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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Segregated

These city maps use census data to visually depict our racial isolation. Red dot is 'White', Blue is 'Black', Green is 'Asian', Orange is 'Hispanic', Gray is 'Other', and each dot represents 25 people.

Chicago
The division is clear: don't cross that line. Because prejudice is inherited, and when you live in isolation, there's no reason to think your parents got it wrong. Because after all of the protests, the violence, and the busing, the map still looks the same. And who cares if it's equal as long as we're separate...

Pictures paint the islands of blue or orange in the center of the cities, surrounded by a sea of suburban red. Because just one street over is the wrong side of town. And they are in that school district, and we don't know them, and they don't think like we do, and they just don't belong with us. And that's how it is.

Detroit
And if you live on the "blue" side of Parson Ave., the city doesn't care if your streets aren't plowed, or if the empty houses are crumbling, or if you fall neck-deep in a pothole. But they'll care darn fast if some blue kid gets too 'rowdy' and doesn't 'respect the law.'

Columbus
Because if you're separate, you're divided. And you swear you love your neighbor, but you don't even share the same neighborhood. So you've got no clue how to share each others' burdens.  And nothing's gonna change unless you live together, grow together, more than just drive the highways together--try crying together.

Your isolation perpetuates your ignorance--and your isolation is easy to see.

UPDATE: Some initial statistics have been released from the 2010 census

5 comments:

  1. ps. Not trying to be that crying white girl. Just saying...

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  2. re-reading this, It could be even more powerful if the cities were labeled. Clicking them doesn't take you to the flickr page that explains the project... just a suggestion.

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  3. Ah! Thanks! How's that? Should I also add a key for the colors?

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  4. UPDATE: Some initial statistics have been released from the 2010 census

    http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/29/most_segregated_cities/slideshow.html

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  5. Ah! Thanks! How's that? Should I also add a key for the colors?

    ReplyDelete