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.
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