Father Daughter Prison Dance to the Beat of Colonization of Parenting and Hetero-nomative Ideals

Here is a link to the article: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/06/virginia-jail-holds-father-daughter-dance-for-prisoners/

Followed by some of my many thoughts:

In ABC News headlining article published June 23 2013, author Steve Osunsami describes a father daughter dance put on by a Virginia jail. The article includes emotionally evoking photographs of black fathers dressed in suits holding young black girls. Osunsami writes “All of the prisoners at Virginia’s Richmond City Jail admit they made poor choices, and could be better father” (Osunsami, 2013). The article goes on to describe how children pay the price for the poor choices made by “troubled men” who miss out on raising their children (Osunsami, 2013). The article is inflammatory in several ways, the first being that it expresses concern on behalf of the state surrounding the well-being and togetherness of black families and communities. Despite practices of forcibly separating black parents and children from each other under slavery and sexual violence perpetrated by the state against black men and women, and ongoing slandering of black parenting, reducing black fathering to child support money; the article allows the state to pose as a guiding force for dysfunctional black parents.

            The article portrays the jail and larger criminal justice system as a benevolent but unfortunate solution to inherently criminal black behavior. The article portrays the state as paternal and caring for black girls, which is ironic in face of the fact that black women continue to be unfairly criminalized and viciously negatively stereotyped. Welfare discourses and practices and the Criminal justice system portray and treat poor black women as if they shouldn’t exist and as if they are a burden to society by state and federal programs. Welfare programs and the criminal justice system specifically target black women with mechanisms of shame and victim blaming. Furthermore, the article’s sad tone around unfulfilled black fatherhood responsibilities implies that black fathers are failures instead of acknowledging the ways in systematic oppression violates black family structures.

            Perhaps the most troubling undertone of the article is that it attempts to highlight an instance in which prison officials graciously provide black fathers with an opportunity to be fathers in a way that exploits their privacy and dignity. Further, father daughter dances are part of a white cultural phenomenon that falls into a specific socio economic culture and thus the article presents a white-washed ideal of what being a good father looks like. Furthermore, the jail’s efforts to provide a father daughter dancer should be questioned for their agenda in attempting to instill yet another hetero-normative and religious based notion of family onto black communities.

Prison Industrial Complex - A Profitable Venture!

Bar Code

Next Window Please..

Who's Getting Rich Off the Prison Industrial Complex?

     Angela Davis's book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, describes a phenomenon that should make even staunchest capitalist shake in his or her proverbial boots.  In chapter 5, Davis describes the prison industrial complex (PIC) and how it came to being in the United States, and to some degree, other countries around the globe.  In terms of how the PIC came to being, Davis describes how the state, with its ever-shrinking budget, resorted to privatizing prisons, thereby making them for-profit organizations that have a responsibility to meet shareholder expectations around profitability.  As a result, privately-owned prisons are incented to keep people incarcerated, as the state pays them based on prisoner headcount.  In chapter 6, Davis also described what must happen in order to change this bleak scenario.  For starters, she describes decriminalizing activities that primarily target the poor and people of color, like drug possession laws.  Ultimately, Davis presents a compelling argument as to why prisons are truly obsolete from the perspective of preventing crime and rehabilitating perpetrators of crime.  I think her ultimate point of this book to highlight the notion that prisons exist for one reason only – to make their owners and stockholders rich.

     In concert with this theme, I have selected three different images/articles (see above links) that are complimentary to Davis’s arguments.  The first image is a barcode, the same ones found on just about everything you buy at a store, with a prisoner’s arms pushed out between the bars, to make the barcode look like a jail cell.  This image is an interesting metaphor for the PIC as it implies a commodification of prisoners, implying that there’s a profit to be made.  It also demonstrates how prisoners are dehumanized in American society, a notion supported even by our own vernacular – they are ‘prisoners’, not ‘people’, and more specifically, they are a product to be sold for profit, not a human life that should be rehabilitated and restored as a functioning member of society.

