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The Limits of Iowa Nice
An “elaborate architecture of segregation” built in the 20th century has left the Midwest with its own potent brand of racism. Black academics and artists at the University of Iowa are fighting to dismantle it. BY DONNA CLEVELAND
B
eneath a veneer of “niceness,” the Midwest is among the very worst places to live in the United States if you’re a person of color. That’s what historian and University of Iowa history professor Colin Gordon
discovered while completing a report for the Iowa Policy Project titled “Race in the Heartland: Equity, Opportunity, and Public Policy in the Midwest.” According to his findings, flyover country harbors a history of racist policies and practices, the legacy of which
we’re still living with today. The result is that racial inequality in the Midwest is greater than anywhere else in the country, even the South. These patterns don’t only exist in cities like Chicago or Detroit, Gordon said. In fact, he and his students have studied the history of racial inequality right here in Johnson County, Iowa and have found documentation of an effort to keep African Americans from moving into predominantly white neighborhoods in Iowa City and the surrounding area. Rural Midwestern states like Iowa also suffer from a form of segregation called hypervisibility, which arises when a racial group is outnumbered by a white majority and leads to greater scrutiny and prejudice. Understanding the facts about racial inequality in the Midwest and the history that’s led us here can help us wake up to the state of affairs where we live and take the appropriate steps—on both a policy and personal level—to improve them.
The Demure White Supremacy of the Midwest
Christopher Hunter
I met literary artist Dr. Tameka Cage Conley, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, at the Witching Hour festival in downtown Iowa City a few years ago. It was a chilly November night, scarved students hopping between musical performances, poetry readings and lectures. In a dimly lit room, Cage Conley read poems moving from topics of race to desire to motherhood. While taking questions after the reading, a young Black woman asked Cage Conley if she was worried about having her work being co-opted by a white audience. The artist said that she refused to concern herself with what white people would think of or do with her work. She chooses to live above the racism and sexism she saw around her, and above what she called the “demure white supremacy of the Midwest.” Growing up in Louisiana, Cage Conley was familiar with overt racism. But, she pointed out to me in an interview, the homogenous culture of the Midwest was just as problematic. “If I think about the Midwestern white person as a character,” she said, “I would say that the character is neighborly. The character is
“WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I’M LIVING RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO YOU? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WHATEVER PRIVILEGES YOU BELIEVE THAT YOUR WHITENESS AFFORDS YOU ARE ALSO AVAILABLE TO ME? WHEN PEOPLE START MOVING INTO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, THAT’S WHEN YOU REALLY HAVE TO START THINKING ABOUT WHO YOU ARE.” TAMEKA CAGE CONLEY, WRITER 14 Jan. 6–Feb. 2, 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV290
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