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I actually had a resident of CA tell me that he could not believe how "normal" people from MO were! LOL He thought we would all be barefoot, in overalls and smoking corncob pipes. No kidding! I am a country girl and love MO for all of the lakes, rolling hills and 4 seasons and some of the best people around, but do not consider myself to be a hillbilly!
I'm very surprised by this thread. I always thought that MO had a better image nationally than KS. This is my experience from speaking with other Americans everywhere from CO to TN. MO is way more populous, and has two big cities compared to KS which is more rural. It also has Branson.
I've not encountered any issue in the major metro areas. Only in really small towns like Hannibal, no rudeness or heckling, thank God but they don't seem to know what to do with non-whites. I was there as a tourist visiting and stayed in a lovely BnB and took part in the Mark Twain tours. I had recently moved to MO then, and wanted to explore as much of the state as I could. The younger people, such as the tour guides are nice. The older folks, and the families (a woman looked strange because she had no teeth, and I was afraid to look at her because she didn't smile at all) that were beside me when we sat and waited for the Independence Day fireworks were never impolite. They just seemed surprised (and maybe uneasy, at a loss) when confronted with the existence of any non-whites bothering to go to their town. Perhaps its because even the white Americans from the coasts don't bother to go. God knows how many white American friends of mine from the coasts do not bother to go to the midwestern cities for vacations and call the region annoying names like Flyover Land and such.
As a minority US citizen who's lived in Asia, went to college in New England, and now lives in the Midwest (in the metro areas) and traveled through parts of the country (west coast, east coast, Midwest) I've found that the claim that communities that are less diverse to be necessarily more racist, a claim that's highly questionable.
The only racially diverse city where I've encountered more nice people than nasty ones is NYC.
My experience in the west coast, supposedly the most diverse region of the country, was underwhelming at best. Many people there are rude, impatient, and at best, they just minded their own business and they never smiled and do not say hi to one another. When I go around my neighborhood in the suburb, all the runners say hello to me. I went running in the west coast around my hotel along the coast, and when I said hello to other runners, they looked at me like I was crazy. It came as a shock because I had thought California was the state where people smiled broadly to one another (at least to show off their dental work?). And I wondered if it was cos I was minority and I realized they did not smile to one another either. It was weird. Maybe I've been spoilt thoroughly by the friendliness and nice people who would help you if you needed help in the Midwest. People in the midwest don't hesitate to help you when you are in need. When I have car trouble in the suburbs, people in the midwest offer to help instead of driving by. Some even get off their cars to help and one guy got into the driver's seat of my car to try to help me. Gas station workers walk half a mile with me to my car to help me jumpstart it and do not expect repayment. The kindness is touching, and makes the experience of being part of it very pleasant, almost addictive. People here are less selfish, and less busy to get on with their day as though they are so important because they are some multi-billionaire. I would never live in the west coast because of this, despite the fact that Asian food is so good there, some are better than Asian food in Asia.
I've never been to the South, but I heard much about its Southern Hospitality and would love to go to the South soon.
The theory that diversity in racial make-up equals higher tolerance or nicer behavior is dubious. Because it is only true to a certain extent, but it gets override(n) by the inherent culture of the place eg how nice/friendly/laidback the place is. West Coast vs the Midwest is one example. The midwest may be less racially diverse than California, yet there is no doubt there people in the Midwest are still nicer to minority races than people in California. Cos Californians are too busy and important to be nice to anybody, minority or not. So at the end of the day, what it comes down to, is whether a group of people are nice to begin with.
A case in point. In HK, there is so much resentment among its people against the mainland Chinese who invaded what they perceived to be their space, the anger and vitriol are a shock in today's politically correct era (we're no longer living in the KKK days). The mainland Chinese swooped in and being non-HK residents, are responsible for 30% of luxury home sales in HK, and 37% of births in hospitals there. The HK residents launched an island-wide concerted campaign and calling them Locusts. The members who have openly joined the group numbers 800,000.
Singapore, a southeast asian tiny island country received an influx of foreigners because of its government policy to artificially inflate the country's GDP. From 2005 to 2010, its resident population increased by 50%. 40% of its residents are non-citizens today. So you'd think such a "diverse" set-up means the people are really tolerant and nice to the foreigners? No. They hate them and have similar hate campaigns against non citizens. People there involved take pictures of foreigners in the subway trains and post them on their hate blogs and facebook groups and circulate the pictures while taunting them. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...+of+Foreigners http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cabinet-min...enophobia.html
Last edited by kansasturtle; 01-02-2013 at 05:09 PM..
I would think the overall image of Missouri is better than Kansas scenery and culture wise. I mean missouri you can see like at least 4 different cultures depending on where in the state you are in. Midwestern, East Coastish if you're in St. Louis, MS delta style culture in Southeast Missouri, Ozarks, and upper south ozark culture in the far southern part of the state like Branson, West Plains.
