Which state is the most "American"?

[Jennifat]

Originally Posted by VECTROTALENZIS

Me as a non-American would say Texas.

Texans are what foreigners perceive as most "American" because Texans have the biggest, loudest mouths.

[blakeaustin]

Awwe this is cute, "let's all gang up on Texas because it's awesome!" Just because people here are happy doesn't mean y'all have to hate. LOL BRB *making popcorn*

[Jennifat]

Your attempts at condescension are pretty cute, too, blakeaustin.

[blakeaustin]

Condescension is despicable, and I never think I'm better than anyone. I'm meaning that I love my state and yes I think it's the best(the pros vs. cons), but I also understand that no population is better than another. I do consider it a great blessing to have been born here and I'm honestly sorry I came across that way. Today was ugh. My mom's in the hospital, however please don't feel bad for me as I'm just letting you know so you maybe won't percieve my recent posts as malicious or "trollish." Please forgive me? I was only trying to defend myself... Also, I've always wanted to ask you this if you don't mind, why is your name "Jennifat?" It's gross yet strangely amusing. lol

[bayviews]

Originally Posted by CVG

Likely a Midwestern state, if you simply break things down by the 4 main racial groups Illinois comes closer to the national average than any other state. Of course thats not taking into account the ethnicity inside each group.

edit: I guess this thread is about stereotypical America, so Im going with Ohio.

As a state with several similarly-sized but varied cities, Ohio is more interesting than Illinois which is extremely flat and basically Chicago plus Corn Fields.

Columbus is probably one of the most diverse cities in the Midwest save Chicago & the Twin Cities.

[Jennifat]

Originally Posted by blakeaustin

Condescension is despicable, and I never think I'm better than anyone. I'm meaning that I love my state and yes I think it's the best(the pros vs. cons), but I also understand that no population is better than another. I do consider it a great blessing to have been born here and I'm honestly sorry I came across that way. Today was ugh. My mom's in the hospital, however please don't feel bad for me as I'm just letting you know so you maybe won't percieve my recent posts as malicious or "trollish." Please forgive me?

It was never a matter of me being offended...I was simply just mocking you for being ridiculous.

Originally Posted by blakeaustin

I've always wanted to ask you this if you don't mind, why is your name "Jennifat?" It's gross yet strangely amusing. lol

No reason at all. When I first created it way back in 2005, I needed an alias so I could silently observe SSC, so just typed in some bullshit name. I never originally intended to actually get involved with the forum, or else I'd have been a bit more creative.

Or, the other widely-believed theory on SSC is that I am, in fact, fat.

[IraGlacialis]

Agreed that this is a silly question, but I'll bite.
I am going to take this question as something that refers to public perception as fronted up by the media.
In which case I put forward not one but several states that embody one stereotypical aspect of the US:
New York: The Urban America.
California: The Liberal America.
Texas: The Conservative America.
Ohio: Generic Flyover Country America. Also represents Main Street America and High School America, even though both suspiciously look like they are actually in California or Vancouver.

Close behind but not strong enough to make an overall representation of America:
West Virginia: The Rural Third-World America.
Michigan: The Urban Third-World America.
Alabama: The Confederate States of America.
Iowa: The Corn-fed America.
Utah: The Western America.
Massachusetts: The Colonial America.

[Shawn]

^---- I wouldn't say California is "The Liberal America", I'd say it's actually the perfect microcosm of the whole country: liberal cities and inner-ring burbs on the coast, with conservative exburbs, hinterlands and inland metros. A wide range of geography and industry. Strong immigrant culture in some areas, more of a nativist culture in others.

[IraGlacialis]

Originally Posted by Shawn

^---- I wouldn't say California is "The Liberal America", I'd say it's actually the perfect microcosm of the whole country: liberal cities and inner-ring burbs on the coast, with conservative exburbs, hinterlands and inland metros. A wide range of geography and industry. Strong immigrant culture in some areas, more of a nativist culture in others.

Not denying that. But if you notice, I was going by stereotypes. And in the end, California has that image, be it through media and/or foreign impressions.

As for being a microcosm, there are a couple other states that can exemplify that.
Take Missouri for example. I joke that it is a state that can't decide whether it leans east, west, north, or south. And that can be seen in the regions, be it by history, geography, or immigration. The NE cities are easily embodied in STL, the western-oriented economies in KC, Appalachia in the Ozarks, the Great Plains at the western edge, northern prairie at the north, Dixie in the Bootheel and central Missouri, traditional Midwest in the Rhineland. Not to mention the transition between urban cores, suburbs, small towns, farmland, and isolated rural spots.

