On Sunday (March 9), a man from North Manchester, Indiana was shot by Secret
Service agents after a “confrontation” near the White House. North Manchester is
very near where I grew up and I have family who live there now. That got me
wondering. I did a little searching on the internet and came across these real
headlines:
Indiana man sentenced to almost four years in prison for fentanyl, meth distribution (Pennsylvania)
Indiana man arrested for 2008 rape of 61-year-old San Jose woman, DA's office says (California)
Indiana Man Arrested for Stalking Taylor Swift, Intimidating Her Eras Tour Dancers (Tennessee)
Indiana Man Arrested on Felony Charges for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach (District of Columbia)
Indiana man arrested in connection with murder of pregnant woman in Spring Hill (Tennessee)
Southern Indiana man arrested in Florida on over 60 counts of child porn, sexual misconduct (Florida)
Indiana man arrested on felony child pornography charges after social media tip (Kentucky)
Rape, murder, drugs, pornography, insurrection – what is up with people from Indiana? What if your favorite cable channel regularly highlighted these horrifying stories of Hoosiers run amok throughout our great nation? Or your go-to podcast? Or what if social media algorithms made sure that your feed was full of stories and memes about how problematic people rom Indiana are? What if politicians railed against the barbaric vermin from Indiana who were invading and terrorizing – and even poisoning the blood – of the wonderful citizens of our other beautiful states? What if rumors were spread about people from this Midwestern state doing outrageous and disgusting things? “Who knows if they’re true? Does it matter given what we already know?” Never mind that there is no evidence that people from Indiana are actually any more given to crime or outrageous behavior than people from other states. You would be programmed to think they were and to be suspicious of them. You might even think that something must be done about our “Hoosier problem.”
It turns out “Hoosier” was once a slur, “a term of contempt and opprobrium…used to denote a rustic, a bumpkin, a countryman, a roughneck, a hick or an awkward, uncouth or unskilled fellow” It still is used this way in parts of St. Louis.(See What’s a Hoosier?). Indeed, “Hoosier at times can also be used as a verb describing the act of tricking or swindling someone” (See St. Louis' own language: "Hoosier"). If “Hoosier” was commonly used this way across the country, it would reinforce the rhetoric imagined in he last paragraph.
But people from Indiana might rightly feel misrepresented. As a Hoosier, born and bred, I can assure you that, despite the above headlines, people from Indiana are generally no more uneducated or unsophisticated than the average person from any other state in the Union. Or anywhere else. You really do not have anything to fear from the average person from Indiana. We are generally very decent, hardworking, generous people who just want the kinds of opportunities everyone else wants.
Hoosiers are no more or less human – with all the good and bad, joy and pain that go with being human – than any other group of human beings. It would be silly to single us out for suspicion or negativity. And it is silly to do so for any other group of human beings.
