Thursday, August 15, 2013

You've Got to See This

It's nothing if not novel.   A map of the United States based on the 2010 census with every individual from the census represented by a single dot.  There are almost 308-million dots in all.  Caucasian dots are blue.  Blacks are green.  Hispanics are orange.  Asians are red.

The maps not only reveal overall population distribution and ethnicity but, when zoomed in, show some pretty clear patterns of segregation.

Speaking of segregation I recently got my hands on a copy of Better Off Without 'Em.  The book explains why it was a mistake not to let the south go its own way during the Civil War and why it's still a mistake.   One chapter, however, deals with how segregation is alive and well in the south and the role churches play in this.  Churchgoing in the U.S. is intensely segregated.  Blacks go to black churches, whites go to white churches.  From that come church or congregational-run schools.  White kids go to white church schools while black kids usually stay in the public school system.  I wonder why George Wallace didn't think of that?

1 comment:

Owen Gray said...

And as Stiglitz pointed out, Mound, that segregation has a lot to do with Detroit's present circumstances.