Kansas is mostly flat and midwest. Granted you have a tiny section thats on the outskirts of the ozarks, but thats it.
I would find living in KS very boring.
If you want to experience southern hospitality like you said, just drive down to Sikeston, or Poplar Bluff.
Thanks. I'm really enjoying MO so far. So far I've been to St Louis and Hannibal. I'll be heading to Branson and the Ozarks in the spring. Its only been a year.
Other than the fact that MO has real urban cities with real downtowns (compared to KS), I haven't spent enough time in the midwest to discern the difference in the rural sceneries of MO and KS. Since I live by the border, I go to KS quite a bit as well. The rural landscapes of both states are breathtaking in the Fall.
I'm very surprised by this thread. I always thought that MO had a better image nationally than KS. This is my experience from speaking with other Americans everywhere from CO to TN. MO is way more populous, and has two big cities compared to KS which is more rural. It also has Branson.
I've not encountered any issue in the major metro areas. Only in really small towns like Hannibal, no rudeness or heckling, thank God but they don't seem to know what to do with non-whites. I was there as a tourist visiting and stayed in a lovely BnB and took part in the Mark Twain tours. I had recently moved to MO then, and wanted to explore as much of the state as I could. The younger people, such as the tour guides are nice. The older folks, and the families (a woman looked strange because she had no teeth, and I was afraid to look at her because she didn't smile at all) that were beside me when we sat and waited for the Independence Day fireworks were never impolite. They just seemed surprised (and maybe uneasy, at a loss) when confronted with the existence of any non-whites bothering to go to their town.
Hi - I visited Hannibal this summer, I'm sorry you had an uncomfortable experience, i got the impression that people were happy to have visitors, I myself was catching my behavior to make sure i had good manners my own self, since im a city folk, from bad chicago, it could be any number of things why you felt that way and i wouldn't begin to try to guess. When i do go visit a new place, I make sure that Im not doing anything that might be perceived as rude, because i am kind of rude being from the big city,, lol... so i say extra please and thank yous to the servers in the restaurants, not that you are rude, but thats just me. I don't know, just be your nice self and it should be ok wherever you go. And even if you do go to a town that you feel is "not used to non-white people" then just be an example of a good person so that they will say hey thats cool person, and thats all they will be able to think! I guess it is like that in many places, if I (being a white person) go to an all black church for example, yes the culture is different, and I too may feel a bit self conscious, but i try to put that aside and just make myself feel like I'm part of the church and then all my fears go away. Then after church, people come up to greet me and its like hey i was worried for nothing.
Hi - I visited Hannibal this summer, I'm sorry you had an uncomfortable experience, i got the impression that people were happy to have visitors, I myself was catching my behavior to make sure i had good manners my own self, since im a city folk, from bad chicago, it could be any number of things why you felt that way and i wouldn't begin to try to guess. When i do go visit a new place, I make sure that Im not doing anything that might be perceived as rude, because i am kind of rude being from the big city,, lol... so i say extra please and thank yous to the servers in the restaurants, not that you are rude, but thats just me. I don't know, just be your nice self and it should be ok wherever you go. And even if you do go to a town that you feel is "not used to non-white people" then just be an example of a good person so that they will say hey thats cool person, and thats all they will be able to think! I guess it is like that in many places, if I (being a white person) go to an all black church for example, yes the culture is different, and I too may feel a bit self conscious, but i try to put that aside and just make myself feel like I'm part of the church and then all my fears go away. Then after church, people come up to greet me and its like hey i was worried for nothing.
Yeah I think I was polite there. Actually I've been self-consciously extra polite since moving to the Midwest - due to two reasons. The first is that I'm naturally watching myself more in a new environment, so I don't offend anybody. Second, the people here are significantly nicer and friendlier than people in other regions of the country I was used to and raised in. So it's just natural reciprocation. In Hannibal, I was standing out of the place in the same way that you would have if you walked into an all-black church. I should also stress that most of the other guests and my innkeeper were very nice (they live in all parts of the Midwest and were traveling through Hannibal visiting family in other states), as were the other people I met on the Mark Twain tours, the tour guides who look like they're college kids, the other people I met on the ghost tour. It was only just that one family at the Independence Day fireworks that gave me the vibe that they felt uneasy. And a couple of others but they're in the minority of everyone there.
