc. will shine thru. Don't let that hold you back; OR anything else, cause there's always potentially SOMEthing--ha!

[nova]

Indiana is a good state for most. as for the accent all of indian has some form of an accent. Remember people from wv. and kentucky come to indiana for jobs. I moved there from virginia for that same reason. Then the steel factories started shutting down, alot of jobs were gone in most of indiana. Then I moved to arizona to get away from the deep very cold snow, that sticks all season. I should of stayed in virginia, I'll probable move back in spring.

[hapaleeretired]

I moved to NC last year. I guarantee you'll find people in the midwest friendlier than here. In fact we miss the friendliness of that area so much we may move back.
Year around cooler temps? I fear you're out of luck. Indy can me miserable in the heat of summer. Hot and humid. A couple of years ago it never got to 90 but last year and this year have been brutal.