The white Iowans and Kansans acknowledge they’re hardworking, family-oriented people but seem vaguely afraid of their neighborhoods (if not them). But the two communities hardly mix outside of restaurants, which is a very un-Midwestern state of affairs. (I suspect not knowing how to tell the Hispanic folks “worth knowing” from the rest is mighty unsettling, at least to small-town Iowans.)

Anyway, that’s a really roundabout way of leading into the fact that the Midwest 100 years ago was an incredibly diverse place ethnically. Swedes, Germans, Danes, Dutch — all of these groups have Midwestern communities today that celebrate their ethnic heritages, even though they’re more “diverse” now. At some point these groups had to find common bonds, and the result is now, I assert, a base of common knowledge.

Recent immigrant groups (and more generally, non-white people) have had more difficulty joining the communities. The Iowans don’t seem to think they’re being exclusive and think that most of the effort needs to come from the new groups. I suspect this assertion has some merit but is mostly wrong.

Consider the difficulty in Postville, Iowa where the Lubavitch Jews “immigrated.” The original town residents didn’t understand much about Judaism, and the newcomers didn’t understand the deep emphasis that Iowans put on neighborliness. If the NPR account is correct, there are efforts afoot to find common ground.

Perhaps someone should take a look at what’s happening in Catholic congregations in places like Marshalltown.