Genetically, I’m Wonder Bread White, with roots deep in rural Iowa and South Dakota. My ancestral geography stretches across Northern Europe: England, Sweden, Germany, and Ireland, with a bit of Scotland kilted around the edges.

My roots are also rural and small town White, which, in the minds of the coastal elite, translates instantly to “racist White.” The irony is that this geographical test for moral worth is itself a distinct prejudice.

My whiteness is perceived one way in Portland, OR—as the “enlightened” kind of White, absolved by proximity to progressive ideology. But if I mention my family is from the northwest corner of Iowa, that same ancestry is immediately coded as the “problematic” White: ignorant, isolated, and inherently racist.