This map shows the percentage of black people per county throughout the continental United States. The U.S. census defines "black" as the following, "People who indicate their race as "Black, African Am., or Negro," or who provide written entries such as African American, Afro American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian." What is immediately evident, is that the largest concentrations of black people occur in the Southeast. The Gulf Coast states and the Atlantic States show the highest density of black people, with several counties having populations over 60% African-American. This distribution inherently makes sense as the continent of Africa is closest to the Atlantic coast of the United States. Both through immigration and slavery, Africans arrived to the United states and settled close to where they arrived. One can infer through this map that many black people remained in the South after slavery was abolished and established communities that remain largely black. The only outliers are metropolitan areas such as Oakland, Los Angeles, and New York that have a significant black population, but their densities do not compare to the South and Atlantic states.
What these 3 maps show me is that America is a very diverse country, but individual racial components are largely isolated geographically. Much of this has to do with the geographic location of their country of origin, but surprisingly few races branch that far out from where they first immigrate. The Asian races were isolated to the West, blacks to the Southeast, and Hispanics to the Southwest. The only real homogenization occurs in big cities. This makes sense as big cities have much more to offer culturally to a broader range of people, than say the Central Valley of California or the Midwest (except Chicago, where I was born!). What this tells me is that people like to be around other people who look like them and share their same cultural values. This makes sense because people in general probably like to have that comfort zone and sense of community and that is much harder to achieve in a racially and culturally diverse county. Further complicating things is the Census' racial definitions. It is very hard to define race since each minority probably feels more association with one label over another. Indians for example probably feel more comfortable with the term "Indian" or "West Asian" over simply "Asian." Recent immigrants from Africa probably feel separated from American black culture developed through American slavery. Even more complicated is that the average African-American ancestry is almost 20% Caucasian in America.
This lab and class has illustrated the amazing range of uses GIS has and its impact on our daily lives. GIS' applications seem almost infinite after this introductory course. I was constantly amazed at how interesting GIS was and how interactive it has become. It seems like we've come a long way from topo maps. I thought the introduction of the internet had the single greatest impact on GIS. What I love is the ability to share information almost instantly and with dynamic maps that generate interest and analytical thought. Rather than simple maps and charts, GIS now incorporates animations, layers, and more importantly, it is easier than ever to create user-generated GIS. That is what I loved about this class. Instead of seeing GIS as this entity that I had no control over and barely understood, I have realized we are all a part of GIS as either a statistic or as a creators of new maps and analysis. I was amazed at how easy it is to create a GIS given certain information and tools. Being an ecologist, I think I will be using these skills often to illustrate data collected in the field. That's what's really cool...I finally took a class at UCLA that I actually can use.
