Imagining the Heartland: White Supremacy and the American Midwest

An overdue examination of the Midwest's long influence on nationalism and white supremacy.

Though many associate racism with the regional legacy of the South, it is the Midwest that has upheld some of the nation’s most deep—seated convictions about the value of whiteness. From Jefferson’s noble farmer to The Wizard of Oz, imagining the Midwest has quietly gone hand—in—hand with imagining whiteness as desirable and virtuous. Since at least the U.S. Civil War, the imagined Midwest has served ...