Lab 8 - Mapping the Census

This map shows the black population within the United States in the year 2000. The black population, according to this map, is concentrated in the southeast region of the United States in states like Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Most of the regions have at least 20-50% black communities. On the other hand. the western region of the U.S. is very densely populated with other ethnic groups other than blacks.

Here we can visually see the Asian population within the United States. It is evident that Asians are a true minority within the continental U.S. They appear to be more clustered and have higher percentages within California. It should be noted that although Alaska did not appear on this map, there is a decent population in the northern part of the state. The darker colors represent denser populations and the lighter colors represent smaller populations of Asians.

In the map of the continental United States, the population of "some other race" is represented in the year 2000. It is evident that  the population of "some other race" is more dense in the western part of the country. In states like Texas, New Mexico, and California, there are heavy populations of "some other race." The denser populations are not only on the western part of the United States, but are near the border with Mexico. This is no surprise because Mexican citizens are constantly migrating to the U.S.

Overall, I have had a great deal of frustration with GIS. However, nothing is easy and things take time to learn and adjust to. GIS is a tool that can help save lives and that is one of the reasons why I have taken interest in it, whether it be by helping firefighters create blockades in unknown territory or map diseases. My primary concern though is with designing cities for minorities that will help develop thought-provoking minds, minds that can stay away from crime and injustice. What I did not like about this exercise is that there was no point to it other than to map ethnic populations within the United States. I felt like this lab was a little more pointless than the last but I understand that I do need to have a grasp of the fundamentals. Also, using things like the census to create maps always leave uncertainty because there are margins of error that we cannot fix because we do no know if the census is entirely correct or not.