Recent UW–Madison alumnus Aaron Kinard is the author of an article in the Washington Post that is headlined, “ ‘Midwest nice’ hides a history of racial terror and segregation.”
Kinard, who earned his bachelor’s degree in education studies and history in 2021, is currently a PhD student in sociology at the University of Virginia.
Kinard’s piece builds upon research he did as a McNair Scholar while at UW–Madison. It explains how — despite the trope of “Midwestern nice” — decades of policies and practices have excluded and disadvantaged Black Americans in the region, and how those practices still reverberate today.
“Despite a deep and startling history of racism and the present-day reality of racial violence,” Kinard writes, “the (Midwestern) region has managed to avoid much scrutiny because of the myth that it is mostly White. Many White Midwesterners can live their lives with little or no interaction with Black people, failing to see the lack of racial diversity as a problem.”
“But in reality,” Kinard adds, “the lack of racial diversity is often actually the result of the historic maintenance of White spaces through racial segregation and the threat of violence in ‘sundown towns.’ Policies and practices kept those spaces all White, and their legacy still plays a major role in shaping the Midwest today.”
Throughout the piece, Kinard digs deep into the Midwest’s troubling history of racial segregation, including the impact of redlining, the practice of “sundown towns,” and racial violence.
“When White Midwesterners deny the histories of structural racism that shaped their region, they can see themselves as being outside of racism,” Kinard writes. “But people can disdain racial slurs and embrace the trope of ‘Midwestern nice’ politeness — and still be embedded in a broader system of exclusion and violence that harms Black Americans.”
He concludes: “Until White Midwesterners can face these hard histories and begin supporting systematic changes toward racial justice, white supremacy and divisions will persist, and so, too, will racial violence, like the killings of George Floyd and Daunte Wright.”
To learn more about this critical topic, check out the full article by Kinard at washingtonpost.com.