[NovaWolverine]

KC doesn't represent the West, and St. Louis doesn't represent the NE. These stereotypes are just stupid. That's why there really isn't a state that showcases all the US has to offer. Even if it's the closest in relative terms, it's trivial in the grand scheme of things, IMO.

I don't know how Utah is "Western America" when its image as bastion for Mormonism is so overpowering. I think Massachusetts could easily give California a run for its money as far as the liberal stereotype goes. It's really just Northern California that is known for its liberalism, whereas the rest of the state is not really known for that.

[600West218]

Originally Posted by St.PauliBoy

The reason I posted this is because I get asked this question constantly by my Japanese and Korean colleagues who come to the US on business. Many of them want to see "real Ameica" which, of course, exists in every state, but I always try to give them an approximation of what is stereotypically most "American" and I always seem to come up with Ohio or Missouri both of which exhibit traits of many different regions of the country.

The "Real America" they mean is probably suburban sub-divisions with decent sized single family homes, shopping malls, majority white, yellow school busses picking up kids in the morning, etc.

As long as you take them to a place like that they are probably seeing what they want to see.

[600West218]

Originally Posted by IraGlacialis

Agreed that this is a silly question, but I'll bite.
I am going to take this question as something that refers to public perception as fronted up by the media.
In which case I put forward not one but several states that embody one stereotypical aspect of the US:
New York: The Urban America.
California: The Liberal America.
Texas: The Conservative America.
Ohio: Generic Flyover Country America. Also represents Main Street America and High School America, even though both suspiciously look like they are actually in California or Vancouver.

Close behind but not strong enough to make an overall representation of America:
West Virginia: The Rural Third-World America.
Michigan: The Urban Third-World America.
Alabama: The Confederate States of America.
Iowa: The Corn-fed America.
Utah: The Western America.
Massachusetts: The Colonial America.

Hah, I agree it is a bogus question but I like what you did and I think you got it pretty good.

The only thing is I would substitute Arizona for Utah as the representative of Western America. I host a lot of visitors from Europe and their image of the west is almost universally, Monument Valley, Route 66, and the Grand Canyon. The only state that has all three is Arizona.

Anyways, good comment with appropriate categories.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by CNB30

New York should be the most American.

Wouldn't New York be more the anomaly than the rule?

Likewise, Toronto is the least Canadian city, Paris the least French city, Sydney is the least Australian city, and London the least English city. These cities often have more in common with each other than they do the typical place within their country.

[Cal_Escapee]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Wouldn't New York be more the anomaly than the rule?

Likewise, Toronto is the least Canadian city, Paris the least French city, Sydney is the least Australian city, and London the least English city. These cities often have more in common with each other than they do the typical place within their country.

I think less so than you suggest. New York is bigger and more complex on almost every level, but many of America's other cities, especially the older non-sunbelt ones, are like New York on a smaller scale and in total I think they encompass a large part of the population.

As I've said before, there really is no "typical" place in America but looking only at cities there are a limited number of models: (1) the older cities that got most of their current form before WW II and massive highway building, (2) the sunbelt cities that grew up in the post-WW II era, (3) a few outliers that have unique features, geographical or otherwise. New York is probably a genuine archetype of the first sort.

[600West218]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Wouldn't New York be more the anomaly than the rule?

Likewise, Toronto is the least Canadian city, Paris the least French city, Sydney is the least Australian city, and London the least English city. These cities often have more in common with each other than they do the typical place within their country.

New York is about as unrepresentative of the United States as you can get. To mention a few things:

1) most New Yorkers use mass transit. Not even remotely true of most Americans

2) Most New Yorkers live in multi unit residences - not even remotely true of most Americans

3) Kids in NYC walk to school rather than ride school buses

4) people shop at individual stores in NYC rather than large indoor shopping malls as is typical of the US

5) A very large percentage of New Yorkers speak a language other than english at home. Much less so in the rest of the country.

6) Most of New York is brick. Most of the rest of the US is wood.

I think you get the point.

Now, having said all that, I am not saying that New York is UN-AMERICAN. Quite the contrary - New York is a big factory that recieves immigrants and churns out new Americans. Living in upper Manhattan I get to see it first hand and it is quite amazing.

