I grew up in Wisconsin, lived most of my adult life in Minnesota, and am now back in Wisconsin. I wholeheartedly agree with your observations. It's easy to say you are not racist when you never encounter anyone else but other white people, which is true for a large number of people living in those two states. I remember the racist protests in northern Wisconsin over spear fishing. I remember the ugly welcome the Hmong got in Wausau and elsewhere. I remember the open housing protests in Milwaukee in the late 1960's. The relationship between the police and communities of color in Milwaukee and the Twin Cities could only be described as tense, or maybe awful. No one in the heartland can look down on anywhere else in this country for racism.