Monday, August 12, 2013

Racial identity data from the 2010 Census


Nothing like census data to occasion a once-a-year post. I'm fascinated by this map of reported racial identity in the 2010 U.S. census produced by Dustin Cable and theCooper Center for Public Service at UVA. They've mapped racial identity data nationwide but I've zoomed in to just Durham below:


Compare this with the famous map of race by block done in 1937:

Trinity Park, Walltown, Hickstown, and the still-extant parts of Hayti look somewhat similar but the demographic differences are even more striking. I'm especially taken by the patchwork-quilt nature of Duke's East and West campuses in 2010 (not mapped in 1937 though the student body would have been 99% white). Elsewhere in Durham though residential segregation is still very much in evidence. Adding labels to the map shows the reported makeup of entire apartment complexes pretty readily:


I've highlighted two examples. One, the Deerfield in American Village, which appears more heterogeneous than its surroundings, and Duke Manor which stands out for its homogeneity . In any event, I'm so used to looking at maps of Durham's historical bifurcated black/white residential divide that this multi-nodal view of hispanic/black/asian/white racial identity is a thought-provoking and welcome sight.