Lorena Prifti

IDS – 400

How Income Affects Diversity in the Midwest

My topic is how income levels affect diversity, from neighborhoods and communities to

how this affects certain regions, while at the center of it, I will also research high school graduate

rates, college graduate rates, and how these affect the diversity in certain states of the U.S.

depending on these variables. Specifically, I will choose to focus on the Midwest region of the

United States.

I chose to focus on the Midwest region and how income inequality shows up in certain

states versus other states. In my paper, I want to include college graduation rates, high school

graduation rates, and how these directly affect certain communities with lower income rates than

those with higher income rates. This has shaped the lives and experiences of the people in the

Midwest because it is often seen as very rural due to the perception that is in most mass media or

movies and TV shows. I want to be able to focus on a variety of variables but in different

communities and how diversity plays a factor in states, neighborhoods, and communities and

how income levels affect the diversity.

I will use the humanities lens as I feel it is the lens that covers the gamut when it comes

to history, social and natural sciences. Using historical facts from how certain communities have

increased in income and how this has impacted diversity in these communities. I would say it is

an easy decision as I feel like I can cover more of the topic while looking through the humanities

lens.
 In order to be able to constructively collaborate with the population in the Midwest

region, I would send out surveys and ask them to fill out the questionnaire which based off some

yes or no questions, and a few questions to fill in. In different areas of the country, this helps

identify trends and track these trends. If this was a long research project, I would come once a

year, for so often until I began to notice changes. This helps engage the community but also lets

people engage with each other. Constructive criticism and feedback are welcomed in the forms

of a “Comments” box at the end of the questionnaire, emails and social media. The feedback that

is most important to how we build a plan to increase graduation rates in order to achieve higher

income levels, especially in rural areas of the Midwest. We want to be able to pinpoint a root

cause in order to work toward an action plan.

The reason why “Forecast error variance and historical decompositions identify

uncertainty to be an important driver of variation in income inequality […] Explaining the

differences in income inequality reactions by means of a simple regression exercise shows that

differences across states may be explained by the composition of income and labor market

fundamentals” (Fischer, 2022). It has been hard to keep track and see the progress made when

the political and economic markets have been so volatile for so many years. This could be

attributed to why more people don’t finish high school, college, and then the increase in the labor

market is more in demand and requires little to no schooling so it is an option exercised by many

as a last resort.

A positive element that supports transformation is the work being done to resolve the

income disparity in lower income level communities in the Midwest (Fischer, 2022). Having

identified where the root of the issue is has helped economists figure out various financial

models to support change by identifying the trends, such as more and more workers taking labor
work since they do not have further options. The ripple effect is to create change by increasing

job opportunities, building communities where people are able to grow into and do not need to

move outside of the Midwest to accomplish financial goals.

What needs to change is the action being taken to create these opportunities when

communities are scared to speak up due to fear of government intervention. In 2020, a question

was attempted to be added to the Census that asked “respondent[s] about their immigration

status, which has never been done before and will likely have an impact on response rates from

immigrant communities” (Garnar, 2022). This is important to note as not having accurate data

will make it hard to form a consensus on how to further proceed with an action plan to further

diversify communities.

The various income levels, which will stem from research ranging from high school

graduate rates to college graduate rates, and how this has affected the diversity in the Midwest

region of the United States by breaking down the percentage of different ethnicities, races and

subcultures identified in this region. Using a humanities lens, we will be able to identify trends

and use historical data to see how the change has impacted the diversity in the Midwest, from

where we started to where we are now.

A significant factor that could affect the positive elements in income levels affecting

diversity in the Midwest would be assumptions. Insiders assume this is how everyone makes

money since everyone they are surrounded by is in similar positions. Outsiders would have

assumptions about lifestyle, values, political beliefs and would rate lower income communities

and states based on these factors. However, another significant factor is the bias that people have

when making these considerations. In order to create job opportunities, centers and workshops

for more and more people to attend high school and finish college, there cannot be any bias
toward who gets funding to create these projects. This could be a sensitive topic as sometimes

people don’t know how bad the position they are in is until they see an outsider’s perspective.

Opening people up to these opportunities will allow them to be more accepting as they are

offered to better the lives of the community and the community itself.

An obstacle that could interfere with the population’s engagement would be technology,

or the lack thereof. As mentioned earlier, it would be easier to email surveys and grab real live

demographic information from lower income communities, but if they do not have the resources,

that would be an area of improvement. It would involve a lot of training, funding and time.

