The map above divides the United States by counties and depicts what percent of the general population is black. Black population concentration is broken down in the legend, where increasing percentage of black population corresponds with the shade darkening from white to black. The map shows that the highest percentage of black population is located in the southeast states of the U.S., having the most clusters of black population percentage that is between 46.34 and 86.49 percent. Moving west from this area, the percentage decreases, but this does not necessarily mean that the black population simply doesn't exist. It may be largely due to the fact that the general population as a whole is less in the Midwest as there there is more open land for agriculture and national park uses, and less urban areas.
The above map shows percentage of Asian populations, divided by counties in the United States. Similar to the Black population legend, here, the concentration of Asians goes from the lightest shade being the least to the darkest shade being the most. The map shows a pattern of more Asians populating the Southwest region of the U.S. This may be caused by Asia's location just across the Pacific Ocean. Also, there is a high percentage of Asians populating Hawaii. I family has many friends whose family decided to settle in Hawaii when coming to the U.S. from the Philippines, possibly due to a similar setting to their home country as well as a high concentration of similar cultures.
The "Others" population map above depicts individuals who did not identify themselves as either Asian or Black and similar to the first two maps, percentage goes from lowest and lightest shade to highest and darkest shade. While this leaves a vast number of races to choose from, the map is able to give us information that we can use to come up with a hypothesis as to who "others" might be. According to the map, the highest population of "others" are located along the southern borders of California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico which all just happen to be our states that touch the northern Mexican border. From this information, we can hypothesize that these people are most likely immigrants from Mexico who are obviously not Asian or Black. Another reason they may choose to identify with "other" is that many of them may not yet be legal citizens in the U.S., so they choose to be more ambiguous when identifying themselves.
The Census Map Series really helps to show patterns of race concentration according to percentage in the U.S. The fact that it is broken down into counties helps to more closely identify these regions, giving more detailed information that can be used. If the percentages were just identified by state, we would have less of an idea of how these areas are composed racially. These patterns also can give rise to hypotheses about why certain people are located where they are. For example, high Black populations in the south may simply be reflective of our history and how Black populations originated there when our country was first developed. The same may go for Asians as they traveled across the Pacific and encountered the West coasts of the U.S. first, so they settled there. These census maps took simple information and laid it out so that we could find ways to interpret and analyze it.
My overall impression of GIS is that there is a TON of potential for so many people in so many ways. At first GIS was pretty intimidating because it encompasses so many different things, but the more practice I get through these labs, the more comfortable I'm becoming with the concept, the software, and the uses. I came into this class not really understanding what GIS was and although we are simply learning the tip of the iceberg of what it has to offer, I feel more aware of its purpose and more eager to explore more.
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