This map displays the distributional percentages of “Some Other Race Alone” within the continental US as reported in the 2000 Census data. “Some Other Race Alone” can be defined as any other race alone besides non-Hispanic Whites, Blacks or Asians, many times depicting the spread of the Hispanic/Latino communities throughout the US. Considering this definition, it is interesting to see that the areas with the highest concentrated “Some Other Race Alone” communities are located on the west coast of the United States along the US-Mexico border. Similar to the west coast’s proximity to Asia influencing its high concentration of Asian communities, the southern regions of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas all contain the highest concentrations, 21.57%-39% of the total population, of “Some Other Race Alone” due to their extremely close proximity to Mexico. The distributional percentages of “Some Other Race Alone” somewhat mirror the pattern of black population distribution in the US for similar to the blacks’ pattern, the “Some Other Race Alone” group is highly concentrated in a particular region (West Coast/Southwest) and does not spread equally across the southern portion of both coasts, with “Some Other Race Alone” percentages clustering on the west over east coast.





This map depicts the “Black Alone” US population as reported during the US Census of 2000. It is interesting to note that the highest concentrations of blacks within the US congregate in the southern states and counties. The highest concentrated black counties, each with a black population ranging from 49.75 to 86.4 percent, spread only as far west as Arkansas and Louisiana, and spread as far east as New Jersey. These highly concentrated black regions and counties expand no further south than the Florida-Georgia border and tend to lessen concentration as you most north of Arkansas and Tennessee. This clustering of highly concentrated black communities in the South most likely has direct ties to the historical geography of slavery. When many Africans were brought over to the US, they were brought to work on plantations in the south. Due to the strong family and community ties slavery created among blacks in the south, many of them may never have left the region or only gone a bit NE after slavery was abolished in the late 1800s, therefore continuing the high concentrations of blacks in the southern region of the US for centuries to come.





This map depicts the distributional percentages of the “Asian Alone” US population as reported by the US Census during 2000. Looking at the map, the first apparent characteristic to the viewer is the lack of highly concentrated Asian communities found through not only the US as a whole, but especially within the middle of the country as well. Across the middle of the United States, the highest concentration of Asians within a county ranges only up to 8.87%, a drastic difference from many other racial distributions. Even when considering the Asian distributional spread along the coasts, it is easy to see that the Asian communities are concentrated much more greatly on the west coast than they are on the east coast. On the east coast, the counties with the largest concentration of Asians, with Asians making up roughly 20.4% to 46% of the total population, are found near Washington D.C. and New York City, two of the largest immigrant-friendly metropolises in the region. Similar to the ways in which the black population congregates in the south, the Asian populations probably have their highest concentrations along the west coast of the US due to the regions proximity to Asia. Located closer to Asia, the west coast regions of Southern California and Washington State may attract higher concentrations of Asian populations due to being the closest place for Asian immigrants migrate to from outside the US.


Overall, when looking at the above series of census maps, it is apparent that different racial groups congregate in different regions and counties of the United States. The black population tends to concentrate itself in the southern portion of the United States, while the Asian population prefers the west coast and the Hispanic/Latino populations (or “Some Other Race Alone”) prefer to cluster in the Southwest near the US-Mexican border. All of these different racial congregations have ties to historical and proximal geography, where the specific racial and ethnic communities chose to locate themselves in certain regions of the country based on historical reasons (slavery) or based on proximity to their native country (Asians on the west coast/Latinos in the Southwest). What is also interesting to note is that when comparing all three maps, only counties with high concentrations of Asian and Latino/Hispanic (“Some Other Race Alone”) populations are located next to one another or in overlapping regions, while those with high concentrations of black communities are isolated in the southern regions of the US. This regional isolation may be the reason behind why blacks find it hard to assimilate into mainstream culture and feel as if they are “different” than others in the US, for without the exposure to different cultures, ethnicities and races, such as the multi-cultural/ethnic communities those living in the West and Southwest regions of the US are exposed to, blacks in the South are able to find anything but differences between themselves and those who are not black within their communities. If the south was as culturally diverse and ethnically integrated as the west coast and southwest regions of the US, the feeling of being “outsiders” or “different” may be alleviated from the black communities, for the black community would realize that their struggles and successes are very similar to the struggles and successes of Asian and Hispanic/Latino Immigrants, ultimately facilitating acceptance of and assimilation into the like cultures and creating a more racially integrated and culturally diverse country as a whole.


Impressions of GIS:

I am very pleased with my overall GIS experience this quarter. GIS is a growing field in which many companies are beginning to adopt, and I believe the skills I learned in Geography 7 will be useful to me in any career. I am currently interning at the Santa Monica Community Forest and am continually exposed to ArcGIS for mapping city tree inventory and land use throughout the city. After completing Geography 7, I feel much more confident and comfortable using the equipment and GIS programs in the office knowing I have the skill set to produce a basic ArcMap. Even though GIS could be very frustrating at times due to random program crashes and unclear directions, I am very excited to continue mastering ArcGIS this summer in Geography 168 and thank you for being my stepping stone into the GIS world. Thanks for everything, Jida!