I believe it because I can't lie and say I lived it...but it's not exactly what i've seen from the outside looking in. When I lived in Wisconsin those folk didn't act the same as folk out west. Whiteness in the west is no less toxic but it's more straight-faced; if someone hates you you know it.

Straight-up midwestern niceness, hiding behind smiles, is a thing and it is not fun. Northern racism is a thing and while I didn't get that, I saw the fear in people's faces, and I bore witness to it. People out west don't have fear like that.