Midwestern ‘niceness’ isn’t always so nice
Frequently in my classes these days, I hear about this concept called “Midwestern niceness.”
Midwestern niceness is the idea that people in the Midwest are predominantly “nice:” we aren’t aggressive, confrontational, angry or outspoken very often, compared to people in other parts of the country.
“ The nail that sticks up gets pounded down,” says the old cliché.
Rather than speak up and let people know that something they are doing upsets us, we are content sitting in silence and trying to ignore the problem.
However, this “niceness” does not purport that we aren’t mean to each other.
We might not be vocal about it, but we still treat each other negatively quite often.
And the word for our passive-aggressiveness is rudeness.
We, in the Midwest, are quite rude to each other.
It doesn’t matter what situation we are in, we find subtle ways to be rude to others.
In the classroom, students fail to turn off cell-phones, play computer games or look at Facebook during lectures, do homework for other classes during lectures, sleep in class and show up late for class and group meetings.
These aren’t the only ways. How often do you see someone walk into a building, you are behind them, and they go in without holding the door open for you, letting it practically hitting you in the face? Rude.
Or how about rudeness in the workplace?
I have had several jobs now where my boss is occasionally rude.
For instance, bosses often say they want you to talk to them if you have a problem with something or a question.
I don’t know how many times I have entered my boss’ office to see them typing on the computer.
I sit down and try to talk to them, but they are too engrossed in the e-mail they are sending to pay me two minutes of their time so I can tell them something. Rude.
Interpersonal encounters like this offer us frequent opportunities to be rude to others.
It is rude not to look at a person when we are talking to them.
It is rude to answer your cell phone when you are talking to someone.
Looking over your shoulder at what’s beyond, showing up late when you agreed to meet somewhere and embarrassing someone around friends are also common ways I have noticed people showing their lack of consideration for others.
The list could go on and on. You can probably think of plenty of situations where people have been rude to you.
The thing about rudeness is, we often mistakenly think that people won’t notice our subtle behaviors.
We don’t think that people will notice when we roll our eyes, that the professor won’t notice us talking to classmates in the middle of a big lecture class or that our friends won’t notice when we aren’t paying attention to what they say.
But they do.
So take a stand against rudeness. Start with your own life. Let’s put the “nice” back in “Midwestern niceness.”U.
Columnists' opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of The Spectrum