     The next link demonstrates the notion that people of color, and in particular black men, have a greater tendency to be incarcerated, and thereby commoditized, than to be supported by fair treatment laws such as Affirmative Action and education.  Personally, I find it interesting and horrific that the state will provide effectively unlimited support for institutions of incarceration, yet programs such as Affirmative Action receive little, if any, state support.  Additionally, capitalists from the same corporations that profit from the incarceration of millions in the U.S. quickly cry ‘Socialism’ when public programs are created to help poor communities and people of color.  Why is that?  Why is one scenario acceptable and the other considered a mortal sin?  More importantly, why do Americans, by-in-large, accept this dichotomy in general and the institutional racism it supports implicitly, yet at the same time preach freedom for all?  The answer must come from the same roots as the justification for the notion that “all men are created equal”, yet blacks continued to be enslaved when that famous phrase was coined.

     Finally, the third link is an article from the HBO series Vice.  This article calls out, by name, the profiteers from the PIC.  I’ll let the article speak for itself and not describe it in too much detail, other than the fact that my stomach literally turned while I was reading it.  The truly scary part is, these profiteers, instead of simply admitting that they are okay with earning money off the backs of prisoners, have convinced themselves that they are justified for effectively promoting yet another means for commoditizing the poor in general, and black men specifically.  Conscious folks might refer to this as modern-day slavery, primarily because, it is…..

Negative Effects of the Privatization of Education

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/19/4_ways_privatization_is_ruining_our_education_system_partner/

            Just as prisons have started to be privatized over the years, so has the education system. With this privatization of both structures, there have come negative consequences.  In the article, Four Ways Privatization is Ruining our Education System; Buchheit brings to light the issues of privatization.  Private schools are not improving education, just as private prisons are not improving the incarceration system in our country.

Having the profit motive distorts the goals of education just as profit-motivating prisons have perverted the system. When you bring profit into play it is hard to see any honest motive in these systems other than making money, and at that, making money at any cost even that of the student/prisoner.  As Buchheit states, “Our nation’s impulsive experiment with privatization is causing our schools to look more like boardrooms than classrooms” (2014). This goes for the prison system as well. Only in the case of prisons, sentences are extended and sentences are harsher for miniscule crimes in order to support the private corporation funding the prison. As Buchheit discusses, the profit motive leads to “questionable ethics among school operators…” just as in the prison system. Davis discusses in her book, Are Prisons Obsolete, the affects of systems where prisoners are treated as less than human, in a very unethical manner.

Buchheit discusses the third reason in the higher education system, as why privatization of education is wrong.  As the prison system takes advantage of the poor, in criminalizing those in poverty at a higher rate than middle class and upper class counterparts, so does privatized college education.  As Buchheit quotes in his article, “At the college level, for-profit schools eagerly clamor for low-income students…who conveniently arrive with public money in the form of federal financial aide” (2014). This same issue goes for private prisons, feeding off of the government for money, getting a certain amount for each prisoner they hold in the facility each year.

 Finally, in both the privatized school and prison, there is unequal treatment/help available. Lower-performing children are being left behind in the education system, and prisoners who need mental treatment or rehabilitation are being left to rot in cells versus getting the help they need. While there are some differences in the privatization of schools and the prison system, both have, clearly, very negative effects.

Lets Stop and Frisk Justin Beiber

The Rockefeller Drug Laws enacted in the 70's helped muster the political will, and embedded the otherization and zero tolerance mentalities required to maintain the current Stop and Frisk laws in New York. Indeed, black and brown citizens there had to be first stripped of their citizenry (like the pushers) in order to render them appropriate targets for police. 

Who has rights, and who has the right to suspend those rights? How did we get to a place in society where we permit people to be stopped on the street,  only 3% of whom are actually doing something illegal? 

I believe many of these answers lie with Rockefeller's systematic disregard for the lives of black and brown people in New York, and his desperate grasping at a "solution" to a crime. 

White, middle class folks never think of their sons or daughters as pushers, in need of frisking. When they do conceptualize them as addicts, they are the medicalized, patient sort in need of careful observation and a clam, supportive environment in which to recover. 

There is a dual narrative of personal responsibility here, one we've seen clearly outlined in Justin Beiber's recent arrest. White kids just got mixed up with the wrong crowd, where as inner city youth of color could have made the choice of abstinence, made the choice to stay away from gang activity. It would be very hard to say there was a direct inverse relationship, but does degree of personal responsibility increase as claim to citizenship decreases? 

