ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two significant cases of white-black interaction in the Midwest that illustrate among other things the depth, complexity, and irrationality of white racism. The first involves cross-burnings and other antiblack activity in Dubuque, Iowa—the reaction of some whites to a proposal to recruit black families to improve the diversity of the city's population. The Dubuque case illustrates that white racism, including violent racist acts, can take place anywhere in the United States, even in a nearly all-white midwestern city. The second case study looks at antiblack attitudes and actions at a liberal arts college founded by white abolitionists in the mid-nineteenth century. This case illustrates how whites with apparently little exposure to African Americans can harbor ingrained antiblack beliefs and can act suddenly in punishing ways. The chapter examines the role of stereotyping and rumor, the dramatic character of black student reaction to white racism, and the mass media's role in the ritual enactment of racialized events.
