Though I was mostly thinking of provincial (post)industrial areas anyway, rather than farming districts of one sort or another.
And it may be that minority status trumps rural status. In fact, in this day and age in America, it almost certainly does, unless it involves perhaps guns. Anyway, I liked your post - a lot.
I might add that Iowa farmers seem sometimes to be just about the most cosseted welfare queens as it were on this Fruited Plain. So many undeserved subsidies, so little time. It has been quite am amazing learning experience for me. Interestingly, when I call out other farmers in the hood on this, or the folks who hand out the money, nobody bothers to justify much of any of it. They just take the money, or hand it out (one government bureaucrat per about 20 farmers). Heck our tenant farmer over the past 10 years (he farms about 2,000 acres, either owned or leased), not counting subsidized crop insurance (70% of the cost) and the ethanol heist, has collected about
$1.1 million. He's about number 10 on the list in Madison County, Iowa. This is a published list. That is how I found out about it.
To get in on more of this action, I put marginal land into production, solely for the purpose of taking it out again in 5 years, and putting it in the conservation program, so I can collect a government payment at a much higher rate than I can get renting it out as cropland. The government even pays to put in the natural flora for me. How sweet of them. Save the planet.