Lets think about this: with less guaranteed citizenship, one has to prove a lot more to neighbors, teachers, and police. Patriotism and loyalty to the state (and its laws) have to constantly be re-inscribed with invasions of the body and private space and time. Once one stop and  frisk is preformed, there is no guarantee that that act of exoneration will last even until the next street over, for there is no lasting proof or signature of innocence. 

The irony, which I'm sure has not been lost on this crowd, is that Justin Beiber is not a citizen of this country, unlike the countless victims of invasive stop and frisk procedures, and yet his chances of being deported or facing any meaningful retribution are slim to none.  Maybe he defies the linear relationship between papers and personal responsibility? 

In conclusion, FRISK BEIBER. 

"A New Development in Prison Reform"

http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/01/a_new_development_in_prison_reform.html

In her blog post entitled “A New Development in Prison Reform” on Colorlines.com, Carla Murphy looks at current political efforts to move away from mass incarceration.  Julilly Kohler-Hausmann’s article “’The Atilla the Hun Law’: New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Making of a Punitive State” looks at how politicians were able to shape the public opinion by changing public policy.  There was an apparent shift in the dominant narrative surrounding the drug user from the 1950s to the 1970s, which got a huge push with Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s claims that drug users were the ultimate menace to society.   While incarceration rates since then have continued to rise, particularly for people of color, Murphy points to certain parts of the 2014 omnibus spending bill that could change that trend.  That is not to say that Republicans and Democrats have similar motivations and goals from lowering mass incarceration rates, but their different ideologies have led to this similar goal.  “…whether motivated by concern for civil liberties, unsustainable state and federal budgets, or a New Testament-inclination for giving second chances, one fact trumps all differences: The United States houses by far the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million people as of year-end 2011” (Murphy 2014).  In the omnibus spending bill, the Charles Colson Task Force will be created and it is said that it “will figure out fairer sentences – like, not locking people up for a decade because of a period of drug addiction.”  Also in the spending bill is more funding for the Second Chance Act which aims to rehabilitate.  While these are the goals of the Democrats, Republicans are championing this as a way to reduce government spending.  According to freelance journalist and Ph.D. student at John Hopkins, David Dagan, “…undoing mass incarceration is becoming as orthodox on the Right as building it was just a few short years ago.”  While it could be argued that Dagan may not be qualified to make a claim like that, the evidence is in the bipartisan efforts that are being made.  While the motivations behind this movement are different, this could be the start to a radical shift in the way the prison system works in the United States.

Week 11: Heroin Today

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/03/27/new-hampshire-heroin

This article was very interesting because it gave me some insight as to what is happening today with Heroin as opposed to the history of heroin use in our country. As the article states, in New Hampshire, heroin use had doubled over from 2007 to 2012. This is incredibly scary to see, especially because the "War on Drugs" is still so intense and overbearing in our country. It seems curious to me that while we are cracking down and getting tough on drugs, the drug use is still rising. 

Something interesting that I noticed was the location of this article, New Hampshire. When I looked up some quick statistics about the state of New Hampshire, I discovered that it is 94% white (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/33000.html) and this is extremely troubling. It only seems to point more to the fact that this "War on Drugs" crusade in America is more racially driven then I ever could of imagined. Our government is not cracking down on drug use, they are cracking down on drug use by non-white, particularly African American drug users. Heroin use has doubled in this state, and not surprising enough, the majority of this state is white. 

Then, as you scroll down the article and read on through the interview with Col. Bob Quinn the director of the New Hampshire’s Division of State Police, you find another interesting fact. 85% of those in prison in the state are there due to substance abuse problems.  One statistic he didn’t include was how many of those prisoners are non-white.

The interviewer, Robin Young at one point brings up the idea of “moving the beds on the front end instead of beds behind bars…to treatment centers” (Young, 2014). This is another aspect that connects with our readings this week. It is interesting to see a new shift emerging back to the idea of treating the victim over punishing the criminal when it comes to drugs. I would like to ask the head of police though, who is being treated and who is being sent to jail? This is only because we can’t help but wonder if only those middle class white citizens are being treated while the African American drug users stay as criminals needing to be punished.

