Myths about the Rust Belt—where do I even start?
They usually center on anti-intellectualism, racism, and blind nostalgia.
In other words, these are not the types of myths you read to your children at bedtime.
Anyway, here are five common ones you’ve heard so often that you’ve accepted them as truth.
Myth 1: The Rust Belt keeps shrinking.
While definitions vary, for the sake of simplicity, we’ll consider the Rust Belt to overlap with the eight US states that border the Great Lakes. (Those lakes, after all, were rimmed with iron ore and the steel mills fed by it.)
Yes, some cities in these states have lost population, but their metropolitan areas have typically remained stable or even grown. In fact, these eight states—New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota—are all among the 22 most populated states in the country. The five in bold are in the top 10.
And—gasp—the US still makes steel.
Myth 2: Racism runs rampant.
Racism is a global phenomenon, and the Rust Belt is on the globe. So yes, it can be an issue—just not in the way political “pundits” will lead you to believe.
Let’s take a look at Erie County, Pennsylvania (home to the classic Rust Belt city of Erie), which has exhibited a voting pattern found in many counties in the aforementioned eight states.
The northwest Pennsylvania county voted for Obama in 2008, Obama again in 2012, Trump in 2016, Biden in 2020, and Trump again in 2024.
According to the coastal intelligentsia, this would make the place cultured, cultured, racist, cultured, and racist again.
Myth 3: The Rust Belt is homogeneous.
Which US city with over 200,000 residents has the largest Puerto Rican population as a percentage of total? Rochester, New York.
Which US state has the largest Arab American population as a percentage of total? Michigan.
And you already know where to find the largest Somali-American population: Minnesota.
Enough said.
Myth 4: It’s the land of angry white men.
The truth of the matter is that everyone is angry.
Remember the Great Migration? The descendants of those black workers have been disproportionately affected by the loss of manufacturing jobs.
Yet in 2024, when Trump made inroads with the community, everyone was surprised?
Myth 5: The Rust Belt is undereducated.
We can attack this myth from multiple angles, but let’s roll with this one.
Of the top 20 public universities in the country (per U.S. News & World Report), five are in Rust Belt states.
In other words, despite comprising 16 percent of US states, the dumb part of the US has 25 percent of elite state universities.
For more myths about the Rust Belt, please refer to The New York Times.
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