Racial Dot Map, Segregation and Prison

Here is the map from University of Virginia;

This racial dot map is an American snapshot; it provides an accessible visualization of geographic distribution, population density, and racial diversity of the American people in every neighborhood in the entire country. The map displays 308,745,538 dots, one for each person residing in the United States at the location they were counted during the 2010 Census. Each dot is color-coded by the individual’s race and ethnicity. The map is presented in both black and white and full color versions. In the color version, each dot is color-coded by race.

From Patheos blog;

The University of Virginia used the 2010 census to create a map of the U.S. overlaid with different colored dots—one dot for each person. The map uses blue dots for white people, green dots for black people, orange dots for Hispanic people, red dots for Asian people, and brown dots for Native Americans or other racial groups. The map is utterly fascinating, especially when looking at cities, because it demonstrates the level of segregation that exists in most places....

The level of segregation illuminated by these maps is sobering in and of itself. But there’s something even more sobering to be found in the racial dot map.

While browsing through some rural areas, which are mostly made up of open space and blue dots (white people), I began to notice something odd. I kept finding random collections of green dots (black people) in weirdly delineated, concentrated areas.

Outgroup stereotypes and elite college membership.

From the Atlantic;

Princeton is academically rigorous, but too exclusive and hierarchical. MIT has brilliant students, but it’s socially unpleasant. The University of Pennsylvania is altogether too career-minded.These are some of the opinions that researchers heard when they asked 56 Harvard and Stanford students—most of them still in school, some of them recent graduates—which colleges they applied to and how they decided which one to attend.The researchers, Amy Binder, a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego, and Andrea Abel, a graduate student there, published their analysis of the students’ sometimes barbed evaluations—recorded in interviews conducted five years ago—in the journal Sociology of Education late last year. 

Snapchat and your brain.

Snapchat and your brain.

From PBS;

https://www.pbs.org/video/how-do-different-social-media-platforms-affect-your-mood-05q7kp/

Study Finds Racial Gap Between Who Causes Air Pollution And Who Breathes It

From NPR;

Pollution, much like wealth, is not distributed equally in the United States.
Scientists and policymakers have long known that black and Hispanic Americans tend to live in neighborhoods with more pollution of all kinds, than white Americans. And because pollution exposure can cause a range of health problems, this inequity could be a driver of unequal health outcomes across the U.S.
A study published Monday in the journal PNAS adds a new twist to the pollution problem by looking at consumption. While we tend to think of factories or power plants as the source of pollution, those polluters wouldn't exist without consumer demand for their products.
The researchers found that air pollution is disproportionately caused by white Americans' consumption of goods and services, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic Americans.

How economic inequality might affect a society's well-being

From PBS NewsHour;

Economic inequality is a major theme in the American political dialogue. As the country’s wealthiest people continually become richer at the expense of the poor, some research suggests they may actually become less happy and healthy. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on the nuanced data and the challenges of evaluating a society’s well-being.

Transcript: Watch the video or read the full story here 

Finding reliable data

Here is a great post from Karen Sternheimer about how to find reliable data. http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2018/09/how-to-find-reliable-data.html

First, what constitutes data? If you search the word “data” you will likely get many vague generalized definitions. When researchers are talking about data, we mean findings that are the result of empirical observation based on systematic study. Simply put, data are what we get when we do research. In most cases in the social sciences, research papers should include findings from a systematic study, yours or other peoples’.

Casual observations about people would not constitute data, but if these observations were gathered in a systematic fashion—using a specific research method that could hypothetically be replicated by another researcher—then the findings would be considered data.

Data can be quantitative, in the form of numbers, or qualitative, which includes quotes, pictures, and researchers’ descriptions. Both forms of data are useful, but allow us to draw different conclusions. Typically quantitative data yields more breadth than depth, and the opposite is true for qualitative data. (See Janis Prince Inniss’s post for more discussion on the distinction.)

You might be wondering where to look for specific data sources. Maybe you have done a basic Internet search and are overwhelmed with choices and need help on where to begin. Here are some tools for finding data that is generally considered reliable:
Federal, state, and sometimes local agencies such as the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Center for Education Statistics are just a few of many federal agencies staffed by social scientists who collect, calculate, and analyze data. They write reports that are easily accessible online.
Research centers at universities or “think tanks” like Pew Research Center, NORC's General Social Survey (affiliated with University of Chicago), Stanford Center on Poverty and; Inequality, and Rand Corporation to name a few, also collect and analyze data and present reports, often online.
Journal articles and other peer-reviewed publications, such as books published by university presses, may analyze data collected by the sources noted above or collected by the author(s). When collected by the author, data tends to be smaller in scope than the large agencies listed above.

Some advocacy groups also compile and even collect data and present their findings online. These can be useful sources, but bear in mind that they might interpret their results in a way that promotes their cause. This doesn’t necessarily mean that their data aren’t useful, but be sure to carefully examine the data to see if the results match the tone of their interpretation of results, and definitely check out the data sources and methodologies they used to gather their data.

While no source of data can ever be perfect, it is important to consider the following when evaluating a potential source:
How did they gather their data? Can the results be generalized to the entire population or just a subset of the population?
Are you reviewing the original source or just someone discussing the research? Oftentimes research is misinterpreted—accidentally or intentionally—by third parties who might not understand its nuances or could leave out important information. Beware of news stories or even blog posts—they are typically not primary sources of data (which is why we link to primary sources on this blog).
Read and understand the limits of any study. When you discuss the results of a study, it is important to note if the researchers looked at only one group (say, college students) which might be very different from the general population.
Are their other related studies on this issue? Were the findings similar? While one study might be interesting, it is important to note if its findings are unusual compared with other previous research. This doesn’t mean that the researchers were “wrong,” just that it is important to recognize the limitations of any given study.

Too often, when I assign students to write research papers, they go no further than looking at the minimum number of studies required and miss some very useful information. Do several studies reference one specific source? If so, the source is likely influential and worth looking into. One of the best ways to find out about research on a topic is to go to the works cited on one or two books or journal articles on the subject.

Finding data can be an exciting part of the learning process. Just be sure what you have found are from a reliable source that uses sound methods of investigation.