Proof Chicago is The American Dream*.............................................*for whites only

http://www.movoto.com/blog/opinions/how-awesome-chicago-show-them/
As I skimmed through recent Facebook posts this morning, a particular video that came up on my news feed a couple of times peeked my interest. The subtitle on this article acclaimed Chicago to be "proof" of the American Dream. Now, I knew this was bull%^&* before I even watched the video, because let's be honest, the American Dream is attainable for some, but for the majority of society, it's just what it suggests -- a dream. So maybe I went into it with the wrong attitude, but this video really annoyed me. It called Chicago a city that "talked the talk" of the American Dream, claimed that in each neighborhood one could witness "migration into assimilation." Sure, this might be true for some, I don't doubt it. Yet as I watched this video I couldn't help but think of the African American population in Chicago, the large majority of whom live in impoverished, segregated neighborhoods on the South or West side. I realized the source of my frustration came from the fact that those people who had posted this video (caption: "love my city!") actually believed this was true. And how couldn't they? They are white, were raised in the suburbs, have affluent parents who “made it” – their life is the American Dream. As a byproduct of extreme segregation present in the Chicagoland area, privileged individuals become so far removed from inner city life that ten miles apart turns into a world away.

                        

African American Population by Census Tract in Chicago, 2011  

(photo from wikipedia)

Before posting a cynical response to this testament to “how awesome Chicago is,” I did a little research. As of 2011, 63% of African American residents of Chicago lived in racially segregated neighborhoods identifying as 95% or more black.1 This figure is a measly 6% lower than the level of neighborhood segregation that existed in Chicago prior to the civil rights movement. 34% of black residents of Chicago live in poverty, compared to 11% of whites.2 Furthermore, the median household income for Chicago whites is nearly double what it is for the black population.3 Just as my own experience had suggested, I found racial segregation, and its accompanied concentration of poverty, to be a pervasive issue for the city of Chicago.
   4


So, if Chicago is “the Great American city,” a place that “represents America to its core,” then it is time America retire its title as the land of opportunity and equality for all. Some might call me cynical, but I just see it as being realistic.


1 http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/african-american-percentage-poverty-unemployment-schools-segregation/Content?oid=10703562
2 http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/african-american-percentage-poverty-unemployment-schools-segregation/Content?oid=10703562
3 http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/african-american-percentage-poverty-unemployment-schools-segregation/Content?oid=10703562
4 http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/african-american-percentage-poverty-unemployment-schools-segregation/Content?oid=10703562

Effects of Decriminalization

Legalizing Medical Marijuana
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/medical-marijuana-crime-study_n_5044397.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010

Portugal Drug Policy
http://www.businessinsider.com/portugal-drug-policy-decriminalization-works-2012-7

      Rockefeller's attempt at hammering down on drug use and distribution shows the fear the people of the time had of the effects of drugs on society. His idea was that making people fear life in prison for their first drug offense would lower the number of drug offenses over all in New York. However we found out that this was not necessarily the case. Crime may have slowed down for a few days at best but drug distribution and use did not change much in the long run. The most that happened was that there was more people to take care of in prisons. 
      The fear of what drug addiction does to our society and our people controls what we decide to do about it. As the ideas of addiction shifted from a disease to the disease according to Kohler-Hausmann, our ideas of what to do about shifted in the same since and severity. 
       These rash decisions, while at the time seemed tough but necessary, may have been pre-mature, especially when we consider how the legalization of medical marijuana has actually lowered certain types of crime. According to a study from the University of Texas, the legalization of medical marijuana may have lowered rates of violent crimes, including homicide. The study compared states that have legalized it with states that have not and the statistics of "Part I crimes, which include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft". 
       While the evidence varied, the researches believe it shows that marijuana has lowered these rates and that alcohol actually has a stronger effect on those statistics. 
        Portugal seems to have theorized this kind of outcome long before this recent study. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001. Reports have put Portugal's addiction rates are now among the lowest rates of all EU members. Once at 100,000, addictions reported are more than halved as of 2012. This doesn't mean that distribution and usage is legal however, it does let minor offenses be tried in a separate court to on a situation to situation basis. It seems to be a very liberal approach especially when compared the Rockefeller's approach in the early 70's. However, to me I see it as genius. Instead of addiction contributing to exponential growth in drug distribution and use, addicts can now seek help without fear of being imprisoned.

