Reporter Would Like You To Know She’ll Never Move To North Dakota Because It’s Too White
This may be the most insulting thing I’ve ever read about North Dakota.
Using outdated data and childish assumptions about what it’s like to live here in North Dakota, Business Insider columnist Mandi Woodruff explains why she’d never move to state even given the oil boom and prosperity.
Mandi doesn’t like that North Dakota’s population hasn’t grown as quickly as other areas. ”Looking at U.S. Census data, North Dakota saw only 4.7 percent population growth between 2000 and 2010, compared to 35.1 percent and 20 percent booms in Nevada and Texas, respectively,” she writes. That’s a little misleading because the most rapid growth of the state’s oil boom has taken place after the most recent census. Those who spend a bit more time considering the matter know that the population here has grown so quickly that most population estimates really can’t be trusted.
Mandi also doesn’t like that reporters only earn $31,000/year in the state (she might want to look at the fact that $31,000 goes a lot further in ND than in New York) and that the “social scene” isn’t hip enough for her. But perhaps her most objectionable objection to North Dakota is that we’re too white:
Having grown up outside of Atlanta, Ga., I’m attracted to a multi-cultural environment. More than a third of New York’s population are immigrants and my neighborhood in Queens is a melting pot of people from just about every country I could point out on a map. On the other hand, North Dakota’s residents are 90 percent white and fewer than 3 percent are foreign-born, according the U.S. Census.
In truth, North Dakota is very diverse. ”Numerous countries and groups are represented in the ethnic mosaic of North Dakota,” says this article from the Library of Congress. “Dominating all other immigrants were Norwegians and German Russians, followed by Germans, English, Czechs, and Swedes. In addition there were groups from the Ukraine, Poland, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark, as well as French Canadians.”
Granted, most of the immigrants from those countries qualify as Caucasian, but they also represent a very rich and diverse cross section of cultures. Just not the right kind of cross-section, I guess, for Mandi. And let’s not forget the rich Native American heritage that exists in the state including the Sioux, Chippewa, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Assiniboine people.
North Dakotans are used to being put down. We all hear the jokes about our weather. The rather flat, homogeneous nature of our landscape. Our funny accents, etc., etc. But there’s something downright insulting about the idea that our society here is somehow inferior because most of us trace our heritage back to northern and eastern Europe.
Tags: Asshats, North Dakota News
