Saturday, January 18, 2014

UPDATED: Mapping our progress

A FB friend made a comment about entrenched attitudes in the south.  Is the old confederacy really still a problem?  Here are some maps.

First, let's start with maps defining racial issues.

This map (from the US Census) shows us the frequency of inter-racial couples.




Here's a look at states that banned inter-racial marriage.  This graphic (from the NY Times) addresses whether the states got rid of the ban before the Supreme Court ruled such bans unconstitutional in 1967 (Loving v. Virginia).  You can see that the states in the lower right had bans in place until the Supreme Court acted.


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What about segregation?  Who was segregated prior to Brown v. Board of education?


This map comes from a project from Cal State Humboldt called the "Hate map". The investigators identified twitter posts using racist slurs, and geotagged them.  Then they colored them on whether they were more common than the average.  



Voter ID laws typically are disproportionately targeted at the poor, the young,and people of color.  HEre's a summary of such laws via the Washington POst.

Let's turn our attention to LGBT rights.  Start with decriminalization;  the landmark Lawrence v. Texas overturned the remaining sodomy laws that attempted to criminalize consensual sex involving lesbians and gays.


  Here's a map showing which states have non-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation.  In these states, you can't deny service or accommodation to someone just because they are gay. Elsewhere, it is perfectly legal to fire someone simply for being gay.




Marriage equality is our big topic.  Here is the map or marriage in the states.  (Utah and Oklahoma are still litigating.)

And here's the hate-map of homophobic and anti-gay slurs on Twitter.



As for other correlations, here's a map of the Confederacy. 


A map of Evangelical Christians.



And a map of the 11 different Americas, defined by our distinct places of origin and culture.



Updated:  And here's a map showing positive correlation between conservative Evangelical Christians and the rate of divorce.  That means the more conservative Evangelicals there are, the higher the divorce rate for everyone.

So much for family values. 





1 comment:

JCF said...

North America can be broken neatly into 11 separate nation-states

"neatly broken"??? Not if you live on the "border" of a nation-state!

As a (near) native of Sacramento, CA, who has lived here *most* of my life (though w/ time away, all over, for perspective), I can testify that it absolutely belongs in the "Left Coast" and not, as divided by Colin Woodard, in the "Far West". A quick perusal of letters-to-the-editor in the Sacramento Bee could tell you that RightWing jackholes are found east of here, in the foothills.