Week 10: Drug Decriminalization Debate

Drug Legalization: Why It Wouldn't Work in the United States

http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=533&issue_id=32005

Rick Perry and Colombian President Discuss Drug Decriminalization At Davos

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/rick-perry-decriminalization_n_4653567.html

The two links above are articles that tie to the criminalization of drugs, specifically in terms of justification for and arguments against it.  To be clear, decriminalizing drugs does not necessarily mean legalizing them, though legalization represents the ultimate form.

     The first article is intended to be a reference/resource for police chiefs across the country when addressing questions around legalization.  Since it is apparently assumed that most law enforcement officials, especially at the level of chief of police, are against legalization, this article has a hard slant toward this view.  However, it does mention several of the pro-legalization/anti-criminalization arguments, but only for the intent of refuting them, most of the time with unsubstantiated ‘facts’ that resonate more as constructed societal norms.

     The second article, interestingly enough, discusses Rick Perry’s (and other Republican’s) opinions around the decriminalization of drugs.  Though they are quick to state that they are not soft on crime (to maintain that particular Republican persona) and do not support legalization, they do validate the need to take a more rehabilitative approach to drug issues and less of a punitive one.

     This is interesting as the general Republican perspective toward laws that tend to make significantly more criminals, like the War-On-Drugs type that target the underclass and people of color, is to take a ‘tough’ stance, i.e. ‘zero tolerance’ or ‘three strikes, you’re out’.  Whether this is because of their ‘good Christian morals’ and/or their need to fulfill commitments made to the prison industry is up for debate, but what can’t be argued is the so-called liberal notion of decriminalization and its seeming appropriation by certain influential Republican party members.

     On the surface, arguments against legalization make sense, except when the facts are considered.  Just as Courtwrite discussed in his article section titled, “The Extent of Opiate Addiction,” there is a tendency to over exaggerate the degree of the drug problem due to different motivating factors, usually political in nature (though typically presented as a moral issue).  For example, despite the fear mongering many in politics and law enforcement proselytized prior to Colorado’s marijuana legalization, the data today shows no statistically significant increase in crime since legalization occurred.

     This debate must continue as the War on Drugs currently unfairly incarcerates many people of color and poor folk for overly long periods of time, having a significant impact on folks’ in these communities ability to be functioning members of society.  Though certainly not the only reason people of color have disproportionately more representation in prisons than their white and/or wealthy counterparts, the fact that many are imprisoned for extended periods of time for crimes such as marijuana possession is a direct result of the unfair nature of this ‘war’ and its casualties.

One Revealing Chart

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/war-on-drugs-prisons-infographic_n_4914884.html

A recent article from the Huffington Post examines the effect the War on Drugs has had on America's over crowded prisons. Summed up by the chart presented in the body of the article, currently 50.1% of prison inmates, as of January 25^th 2014, were serving time due to drug offenses. This article can be summed up by a simple chart, as the title of the piece alludes to, “Just How Much the War on Drugs Impacts our Overcrowded Prisons, In One Chart.” I really enjoyed this simple, yet effective, piece because it highlighted two issues within the American justice system: the War on Drugs as well as the severe rate of incarceration. Popular rhetoric attests that the rate of incarceration is growing due to an increase in crime; this article sheds light on this misguided belief. I found it very interesting that the number one drug to be incarcerated for was marijuana. With Colorado and Washington leading the way, it seems as though soon we will see the end of the prohibition on marijuana in the United States. To sum it all up – the United States' (which is leading the race of incarcerated citizens among the developed world) number one reason for imprisoning individuals relates to a substance that is considered legal in certain parts of the country. This logic is extremely flawed. If certain regions of the country can recognize a plant for its medicinal qualities, does it make sense that the justice system incarcerates individuals who use that plant at a rate higher than any other crime committed?