I don't consider myself a big city boy. I've never lived any American city that I'd classify as dense (NYC, San Francisco, LA) and having visited those cities a few times, I don't think I'd enjoy it. I was born in a small city in upstate NY, and the densest city I ever lived in the US was Boston. I lived in a really dense city in Asia for a year after college for cultural immersion, but the Asian and European idea of what constitutes tolerable human livability IS worlds apart from Americans (the barometers are completely different, it feels surreal). I fled from the place but not before doing some traveling and came home. I have friends who moved to Europe for a year or so, and said they couldn't get used to the lifestyle of its crammed cities, narrow roads and driving the little tin-can Fiats and they fled home as well. But some Americans have stayed on in their cultural immersions.
Last edited by kansasturtle; 01-05-2013 at 04:03 PM..
Back to the topic at hand, in my experience, MO's image is quite positive among the Midwestern states. For example, when some friends who grew up on the coasts teased me about living in Kansas City, emphasizing on the word Kansas, or calling me Kansas, (they think it's funny) some of my friends from Colorado would say "No. KC is in Missouri. You should call him Missouri. And MO is better."
I don't claim this to be scientific. But talking about Midwest to a slew of Americans, this is what I *think* is their impression.
More Urban and industrial: Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri (mainly because of St Louis, and KC to a smaller extent. Some people I know who live in California think KC, the city is in KS and St Louis is the only big city of MO. When I told them that KC in KS does exist but it's not the KC that they associate with what they've seen, they were genuinely surprised and learnt something new. These people obviously aren't into sports.)
In Between: Wisconsin, Indiana
More Barren and Rural: North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas.
That said, I have found KS people as nice as people in the Midwest come. I heard about some border war that's steeped in history between the two states. So far I've been liking the KS folks as much as the MO ones. People in KS have this suburban earthliness that's very endearing.
Last edited by kansasturtle; 01-05-2013 at 04:47 PM..
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
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Originally Posted by kansasturtle
Thanks. I'm really enjoying MO so far. So far I've been to St Louis and Hannibal. I'll be heading to Branson and the Ozarks in the spring. Its only been a year.
Other than the fact that MO has real urban cities with real downtowns (compared to KS), I haven't spent enough time in the midwest to discern the difference in the rural sceneries of MO and KS. Since I live by the border, I go to KS quite a bit as well. The rural landscapes of both states are breathtaking in the Fall.
They behave that way towards any outsiders. I've been looked at like that. It's a problem that exists all over the Midwest, not just in Hannibal, MO, and quite frankly, across the whole country.
it could be some people are not used to other people that are different from them.. which is not a "bad" thing, but just how it is.. but who knows what is in someone's mind.. i just try to ignore them and just enjoy the ones who are cool.
Like, if i were going to a different culture than mine - which I have - it is interesting to hear the comments - made in innocence, but there are people who have never hung out with people different than them. it happens. I have been in one place different than my culture and someone said "do you know where you are" not in a mean way, but like "why is that person here of all places?" its just an unusual thing, is all. its kinda humorous too come to think of it! Ok not that I am accusing anyone of anything, but it happens in many different kinds of situations. Its kind of fun to be that first person who breaks the culture barrier, that could be race, religion, part of the USA (like me from the north going down to the Mississippi Delta) I am sure there are differences
They behave that way towards any outsiders. I've been looked at like that. It's a problem that exists all over the Midwest, not just in Hannibal, MO, and quite frankly, across the whole country.
I'd think in Midwestern small towns, its more pronounced. The small towns in a state like say, CA, receive many tourists outside of the US. The Napa region, or the Hamptons in NY are tourism-driven small town examples. I guess seeing many foreigners more regularly on a daily basis has desensitized them to anything that's considered "outsiders". The tourist attractions of the Midwest cater more to domestic tourists like us.
But overall this is a small issue to me, because what's important to me in selecting where to make my home are factors like the cost of living, density, cultural offerings, economy, and genuine niceness of the people. Living in an awesome metro area is more important than anything else. People don't generally venture out of their metro areas on a daily basis. It'd be fair to say most midwestern cities with the exception of Chicago are more racially homogenized than cities on the west coast. But KC in MO has any of the west coast cities beat in liveability in my book. It has great restaurants, an awesome arts scene that is so underrated, nicer people, more open space, and the traffic is much better. Stress of driving is important to me.
I've been telling some friends on the coasts about what an awesome city KC is, and encouraging them to open their minds and venture to parts of the country that they didn't know as much about or had written off for nonsensical baseless preconceived notions. But I won't do it too much, only selectively. Don't want them crowding up the place.
I don't want or need to live close to tourist attractions that are flooded with people, with tonnes of cars crowding up the city. Why people in CA enjoy living in tourist traps and seem so proud of it is beyond my understanding. I don't need to live to close to international tourist traps. If I want to see those sights, I could go there on a visit.
The type of city somebody is attracted to and thinks makes a good home, I've realized, is a very personal decision and determined by the personality and values of the person.
Last edited by kansasturtle; 01-05-2013 at 07:36 PM..
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