One Nation, Indivisible: African Americans

aamapusa, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

I like numbers. I like statistics, and I often relax by researching information of a numerical sort. Recently, I've been plotting out where minorities live in the United States. As a white guy, I've been told that within my lifetime (God willing), my demographic will become another minority in this country. I live in community where I'm already in the minority. I find this future exciting. Living in a diverse ethnic nation will so enrich us all. But just how diverse is the United States? That's the question that I set out to answer.

I know the key is hard to see, so here are the categories that I chose to create: Grey = 0% African Americans, Green = less that 1%, Ecru 1 to 14%, Yellow = 14.1 to 29.9%, Gold = 30 to 44.9%, Orange = 45 to 59.9%, Red = 60 to 74.9%, Purple = 75 to 89.9%, and Ultrmarine = 90 to 100%. There are no ultramarine jurisdictions on this map. Further, whenever a county surpassed 50%, I increased the thickenss of it's board and highlighted it in Aqua. To this end, there are 12 states and the District of Columbia with majority African American populations at the county level. For a total of 95 counties with a majority black population.

These facts are interesting, yet I find it far more interesting that such vast expanses of the United States are home to less than 1% of African Americans. And given the way our representative form of Federal governance works, there are a majority of Senators in Washington for whom the practical ability of Black Americans to effect their re-election is nil, and therefore the ability of African Americans to get their issues taken seriously is scant at best.

African Americans make up 13% of the entire population of the United States, yet they represent only 1% of the men and women in the United States Senate, 9% of the House of Representatives. On the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas comes closest to providing parity by single-handedly being 11% of that body, and yet his opinions would doubless better reflect the beliefs of aging, conservative white men than the average black person in America.

It will be very interesting to see how the legacy of our President will effect these inequities 20 years down the road. The rise of more diverse public servants and their ascendancy to Federal office may be his lasting gift to this nation.