A concluding thought – the second leading cause of incarceration in the United States is immigration. Not murder, robbery, hate crimes, or any other atrocious crime you can think of. Keeping these statistics in mind, it is not difficult to see that the motives behind the “justice” system may not necessarily be aimed at keeping the citizens safe.

What will it take for America to turn against the War on Drugs?

21-year-old Alysa Ivy of small town Hudson, Wisconsin died of a heroin overdose last year.  With no ‘Good Samaritan’ laws in Wisconsin, her death may have been preventable if the people she was with had not been afraid of arrest and called 911.

            Alysa had no access to treatment, even though an excellent facility was very close to her home, because she and her mother were uninsured and could not afford it.  Alysa Ivy is not what most people expect when they think of a heroin overdose, not from an extremely needy family or a bad neighborhood, she had the ability to hold a job – Alysa was also white. 

According to the CDC’s Substance abuse and Mental Health Association, heroin deaths among whites aged 15-34 have increased in the last 15 years, while for Hispanic and black populations deaths have remained rather steady – no real increase or decrease per 100,000 people age 15-34. 

If more white people are now affected by American drug policies, losing family members or seeing stories like this on the news, I have to wonder – will things start to change?  Already Alysa’s death has created dialogue about a ‘Good Samaritan’ law being enacted in Wisconsin.

Our systems of governance and systems of incarceration are undoubtedly biased.  In 2010, more than half of all incarcerated people had committed a drug offence.  Of those people, half were black – even though among young people whites are more likely to use drugs.  However, Black youth are 10x more likely to be arrested for drug offences than White youth. 

As the drug use of White young people becomes more obvious, will our treatment systems change?  Will we collectively ask for treatment over incarceration?  The War on Drugs has always targeted People of Color and poor communities.  But if the wealth gap is widening and the middle-class is gone, will demands for new laws and systems become more apparent?

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/us/heroins-small-town-toll-and-a-mothers-pain.html?_r=0

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/drug-war-mass-incarceration_n_3034310.html

The Food Stamp President

Over thirty years after the story of Linda Taylor, the “Welfare Queen,” American citizens' continue to express disdain for public assistance program. Conservatives have given Barack Obama their own nickname, reminiscent of Taylor's, “The Food Stamp President.” According to many Republicans, President Obama has put the most people on food stamps than any other President. What the individuals accusing Obama don't realize is that one in four individuals who are eligible for food stamps does not receive them.¹ Although the percentage of adults on food stamps may have risen during Obama's term, the assistance has not gone to undeserving individuals. The United States trails behind countless developed nations on levels of poverty; if we are to address this issue we must mobilize more public assistance programs such as food stamps.

1. http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/news/economy/obama_food_stamps/

Housing Segregations Now

What if you could see exact data about the racial makeup of your neighborhood?  Would you be surprised by what you find? 

The Cooper Center and theirDemographics Research team created a map, using census data from 2010, including every person in the US and where they live.  The results, color-coded by self-reported racial data, are startling. 

            Take Minneapolis, the example given on the front page.  At a zoomed out range, it seems an integrated city, creating a new map color of teal.  But when you zoom close, it cam be realized just how separate neighborhoods are by race. 

            When I first saw this map, I focused on Boulder and the Denver metro area, then the small city in Illinois where I grew up.  But I encourage you to look at Chicago.  And at St. Louis, New York.  Boundaries between racialized neighborhoods are stark. 

In the St. Louis area, boundaries from large scale roads and the Mississippi river can be seen, creating a stark contrast between the Northern Metro area and the South Metro.  Can you place where Pruitt-Igoe once was on this map?

 In Chicago, there are a few very integrated neighborhoods in the city center, but the radiating effect shown on the map indicates racialized neighborhoods are still commonplace.

            What about differences between Northern states and Southern ones?  Rural areas and densely populated ones?  It is interesting what you may or may not find.

            I do offer a critique of this map.  First of all, I believe the catchall category of ‘Other Race/ Native American / Multi-racial’ should be three separate categories.  Just because the numbers in this category are small, does not mean that they hold no demographic importance and are not useful information about the current makeup of the United States.  From a visual arts background, I also have other concerns.  Certain colors have certain connotations, and using colors to correlate to race can be problematic.  I think if all warm or all cool colors were used, the map would be less othering.