With the survey, we hope to accomplish a real time demographic questionnaire in order

to better assist lower income communities in the Midwest. In doing so, others should feel

inspired by also doing small acts for their communities by holding town meetings, council

meetings and going off what makes sense for their community. It would not make sense to insert

a corporation in the middle of a rural farmland since the two are completely different; however,

the Accounting side of the farm doesn’t need to be outsourced to third party companies if we are

able to teach people how to use popular Accounting systems and have in-house talent.

Showcasing how we teach people to be successful on their own while still maintaining the

lifestyle they love and in the communities they love.

Choosing to focus my topic on a specific type of diversity and bias, which is how do

income levels affect diversity? Having a critical look into this topic has positively informed my

personal experience because I see how it impacts my own personal life; it has made me look

inward in my life and how it affects my relationships with the people in my life. My friends are

from all over the world, however most of my friend group is from relationships I have made at

work so that means professionally, we relatively have similar income brackets, or the same
access to those opportunities. I also have friends who I grew up with and those friends are on

different levels income-wise. If we had not been friends growing up, it would have been harder

for us to meet since we are in different circles due to

Examining these relationships, I saw how my own bias has affected who I interact with.

Growing up in an immigrant household meant that I was surrounded by other immigrants and

our community was mostly Albanian, so I saw firsthand how money affected my community.

However, over the years as my parents and my parents friends grew their careers and moved, I

saw that the difference in diversity was extreme. My parents moved to a different city and I went

to a different school and noticed the lack of diversity in the people we were now surrounded by.

Early on, I was able to see the difference in how perception is important. If it had not been for

my early years surrounded by different types of cultures and diversity, I would have likely had

unintentional bias toward those living in lower income neighborhoods. This is due to how

people spoke about and associated with those in lower-income communities, normally having a

negative connotation associated with them.

Diversifying is important in my field because as a project manager, you communicate

with many different types of people and I find that my experience working in different fields,

living in different states and countries, and having a variety of cultures and diversity in my

personal life will allow me to interact with my team members in a more positive way since I can

find a way to relate to them. This insight into diversity allows me to make more conscious

decisions when hiring or contracting out work as I want to be inclusive with all companies or

team members that submit ideas, feedback, or work. Understanding how my own bias can deter

from this process helps me be more inclusive.

relationships between the different groups and subcultures that exist in the Midwest, specifically

in how these groups interact with each other (Social Science, 2022). With a social science lens,

the perspective shifts to how these relationships have been formed, altered and why they are

important to society today. While it is an interesting look at how money and financial status

forms our relationships, I thought that using the humanities lens allows us to see how things such

language, literature and history have shaped the communities that we strive to improve.

Analyzing diversity allows us to have more compassion, more empathy and this adds

value to interactions with people. Having empathy and compassion means we feel these things

for people in similar or dissimilar situations than our own. I worked in retail and restaurants out

of high school when I lived in California, and this allowed me to meet people from all over the

world and hear stories I would have not otherwise. I met co-workers who introduced me to

foods I loved and languages I learned to speak a little of. I was accustomed to lively

conversations and interactions with people, and I found that when I moved to Michigan in my

late twenties for a corporate job, I saw the disparity in diversity. This was due to the lack of

diversity in working in corporate but also being in Michigan opened my eyes to the experiences I

had over the last 10 years in California that my co-workers and friends did not have, and it was

hard to have conversations, especially in the political climate of the 2020 election. However,

after a couple of years I ended up working for a great company that is a pioneer in leading the

DEI movement and makes it a conversation all the time while also providing resources, training

and support.

Due to the ongoing training the company I works for offers, I understand how important

it is to continue to make diversity a priority in society and this class reiterated this. I like the
historical articles included in the course because it really drove a point home for me that history

does repeat itself and society has not changed much, if at all, since then. I think as people find

their communities and it helps them create an identity and those subcultures become part of

someone’s identity. Now that I have knowledge on the different lenses used to analyze and how

they impact a topic depending on the angle, I feel more confident in my critical analysis skills.
References

Garnar, M. (2018). Silencing Marginalized Voices: The Fragmentation of the Official

Record. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 57(3), 193-195.

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/rusq.57.3.6604

Fischer, M. M., Huber, F., & Pfarrhofer, M. (2021). The regional transmission of uncertainty

shocks on income inequality in the United States. Journal of Economic Behavior &

Organization, 183, 887-900. https://doiorg.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1016/j.jebo.2019.03.00

Manfred M. Fischer, Florian Huber, Michael Pfarrhofer. The regional transmission of

uncertainty shocks on income inequality in the United States. Journal of Economic

Behavior & Organization, Volume 183. 2021. Pages 887-900, ISSN 0167-2681.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2019.03.004.

Social Science. (2017). In P. Lagasse, & Columbia University, The Columbia encyclopedia (7 th

ed.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.