[NovaWolverine]

Depends on whether you're talking about New York City, or the state as a whole. There's plenty of rust-belt grit and a good bit of post-war suburban sprawl in New York as well. I don't think it's all that representative of the country as a whole, although it probably captures a lot about a certain region of the country.

[IraGlacialis]

Originally Posted by 600West218

The only thing is I would substitute Arizona for Utah as the representative of Western America. I host a lot of visitors from Europe and their image of the west is almost universally, Monument Valley, Route 66, and the Grand Canyon. The only state that has all three is Arizona.

It was a toss-up for me between Arizona and Utah. I picked Utah because
Monument Valley in Utah was the first place that came to mind. But in retrospect, as Arizona also has that plus the other attractions, so yeah it would be a better fit.
There was also a toss-up between Mississippi and Alabama for the idea of the Deep South, but Sweet Home Alabama and Forest Gump sealed the deal.

Oh yeah, thanks to John Hughes, I would add this as well:
Illinois*: The Suburban** Commuter America

*Really just Chicagoland; the state south of Kankakee and west of LaSalle might as well not exist
**Old tree-lined suburbia, not postwar-to-modern day cookie-cutter suburbia.

[CNB30]

Originally Posted by 600West218

New York is about as unrepresentative of the United States as you can get. To mention a few things:

1) most New Yorkers use mass transit. Not even remotely true of most Americans

2) Most New Yorkers live in multi unit residences - not even remotely true of most Americans

3) Kids in NYC walk to school rather than ride school buses

4) people shop at individual stores in NYC rather than large indoor shopping malls as is typical of the US

5) A very large percentage of New Yorkers speak a language other than english at home. Much less so in the rest of the country.

6) Most of New York is brick. Most of the rest of the US is wood.

I think you get the point.

Now, having said all that, I am not saying that New York is UN-AMERICAN. Quite the contrary - New York is a big factory that recieves immigrants and churns out new Americans. Living in upper Manhattan I get to see it first hand and it is quite amazing.

no, most of the US is brick

[Otto Racecar]

I think ohio is probably a good fit in this category considering the major differences in regions of the state. You have 3 cities of 2 milion or more metro,another 5 cities of metros of 400,000 or more, and then a large amount of small metro areas so you definitely have a large amount of urban areas in a fairly compact land area as well as a large amount of flat rural farmland and rural appalachia.

Northeast Ohio(cleveland/akron/canton/youngstown) is traditionally democratic and has generally been a blue collar manufacturing based economy. People in those areas seem to identify with other great lakes cities such as chicago as well as east coast cities such as pittsburgh,buffalo,and even philly.

Northwest Ohio is generally very agriculturally based with the exception of toledo who relies on manufacturing and shipping. Politically toledo is generally democratic where as the remainder of nw ohio is republican. Toledo generally identifies with detroit as well as other great lakes cities where as the rest of nw ohio is littered with small towns and cities that you would find in indiana,illinois,iowa etc.

Southwest Ohio(Cincinnati/Dayton) has a fairly white collar economy and is generally very republican.Cincy generally identifies with other ohio river cities like louisville as well cities like st. louis and kansas city.This region also has a slight tendency to identify with southern cities and was once known as the gateway to the south.

Southeast ohio is basically the foothills of the Appalachian mountains.The area is generally very rural and identifies with west virginia,kentucky,and western pennsylvania.The politics vary in this area.

Central ohio(columbus) is the fastest growing area of ohio and has an economy that is based on white collar industry as well as education and government. Politics vary in central ohio although the long time mayor of columbus is a democrat. As mentioned before columbus is regarded as a test market for the US because of its demographics and income are a similar match although currently the lgbt population is much larger then the us average.Residents identify with sister city indy as well as cities such as austin,raleigh,and minneapolis.

Residents of these regions historically have had major differences in identifying with each other and are a major reason why ohio is a large swing state.Ohio also has 28 fortune 500 companies in a wide variety of fields such as fashion,retail,insurance,energy,and manufacturing.The state also has a large base of universities as well as governmental positions. Ohio is probably a good fit although I will say that I feel it is much less generic then perceived.

[600West218]

Originally Posted by NovaWolverine

Depends on whether you're talking about New York City, or the state as a whole. There's plenty of rust-belt grit and a good bit of post-war suburban sprawl in New York as well. I don't think it's all that representative of the country as a whole, although it probably captures a lot about a certain region of the country.

Fair point. I, at least, was referring to New York City.