US states and their image / stereotypes

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m from Europe and trying to get a cursory knowledge about the US states. I can place most of them on a map, but I have problems with some of them.

For some states I know more.

Like

Minnesota:
Cold, settled by Scandinavians and Germans, Fargo was set there, high standard of living, lots of lakes.

New Jersey:
Trashy, Jersey Shore, looked down on by New Yorkers, Chris Christie. House, Boardwalk Empire, Being John Malkovitch and The Sopranos were set there.

But for some states I’m totally blank, like:

Nebraska:
?

Idaho:
?

Indiana:
? (Parks and Recreation is set here I think)
So I guess my question is if there is someplace I can read something short about all the states, or if people here are interested in talking about the image / stereotypes for them.

2

Fargo is in North Dakota, not Minnesota. However, you’re correct that by and large the Upper Midwest (MN, the Dakotas, WI, MI) was settled by Scandanavians and/or Germans, in part because the land was quite similar to “the old country”. At least that’s how I’ve understood it.

The states you mention are sort of like supporting players in that they’re part of the whole but by themselves they don’t say much. Indiana and Nebraska are part of what’s called “The Midwest”, which is mostly farmland with some scattered urban areas, Chicago being the largest. I’ve never been out that way so I can’t comment on the “flavor”, if you will, of any individual state in that region.

3

If you wanna have some fun, meet an American comedian named Dave Barry, who has a lot to say about the various states

Google “dave barry” and the name of any state , and you will learn a lot. It may not be true, but who cares? :slight_smile:

4

To me it’s all about the food that’s associated with each state.

Nebraska - Corn

Idaho - Potatoes

Maine - Blueberries

Washington - Apples

Florida - Oranges

California - Avocados

Massachusetts - Cranberries

Vermont - Maple Syrup

Georgia - Peaches

Hawaii - Pineapples

Virginia - Ham

5

I think we Americans tend to think of regions rather than individual states (with two or three exceptions noted below). It might be easier to think of our sterotypes that way (at least there would be fewer than fifty to remember)

*New England (not counting Massachusetts and Connecticut): Hardly individualists, first settlers, rural

  • Mid-Atlantic (Mass. and Conn down to Washington DC): Urban, professional, arrogant, greedy

  • South: Rural, poorly educated, bigoted.

  • Great Lakes (incl W. VA.): Industrial, unions, immigrants (1800-1900’s type), big cities (except Chicago) filled with poor people

  • Midwest: Flat, farmers, flat, conservative, flat, Rocky Mountains, then more flat.

  • Texas: Big hats, big egos, small brains, illegal immigrants.

  • Western (except California): Mountains, desert, small populations, Mormons and Las Vegas, and Yellowstone

  • California: Full of weird people, earthquakes, and Los Angeles.

  • Alaska: Big, empty, Sarah Palin, bears and ice/snow.

There, hope that helps…:cool:

6

The OP is correct, however. Fargo the movie was set in MN, primarily Brainerd and Minneapolis.

7

Yes, that is correct. :smiley:

8

About 25 years ago, the people in charge of getting tourists to come to Kansas City went to New York City, to learn the NY opinion of KC. They discovered that New Yorkers had no opinion of Kansas City at all. Not positive, not negative, not even neutral. The term “Kansas City” simply didn’t register in New York City.

9

I’m going to fight you on two of these. :wink:

Connecticut and Massachusetts are certainly counted in your description of New England. You can’t judge them by Fairfield county and Boston, respectively.

The Western states start at the Rocky Mountain states. By no stretch of the imagination are Colorado and Wyoming in the Midwest.

Otherwise, carry on.

10

Not sure whether you clumped the PNW (Washington/Oregon) in with the “Western” region, but it’s divided by the Cascades into “Wet” and “Dry.” The “Dry” side actually fits in better with the “Midwest” region, while the “Wet” side is where the yuppies went when they traded in their wool suits for flannel shirts and theyr BMWs for Subaru Outbacks.

11

I’m a lover, not a fighter…:cool::smiley:

Since I have had most of my experience with those two states as Boston and the Hartford-Bridgeport corridor, I’m willing to concede the remaining territory to you.

Yeah, I was looking for one more characteristic before the final flat reference, but yuo’re quite right. Conside it Amended.

12

Sort of. But it’s hard to say there is a difference between the eastern part of CO and the western part of KS.

13

Please, please tell me I’m being whooshed…

14

As a native Hoosier, here’s the scoop on Indiana.

Yes, Parks and Rec, the TV show was set in Indiana.

Indiana is best known for a couple of things - basketball and the Indianapolis 500 motor race.

Ninety percent of the state is very conservative, rural, and affiliated with farming. The other 10% is the narrow strip across the top of the state that is highly industrialized, urban, and liberal.

This is very superficial, but it will give you a start.

Regarding the Midwest, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois are all very similar - largely rural with a thin industrial, urban strip across the north of the state. They are known as the lower Midwest states with Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin being known as the upper Midwest states. The upper Midwest states are also largely agricultural in nature, but while the lower Midwest states specialize in corn, the upper midwest states add more cooler-weather crops like wheat.

Not everyone agrees with me, but I divide the country between Midwest and the Plains States at the Mississippi River, thus I put the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri as Plains States, rather than Midwest.

I call all of the middle and upper US states encompassing the Rocky Mountains as the Rocky Mountains states (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado) while states west of the Rockies and east of the Pacific Ocean, I call the Western states Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada. Again, others may differ on this characterization.

15

I was a New Yorker at that time, and I can 100% vouch for that attitude.:slight_smile:

16

Even while they were slathering KC Masterpiece bbq sauce on their ribs, no doubt. :stuck_out_tongue:

17

I’ve lived in Indiana since 1968, when I was 12. I agree with the poster above that it is for the most part rural, very conservative/Republican. I was astonished when Obama won the state in the presidential election. I rarely meet someone that will admit voting for Obama. Vast parts of the state are covered in corn, beans or some other crop. No vast ranches like you see out west. Even in my largish city, Fort Wayne, I find people mostly hold very much small town ways of thinking. Way more cosmopolitan than it was 20-25 years ago but still very much a small town mentality for the most part. Once you get south of Indianapolis it starts to seem (to me) more like the Southern states. I sometimes marvel that Indiana didn’t go with the Confederacy in the civil war. There were never slave owners here to the best of my knowledge but at one time Indiana had a huge KKK presence.

18

Doc, since the OP and the topic was image/sterotypes, that is what I tried to deliver; any concurrence with the actual state of things is coincidental (except for the part about the Midwest being flat; it really, really is flat).

Just lean back in your chari and go with the flow, man…:D:cool:

19

Aww…that’s the nicest thing anyone’s said about us Floridians in a long time!

20

If you drive around Ohio outside the big cities, you will think it’s nothing but cornfields. This is not true! We grow soybeans, too.