Not really white-bread

When I moved to Minnesota, I heard several jokes about moving to "white bread America." The assumption is that the Minnesota and the midwest is populated by corn-loving hot-dish-serving plain white people who descended from someone named Sven, Gustaf, or Lena.

Some of that is true. But the state's population is far from being plain white bread. Over the next few posts, I hope to share a bit about the diversity of the area where we call home. I have found it's much more diverse than any place I've ever lived.

Let's start with the Liberians. I've learned more about African politics and geography since I moved here, and I can tell the difference in a Liberian and a Somali.

Liberians fled their country because of civil war starting in 1989. They are in the US on temporary status as refugees, and many settled on the north side of the Twin Cities. The area where I work has the largest Liberian population outside of their country--so much so that when their president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, came to visit the US, she came to Minnesota. She's also the first female president of an African nation. The population has their own churches, stores, and newspapers, like my personal favorite, The Bush Chicken.

We cover many stories involving Liberians. Like many immigrant groups, you are likely to see several generations and extended family living under one roof. The police have had an interesting time working with the population because of the vast differences in culture. For example, in Liberia, if an officer pulls you over he will hold court there in the street for hours, and you could bribe him with money. So, you can understand why a Liberian driver here would be skittish to pull over and cooperate with an officer...and then try to bribe them too. One PD recently swore in the first Liberian officer, and it was a big deal.

Also, baby showers are considerably different. Here, it's generally a female affair involving a tea or small party. For Liberians, it's a party that lasts into the wee hours of the morning.

In covering the Liberian community, I've learned one major thing--they operate on "Liberian time." If something is scheduled to start at 4pm, you know nothing will begin until two hours later. When we get a press release stating one time, we play guessing games on what time we should actually show up. At one event, we went one and a half hours late, and still beat everyone there. It's just their way of life.

PS... for you wordsmiths, I did look up the term "white bread" to see if it's "white bred" or "white bread". Both are correct according to the Univ of Penn's Language Log. Both mean bland and conventional white middle class America.